Skaf, an Arab-American with a Stanford PhD, claims Google permitted a campaign of harassment against her by pro-Israel colleagues, including false accusations, aggressive posts and leaks of her personal information.
Skaf, who joined Google in 2009 and rose to a senior role in Google Cloud, said her opposition to Project Nimbus, Google’s cloud and AI contract with the Israeli government, began in 2021.
She joined colleagues in signing internal petitions questioning the project’s alignment with Google’s ethical principles, which restrict technology use for harming people. She alleged she warned managers that Google was complicit in “war crimes” and “genocide,” but instead of addressing her concerns, the company silenced and ostracized her.
The situation escalated after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, with Google allegedly fostering a hostile environment for Palestinian and Arab employees while allowing pro-Israel expressions in internal forums.
Skaf’s lawsuit cited examples of selective enforcement. In December 2023, she reported a meme on Google’s internal network stating “Israel Will Prevail” as a threat to her as an Arab employee but her complaint was dismissed. When she posted a counter-meme reading “Palestine Will Prevail,” it was removed within hours, her system access was temporarily blocked and she received a formal warning.
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At her final performance review, she was cited for “divisive language,” a charge she claims was not applied to pro-Israel colleagues. Skaf alleges that while pro-Israel employees could share flags and military imagery, pro-Palestinian expressions, including the word “Palestine,” were swiftly deleted.
The alleged harassment intensified in March 2024 after Skaf asked in an internal Women’s Day forum if Google should halt Project Nimbus to protect Gaza women’s rights. She claims this triggered a coordinated campaign of aggressive memes and accusations, including claims she was “weaponizing feminist issues for hate” and supporting a group using rape as a weapon.
Days later, her name, photo and internal email appeared in a Daily Wire article alongside other Nimbus critics, allegedly leaked by pro-Israel Jewish and Israeli colleagues.
Skaf said the article sparked a wave of online hate, including threatening messages, forcing her to increase home security and take medical leave due to stress-induced health issues. Her manager warned that her statements were “dangerous” and could haunt her career.
Now a senior engineer at Airbnb in New York, Skaf claimed the threats damaged her reputation, hindering job prospects elsewhere. After participating in a “No Tech for Apartheid” silent protest at Google’s New York offices in April 2024, her company account was blocked and she was fired via email the next day.
She alleged around 50 other employees protesting in Seattle and California were also sacked, describing it as collective punishment for political views. The lawsuit also claimed gender and ethnic pay disparities, noting Skaf was the only woman and Arab in her team, facing clear wage gaps compared to male colleagues.
She referenced a 2022 Google settlement paying $118 million to female employees for similar claims. The suit lists 24 charges, including violations of federal civil rights law, New York human rights law and whistleblower protections, seeking unspecified damages, civil penalties and a ruling against Google’s conduct.
Google responded to Ynet’s inquiry, saying in a statement that Skaf was “fired for actions that disrupted the workplace and made her colleagues feel threatened. The company stands by its decision and will defend itself against her claims.”