[News] U.S. Defied Spanish Embargo on Arms Bound of Israel by Making Enforcement More Difficult

[Anti-Imperialist News]

theintercept.com
<https://theintercept.com/2024/12/17/israel-weapons-spain-embargo-shipping/>
U.S. Defied Spanish Embargo on Arms Bound of Israel by Making Enforcement
More Difficult
Natasha Lennard
December 16, 2024
------------------------------
[image: GettyImages-2189456229-e1734385791427.jpg]

The U.S. Department of Defense sent over a thousand tons of ammunition to
Israel on a ship that stopped at a U.S. naval base in Spain — a violation
of Spain’s embargo on ships carrying military cargo bound for Israel,
according to researchers from the Palestinian Youth Movement and
Progressive International.

The ship, owned by Sealift Inc., was also used for delivering aid to Gaza
last spring, when the U.S. carried out its disastrous
<https://www.reuters.com/world/how-bidens-gaza-pier-project-unraveled-2024-07-25/>
and short-lived floating pier aid mission.

While partly operated by the U.S. Navy, Naval Station Rota is Spanish
territory technically beholden to Spanish law. Moving ammunition bound for
Israel through a U.S. Navy base on Spanish soil makes enforcement of the
embargo trickier.

“Shipments through American military bases in Spain of military materials
are harder to detect.”

“Shipments through American military bases in Spain of military materials,
which may be used in the commission of international crimes, are harder to
detect,” Enrique Santiago, a lawyer and Spanish legislator whose party is
in the government coalition, told The Intercept. He said that, though
Spanish oversight should apply, “in practice, American bases are beyond the
reach of Spanish sovereignty.”

Santiago added, “If shipments of military material used in international
crimes are made through American bases in Spain, and this fact can be
evidenced, the people taking part in them would equally have criminal
liability.”

The revelation that deadly ammunition is being shipped by the U.S. to
Israel through Spanish ports is the latest chapter of a spiraling
international row between the two allies, both members of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization. (Neither Sealift nor the U.S. military
responded to requests for comment.)

The U.S. recently lodged a case with the Federal Maritime Commission, an
independent U.S. government agency that regulates international shipping
and can levy astronomical fines — potentially hitting Spain with costs that
run well into the millions.
*“Unending Legal Battle”*

Last month, The Intercept reported
<https://theintercept.com/2024/11/04/maersk-israel-gaza-spain-embargo-military-shipping/>
that Maersk, one of the world’s largest shippers, is among the companies
that delivered millions of pounds of materiel, including armored vehicles,
from commercial American ports to Israel for use in the ongoing genocidal
war on Gaza. A number of those shipments, which stopped in Spain, violated
Spanish policy that blocked ships carrying Israeli war materiel from
docking at its ports.

Following reporting in The Intercept and Spanish newspaper El Diario, Spain
in recent weeks blocked
<https://theintercept.com/2024/11/04/maersk-israel-gaza-spain-embargo-military-shipping/>
two vessels from docking, forcing Maersk to reroute
<https://misbar.com/en/editorial/2024/11/20/us-supplied-military-goods-transited-through-moroccan-port-to-israel>
some of its transatlantic shipping of government and military cargo from
the U.S. through Morocco. (Maersk did not respond to a question about the
shipments routed through Morocco.)

Spanish officials put the embargo in place last May to end Spanish
involvement in arms sales to Israel. Since then, Spain has prevented more
than five vessels from docking at its ports under the policy.

“We call on the European and North African nations of conscience to deny
docking or refueling to all vessels carrying ammunition or military cargo
to Israel,” said Aisha Nizar a campaign organizer with the Palestinian
Youth Movement. “And we specifically call on the government of Spain to
continue to implement the decision it made in May 2024.”

Spain’s United Left political coalition last week proposed
<https://www.publico.es/politica/iu-lanza-protocolo-incautar-armas-buques-destino-israel-pide-gobierno-convertirlo-ley.html>
a new protocol in the Spanish Parliament, which, if passed, would allow
ships carrying military cargo to stop in Spain, but would instruct Spanish
authorities to inspect the vessels and seize any Israel-bound military
equipment. According to the proposed protocol, Spain would then report the
ships to the International Court of Justice and International Criminal
Court — where Israel is facing allegations
<https://theintercept.com/2024/01/26/icj-ruling-gaza-genocide/> of genocide
<https://theintercept.com/2024/02/02/israel-gaza-icj-palestinian-deaths/>
and other
<https://theintercept.com/2024/05/20/icc-arrest-warrant-israel-hamas/> war
crimes
<https://theintercept.com/2024/11/21/icc-netanyahu-arrest-us-war-crimes/> —
as well as to the Spanish judicial system.

