{"id":306444,"date":"2025-11-03T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=306444"},"modified":"2025-10-30T07:21:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T07:21:11","slug":"no-restrictions-and-a-secret-wink-inside-israels-deal-with-google-amazon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2025\/11\/no-restrictions-and-a-secret-wink-inside-israels-deal-with-google-amazon\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No Restrictions\u2019 and a Secret \u2018Wink\u2019: Inside Israel\u2019s Deal with Google, Amazon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"\"<\/a>

Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California, and Amazon Web Service’s office in Houston, Texas –\u00a0(The Pancake of Heaven!, CC BY-SA 4.0; Tony Webster, CC BY 2.0)<\/p><\/div>\n

To secure the lucrative Project Nimbus contract, the tech giants agreed to disregard their own terms of service and sidestep legal orders by tipping Israel off if a foreign court demands its data, a joint investigation reveals.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

29 Oct 2025\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0In 2021, Google and Amazon signed a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government to provide it with advanced cloud computing and AI services \u2014 tools that were used during Israel\u2019s two-year onslaught on the Gaza Strip<\/a>. Details of the lucrative contract, known as Project Nimbus, were kept under wraps.<\/p>\n

But an investigation by +972 Magazine, Local Call, and The Guardian can now reveal that Google and Amazon submitted to highly unorthodox \u201ccontrols\u201d that Israel inserted into the deal, in anticipation of legal challenges over its use of the technology in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.<\/p>\n

Leaked Israeli Finance Ministry documents obtained by The Guardian \u2014 including a finalized version of the contract \u2014 and sources familiar with the negotiations reveal two stringent demands that Israel imposed on the tech giants as part of the deal. The first prohibits Google and Amazon from restricting how Israel uses their products, even if this use breaches their terms of service. The second obliges the companies to secretly notify Israel if a foreign court orders them to hand over the country\u2019s data stored on their cloud platforms, effectively sidestepping their legal obligations.<\/p>\n

Running for an initial seven years with the possibility of extension, Project Nimbus was designed to enable Israel to transfer vast quantities of data belonging to its government agencies, security services, and military units onto the two companies\u2019 cloud servers: Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. But even two years before October 7, Israeli officials drafting the contract had already anticipated the potential for legal cases to be brought against Google and Amazon regarding the use of their technology in the occupied territories.<\/p>\n

One scenario that particularly concerned officials was if the companies were ordered by a court in one of their countries of operation to hand over Israel\u2019s data to police, prosecutors, or security agencies to assist with an investigation \u2014 if, for example, Israel\u2019s use of their products were linked to human rights abuses against Palestinians.<\/p>\n

The CLOUD Act (2018) allows American law enforcement agencies to compel U.S.-based cloud providers to hand over data, even if it is stored on servers abroad; in the European Union, due diligence laws can require companies to identify and address human rights violations in their global supply chains, and courts may intervene if these obligations are not met.<\/p>\n

Crucially, companies receiving an order to hand over data are often gagged by the court or law enforcement agency from disclosing details of the request to the affected customer. To address this perceived vulnerability, the documents reveal, Israeli officials demanded a clause in the contract requiring the companies to covertly warn Israel if ever they were forced to surrender its data but were prohibited by law from revealing this fact.<\/p>\n

According to The Guardian<\/a>, this signaling is carried out through a secret code \u2014 part of an arrangement that would become known as the \u201cwinking mechanism,\u201d but referred to in the contract as \u201cspecial compensation\u201d \u2014 by which the companies are obliged to send the Israeli government four-digit payments in Israeli shekels (NIS) corresponding to the relevant country\u2019s international dialing code followed by zeros.<\/p>\n

For example, if Google or Amazon were compelled to share data with U.S. authorities (dialing code +1) and were barred from revealing that action by a U.S. court, they would transfer NIS 1,000 to Israel. If a similar request were to occur in Italy (dialing code +39), they would instead send NIS 3,900. The contract states that these payments must be made \u201cwithin 24 hours of the information being transferred.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"Thousands<\/a><\/p>\n

Thousands of people protest Google\u2019s contract with Israel that provides facial recognition and other technologies, amid the Gaza war, outside Google\u2019s offices in San Francisco, Thursday, December 14, 2023. (Santiago Mejia\/San Francisco Chronicle via AP)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

