The recent outbreak of war in Iran provides a new platform for showcasing the military supremacy of the United States and Israel. Their state-of-the-art technologies ensure total control of the battlefield. However, behind the automatic targeting systems lies an even more sophisticated infrastructure, the result of one of the most controversial technological projects of recent years.
Of all these, one that has caused the greatest public outcry is Project Nimbus, a joint venture agreement signed in 2021 between Google, Amazon, Microsoft and the State of Israel. The stated aim was to create a cloud infrastructure designed to provide the Israeli government with a range of automation services for managing bureaucracy. However, it is precisely behind this term that the true nature of the project is said to lie. According to numerous documents leaked by employees within the companies involved, the technologies provided by the American giants were allegedly used to develop a complex military system capable of identifying and eliminating Palestinian targets, accepting a high risk of civilian casualties.
From a technical standpoint, the contract known by the code name ‘Selenite’ represented a lucrative opportunity with an estimated value of around $3.3 billion for the period 2023–2027. At the same time, the document highlighted numerous critical issues linked to potential involvement in human rights violations, which would have had serious repercussions on Google’s public image (as if the lives of civilians were not already reason enough in themselves). The company merely acknowledged these risks, agreeing to make a general commitment to “do what is necessary” to mitigate them. A detail that is by no means trivial, however, concerns the very structure of the agreement, which was reportedly drafted in such a way as to grant Israel a significant advantage, as it would be able to conceal certain activities from Google, effectively breaching the terms of service and circumventing US legislation in favour of Israeli law.
Furthermore, Google would be obliged not to comply with any requests for the disclosure of data without prior authorisation from the Israeli law enforcement authorities. In addition, the contract would also provide for a possible 23-year extension, to which the company would have no right to object.
Finally, another controversial aspect is the ‘Winking mechanism’, a system of indirect notification via payments to the Israeli government whenever a foreign court requests access to data stored in the project’s systems. According to leaked information, the payment (which must be made within 24 hours of the request) is to correspond to the international dialling code of the requesting country (for example, for Italy it would be 3,900 shekels). In the event of non-payment, a penalty of 100,000 shekels, equivalent to approximately 30,000 dollars, would be imposed.
At the end of all this, Project Nimbus stands out as one of many worrying examples of how digital infrastructure can become instruments of power that are difficult to regulate when embedded in complex geopolitical contexts. At a time when artificial intelligence and cloud systems are becoming increasingly prominent in the military sector, transparency and democratic oversight must not, under any circumstances, be sidelined; otherwise, who will keep those in control in check?