For Valentine’s Day, dozens of activists and Detroit residents gathered at Grand Circus Park located downtown to demonstrate for the No Tech for Apartheid campaign and to show solidarity with the people of occupied Palestine. The coalition was led by members of the Michigan General Defense Committee, the Handala Coalition of Michigan, Palestinian Feminist Collective, and GEO Local 3550. Members of the Detroit Club, CPUSA were also in attendance to show their support for the movement.

The demonstration aimed to highlight the relationship between the big tech monopolies and Israel’s U.S.-funded genocidal war against the Palestinian people.

The first half of the event targeted Google, meeting at their building on Henry St. and Woodward Avenue, located near Detroit’s financial capital. Google and Amazon have been selected to aid in an Israeli military contract known as Project Nimbus.

Project Nimbus seeks to create an omnipresent, all-encompassing cloud-based computer system, using tools such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, for the purpose of targeting and surveilling Palestinians, as well as to bolster the strength and efficiency of the Israeli military.

The speakers demonstrating in front of the Google building drew the connections between local policing, the crimes of U.S. imperialism, and the systems of control used to track and displace Palestinians in the occupied territories. The coordinated presence of city and state police reinforced many of the points being made at the peaceful demonstration.

The coalition made a second stop at the Michigan-Israel Business Accelerator (MIBA) office. The MIBA is a Michigan tax-payer funded project with the goal of coordinating financial flows between Israel and the state of Michigan. MIBA’s current CEO, Scott Hiipakka, was working that day in their Detroit office. Hiipakka and MIBA employees looked on as demonstrators protested this type of business being conducted in their city, and the overall complicity of U.S. corporations with genocide.

Having made their message loud and clear, coalition members then proceeded to march through the streets of Detroit’s financial district, gaining support from passersby.

The “No Tech for Apartheid” campaign will continue to identify the connections between U.S. big tech and the fascistic Israeli government, and to hold the apartheid profiteers accountable.

Image: CPUSA, Detroit club (Instagram)

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