If Google or Amazon conclude that the terms of a gag order prevent them from even signaling which country has received the data, there is a backstop: They must pay the Israeli government NIS 100,000 ($30,000).<\/p>\n

Legal experts, including several former U.S. prosecutors, described this arrangement to The Guardian as highly unusual, explaining that the coded messages could violate the companies\u2019 legal obligations in the United States to keep a subpoena secret. \u201cIt seems awfully cute and something that if the U.S. government or, more to the point, a court were to understand, I don\u2019t think they would be particularly sympathetic,\u201d one former U.S. government lawyer said.<\/p>\n

Several other experts described the mechanism as a \u201cclever\u201d workaround that could comply with the letter of the law but not its spirit.<\/p>\n

Israeli officials appear to have acknowledged this. According to the documents, they noted that their demands as to how Google and Amazon should respond to a U.S.-issued order \u201cmight collide\u201d with U.S. law, and the companies would have to make a choice between \u201cviolating the contract or violating their legal obligations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neither Google nor Amazon responded to questions about whether they had used the secret code since the Nimbus contract came into effect.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a rigorous global process for responding to lawful and binding orders for requests related to customer data,\u201d Amazon\u2019s spokesperson said. \u201cWe do not have any processes in place to circumvent our confidentiality obligations on lawfully binding orders.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Google spokesperson said it was \u201cfalse\u201d to \u201cimply that we somehow were involved in illegal activity, which is absurd.\u201d The spokesperson added: \u201cThe idea that we would evade our legal obligations to the U.S. government as a U.S. company, or in any other country, is categorically wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Israel\u2019s Finance Ministry said: \u201cThe article\u2019s insinuation that Israel compels companies to breach the law is baseless.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Acceptable use\u2019<\/h3>\n

According to the leaked documents and sources with knowledge of internal discussions, Israeli officials were also concerned that access to Google or Amazon\u2019s cloud services could be restricted or cut off altogether \u2014 either as a result of a foreign court ruling, or a unilateral decision by the companies themselves in response to employee or shareholder pressure.<\/p>\n

The officials were especially worried that activists and human rights organizations might leverage laws in certain European countries to sue the companies and push for an end to their business ties with Israel, particularly if their products were linked to human rights violations.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Google<\/a><\/p>\n

Google and Amazon workers protest against their companies\u2019 collaboration with the Israeli military at the annual Amazon Web Services summit in New York, July 26, 2023. (X\/No Tech For Apartheid)<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Last month, after +972, Local Call, and The Guardian revealed<\/a> that Israel had violated Microsoft\u2019s terms of service by using its cloud platform to store a vast trove of intercepted phone calls made by Palestinians, the tech giant revoked the Israeli military\u2019s access<\/a> to some of its products.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the leaked documents state that the Nimbus contract specifically prohibits Google and Amazon from imposing similar sanctions on Israel, even if company policies change or if Israel\u2019s use of the technology violates their terms of service. Doing so, according to the documents, would not only trigger legal action for breach of contract but also incur heavy financial penalties.<\/p>\n

The two companies\u2019 willingness to accept these conditions was reportedly<\/a> part of the reason why they won the Nimbus contract over Microsoft, whose relationship with Israel\u2019s government and military is governed by separate contracts. Indeed, intelligence sources told The Guardian that Israel planned to move its surveillance trove from Microsoft\u2019s cloud to Amazon\u2019s platform after the former blocked its access.<\/p>\n

Google was seemingly aware that it would be largely giving up control over how Israel would use its technology, despite repeatedly claiming that its products are used only by Israeli government ministries that \u201cagree to comply with our terms of service and acceptable use policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Intercept reported<\/a> last year that Nimbus is governed by an \u201cadjusted\u201d set of policies agreed between Google and Israel, rather than the company\u2019s general cloud computing terms of service policy. The publication cited a leaked email by a Google lawyer warning that if the company won the deal, it \u201cwill need to accept a non negotiable contract on terms favourable to the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both tech companies\u2019 \u201cacceptable use\u201d policies state that their cloud platforms should not be used to violate the legal rights of others, nor should they be used to engage in or encourage activities that cause \u201cserious harm\u201d to people. But a source familiar with the drafting of the contract said it makes clear there can be \u201cno restrictions\u201d on the kind of data stored on Google and Amazon\u2019s cloud platforms.<\/p>\n

