The Guardian, working with +972 Magazine and the Israeli outlet Local Call, has uncovered new and striking details about Project Nimbus — a multibillion-dollar deal between the Israeli government and tech giants Google and Amazon to provide advanced artificial intelligence and cloud computing services.
According to the joint investigation, the project goes far beyond a standard tech partnership. It includes secret provisions and unprecedented legal clauses that reportedly allow Israel to sidestep foreign court orders and exert near-total control over how the technology is used. The revelations have fueled growing criticism linking the program to human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories.
Project Nimbus: Israel’s $1B Cloud Deal with Google and Amazon
The investigation found that Google and Amazon agreed to bypass their own terms of service and skirt legal orders by secretly notifying Israel if a foreign court requested access to their data — a step that helped secure the lucrative Project Nimbus contract with the Israeli government.
According to the report, both companies accepted special arrangements allowing them to ignore legal obligations and inform Israel covertly of any foreign court requests.
The investigation also revealed that Israel imposed unconventional “controls” on the companies as part of the deal, anticipating potential legal challenges over the use of the technology in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip.
In 2021, Google and Amazon signed a $1.2 billion contract with the Israeli government to provide advanced cloud computing and artificial intelligence services — technologies that were later used to support Israel’s recent military operations in Gaza. The massive agreement, known as Project Nimbus, had largely been kept under wraps.
Wink Mechanism
Leaked documents from the Israeli Ministry of Finance, obtained by The Guardian, including the final version of the contract, along with testimony from sources familiar with the negotiations, reveal two strict demands Israel imposed on Google and Amazon as part of the Project Nimbus deal.
The first demand prohibits the companies from restricting how Israel uses their products, even if that use violates their terms of service. The second requires Google and Amazon to secretly notify Israel if a foreign court compels them to hand over state data stored on their cloud platforms — effectively allowing the companies to circumvent international legal obligations.
Initially set for a seven-year term with possible extensions, Project Nimbus was designed to enable Israel to transfer vast amounts of government, military, and security data to servers operated by Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud.
Israeli officials who drafted the contract were aware early on of potential legal challenges over the use of these technologies in the occupied Palestinian territories, even two years before October 7, 2023.
One scenario that particularly alarmed Israeli officials was the possibility that a foreign court could order the companies to hand over Israeli data to foreign authorities if Israel’s use of the technology were linked to human rights violations against Palestinians.
International laws, such as the 2018 U.S. CLOUD Act, grant American authorities the right to demand data from cloud companies even if stored abroad, while European regulations require companies to ensure human rights compliance across their supply chains.
To mitigate this risk, Israel insisted on an exceptional clause in the contract requiring the companies to send a secret signal — later dubbed the “Wink Mechanism” — if they were forced to provide Israeli data without the ability to disclose it officially.
According to the documents, the notification is made via a symbolic financial transfer to the Israeli government in four-digit amounts in shekels (NIS), reflecting the international dialing code of the requesting country, followed by zeros.
For example, if the companies were compelled to share data with U.S. authorities (code +1), they would transfer 1,000 NIS to Israel. If the requesting party were Italian (code +39), the transfer would be 3,900 NIS. The contract requires these transfers to be completed within 24 hours of the data being shared.
In cases where a court order prevents the companies even from signaling the requesting country, an alternative procedure was established, requiring a payment of 100,000 NIS (approximately $30,000) to the Israeli government.
Project Nimbus Faces Legal and Compliance Risks Under International Law
Legal experts, including several former U.S. prosecutors, have described the “Wink Mechanism” used by Israel in the Project Nimbus contract as highly unusual, warning that the encrypted signals could violate U.S. legal obligations related to the confidentiality of subpoenas. A former U.S. government attorney said, “It may seem clever, but if the U.S. government—or the courts—understood it, I don’t think they would be particularly sympathetic.”
Other experts called the mechanism a “clever loophole” that may technically comply with the letter of the law but contradicts its spirit and fundamental principles.
Israeli officials appear to have been aware of these legal risks. Documents indicate that their demands on how Google and Amazon respond to U.S. orders could conflict with American law, putting the companies in a difficult position: either violate the contract or breach legal obligations.
So far, neither Google nor Amazon has responded to inquiries about whether they have used the secret code since the Project Nimbus contract went into effect.
In an official statement, an Amazon spokesperson said: “We have a strict global process for responding to legal and binding orders related to customer data requests. We do not have any procedures to circumvent our confidentiality obligations regarding legal orders.”
A Google spokesperson said it is incorrect to suggest the company is “engaged in illegal activity,” adding: “The idea that we would evade our legal obligations to the U.S. government as an American company, or in any other country, is completely wrong.”
Israel Granted Protections from Potential Sanctions Under Project Nimbus
Leaked documents and sources familiar with internal discussions reveal that Israeli officials were concerned that access to Google and Amazon’s cloud services could be restricted or cut off, either due to a foreign court ruling or a unilateral decision by the companies in response to pressure from employees or shareholders.
The worries were particularly acute over the possibility that activists and human rights groups in some European countries could use local laws to sue the companies or push them to end their business ties with Israel, especially if the products were used in ways linked to human rights violations.
Last month, after +972, Local Call, and The Guardian reported that Israel had violated Microsoft’s terms of service by using its platform to store a massive number of intercepted Palestinian phone calls, Microsoft blocked the Israeli military’s access to some of its products.
In contrast, the leaked documents show that the Project Nimbus contract explicitly prevents Google and Amazon from imposing similar sanctions on Israel, even if company policies change or Israel’s use of their technology violates terms of service. The investigation adds that any violation of this clause would not only trigger legal action for breach of contract but also carry significant financial penalties.
The investigation also notes that the companies’ willingness to accept these terms was a major factor in their winning the Project Nimbus contract over Microsoft, which manages its relationship with the Israeli government and military under separate agreements.
Intelligence sources told the newspaper that Israel plans to transfer its surveillance tools from Microsoft’s cloud to Amazon’s platform after Microsoft restricted access.
Project Nimbus: Israel Secures Full Data Control and Operational Efficiency
In 2024, The Intercept reported that Project Nimbus operates under a modified set of policies agreed upon between Google and Israel, rather than the companies’ standard cloud service terms.
The report cited a leaked email from a Google attorney warning that if the company won the contract, it “would have to accept a non-negotiable agreement with terms tailored to the government.”
While Google and Amazon’s acceptable use policies prohibit their cloud platforms from being used to violate others’ legal rights or engage in activities that cause serious harm, a source familiar with the contract revealed that the agreement grants Israel unrestricted freedom over the type of data stored on the platforms.
An analysis by Israel’s Finance Ministry shows that the Project Nimbus contract allows Israel to use any service as it wishes, as long as it does not violate Israeli law, copyright rules, or resell the companies’ technologies. The contract specifically states that Israel “has the right to transfer any content data it desires to the cloud or generate it there.”
A government memo issued several months after the contract was signed noted that the cloud providers’ agreement to override their standard service terms reflects their understanding of the Israeli government’s sensitivities and willingness to meet its requirements.
This level of control has drawn growing criticism from employees and investors, especially over Project Nimbus’ role in Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
A commander in the Israeli Army’s Computing and Information Systems Unit said the AI and cloud services provided by Google and Amazon gave Israel “significantly enhanced operational effectiveness” in Gaza.
Multiple Israeli security sources confirmed that the army relied heavily on infrastructure built through Project Nimbus, including the large data centers established by Google and Amazon in Israel.
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