An analysis of the deal by Israel\u2019s Finance Ministry states that the Nimbus contract permits Israel to \u201cmake use of any service\u201d at will \u2014 so long as in doing so it does not breach Israeli law, infringe on copyright, or resell the companies\u2019 technology. The terms of the deal seen by The Guardian state that Israel is \u201centitled to migrate to the cloud or generate in the cloud any content data they wish.\u201d<\/p>\n

A government memo circulated several months after the deal was signed stated that the fact the cloud providers had agreed to \u201csubordinate\u201d their own terms of service to those of the contract indicates \u201cthey understand the sensitivities of the Israeli government and are willing to accept our requirements.\u201d<\/p>\n

Google and Amazon have faced growing criticism from employees and investors over the role Nimbus has played in Israel\u2019s devastating assault on Gaza, which numerous human rights organizations and a UN commission of inquiry have labeled a genocide. In remarks revealed by +972 and Local Call last year<\/a>, a commander in the Israel\u2019s army\u2019s Center of Computing and Information Systems unit stated that the tech giants\u2019 AI and cloud services had given Israel \u201cvery significant operational effectiveness\u201d in the Strip.<\/p>\n

Multiple Israeli security sources confirmed that the army has made extensive use of infrastructure set up through Nimbus, including big data centers that Google and Amazon built in Israel.<\/p>\n

With the provisions outlined above, Israeli officials were anxious to avoid a situation in which the companies \u201cdecide that a certain customer is causing them damage, and therefore cease to sell them services,\u201d one document stated.<\/p>\n

At the time the contract was drafted, the officials viewed their chances of facing legal challenges abroad as slim. But with global public opinion increasingly turning against Israel,<\/a> and as international journalists push to enter Gaza to witness the destruction left by a campaign of annihilation powered by advanced digital technology, that assumption may no longer stand.<\/p>\n

Google declined to comment on which of Israel\u2019s demands it had accepted in the finalized deal. \u201cWe\u2019ve been very clear about the Nimbus contract, what it\u2019s directed to, and the terms of service and acceptable use policy that govern it,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cNothing has changed. This appears to be yet another attempt to falsely imply otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

An Amazon spokesperson said the company respects \u201cthe privacy of our customers, and we do not discuss our relationship without their consent, or have visibility into their workloads.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Israel\u2019s Finance Ministry stated that both companies are \u201cbound by stringent contractual obligations that safeguard Israel\u2019s vital interests,\u201d adding that \u201cthese agreements are confidential and we will not legitimize the article\u2019s claims by disclosing private commercial terms.\u201d<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yuval Abraham is a journalist and filmmaker based in Jerusalem.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Harry Davies of <\/i>The Guardian contributed to this report.<\/i><\/p>\n

Go to Original – 972mag.com<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

JOIN THE BDS-BOYCOTT, DIVESTMENT, SANCTIONS CAMPAIGN TO PROTEST THE ISRAELI BARBARIC GENOCIDE OF PALESTINIANS IN GAZA.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

DON’T BUY PRODUCTS WHOSE BARCODE STARTS WITH <\/em><\/strong>729, WHICH INDICATES THAT THEY ARE PRODUCED IN ISRAEL. DO YOUR PART! MAKE A DIFFERENCE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

7 2 9: BOYCOTT FOR HUMAN JUSTICE!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

29 Oct 2025\u00a0–\u00a0To secure the lucrative Project Nimbus contract, the tech giants agreed to disregard their own terms of service and sidestep legal orders by tipping Israel off if a foreign court demands its data, a joint investigation reveals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":306446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[242],"tags":[2302,1733,87,865,462,88,427,2418,1010,880,911],"class_list":["post-306444","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exposures","tag-amazon","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-gaza","tag-genocide","tag-google","tag-israel","tag-palestine","tag-palestinian-rights","tag-silicon-valley","tag-state-terrorism","tag-surveillance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306444","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306444"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306444\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":306450,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306444\/revisions\/306450"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/306446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}