In response to Spain denying entry to ships, the U.S. opened
<https://apnews.com/article/us-spain-israel-weapons-shipping-7cb890af47716111445f7726ce19ddb4>
an investigation in early December into whether Spain’s denials of entry to
the vessels constitute a violation of maritime trade regulations. The
Federal Maritime Commission, an independent body that monitors conditions
that may affect shipping and U.S. international trade, said it is
“concerned that this apparent policy of denying entry to certain vessels
will create conditions unfavorable to shipping in the foreign trade,
whether in a particular route or in commerce generally.”

“Should this happen, an unending legal battle would begin.”

If the investigation finds Spain to be in breach of the regulations, the
U.S. could fine the Spanish government up to $2.3 million
<https://apnews.com/article/us-spain-israel-weapons-shipping-7cb890af47716111445f7726ce19ddb4>
per voyage. In effect, the U.S.is threatening a NATO ally for upholding its
own policies and attempting to comply with international humanitarian law.

“A fine imposed by the United States against a country that is abiding by
its obligations to prevent a genocide is clearly an illegal and
illegitimate sanction in view of international law,” said Santiago, the
Spanish politician. “Should this happen, an unending legal battle would
begin.”

“Moreover,” he said, “we would work for Spain to take measures to sanction
all American citizens that may have taken part in this attack against
international law and against Spain.”
*A Million Pounds of Ammunition*

In their latest report, researchers from the Palestinian-led diaspora group
Palestinian Youth Movement and the left-wing umbrella coalition Progressive
International traced the journey <https://www.maskoffmaersk.com/reports> of
the container ship MV Sagamore. Based on reviews of U.S. military
contracts, satellite imagery, and changes in cargo weight throughout MV
Sagamore’s voyages, the researchers found that the vessel has in the last
year completed numerous missions carrying ammunition and other materiel to
Israel from the U.S. Military Ocean Terminal Sunny Point, or MOTSU, in
North Carolina.

According to the report, the MV Sagamore transferred over 1 million pounds
of ammunition and military cargo to Israel in just one of its shipments.
The ship is owned by Sealift Inc. and chartered on behalf of the U.S.
Navy’s Military Sealift Command.

Used for the transport of live ammunition and explosives, MOTSU is the
largest military terminal in the U.S. The U.S. military’s Transportation
Command website notes
<https://www.ustranscom.mil/cmd/panewsreader.cfm?ID=CDAE32EE-B72A-C849-D8641D184EE68B10&yr=2023>
that the port is used for sending and receiving “military equipment like
rockets, missiles, howitzers, grenades, projectiles, pyrotechnics and more”
— hazardous materials that cannot be handled at commercial ports.
Researchers found that the Sagamore has made six calls to MOTSU in the last
year; the last journey out of MOTSU that the ship made was to Israel’s
Ashdod Port.

While the military-contracted missions do not make the details of their
ships’ cargo publicly available, using an array of evidence, the
researchers wrote that they can conclude with “a very high degree of
certainty, that … [is the] vessel that delivered over a thousand tonnes of
Class 1 explosive ammunition to Israel this winter as it currently conducts
its war against Gaza.”

Researchers with the Palestinian Youth Movement said that the MV Sagamore
was also used for the U.S. military’s floating pier in Gaza to deliver aid
to Gaza between May and July 2024. The pier was the Biden administration’s
ill-conceived and costly gesture for delivering humanitarian aid
<https://theintercept.com/2024/03/23/biden-israel-gaza-aid-ethnic-cleansing/>
to the bombarded Strip, as Israel blocked aid
<https://theintercept.com/2024/05/18/israel-blocking-aid-gaza/> by land.
The temporary dock cost $230 million
<https://apnews.com/article/pier-military-gaza-war-humanitarian-aid-76ff45e7ef81ae68a75ac269daaa0dd3>
and delivered about a day’s worth
<https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2024/07/16/us-gaza-pier-close-after-costing-230-million-days-worth-aid>
of aid to Palestinians in Gaza.

The pier was dismantled after 20 days in use, following damage due to bad
weather. Video evidence also appeared
<https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/11/nuseirat-anatomy-of-israels-massacre-in-gaza>
to show that the pier, intended for delivering aid, was used by the U.S.
military to assist
<https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-support-israeli-forces-rescue-hostages-gaza/>
Israeli soldiers in the June Nuseirat refugee camp massacre
<https://theintercept.com/2024/06/10/nuseirat-massacre-israel-hostage-rescue-gaza/>,
in which the Israeli military killed over 275 Palestinians, including
dozens of children, and extracted four Israeli hostages
<https://theintercept.com/2024/06/13/intercepted-israel-hostage-rescue-nuseirat-massacre/>.
(The U.S. denied that the pier was for the operation.)

To deliver aid through the temporary pier, the MV Sagamore picked up food
aid in Cyprus and delivered it to the Port of Ashdod; the goods were then
transported by truck to the floating dock. Researchers found that, while
the vessel was contracted to deliver aid, it was concurrently under
contract with the U.S. to deliver ammunition, though the contracts did not
specify the recipients.

While the researchers could not conclude that the ship carried aid and
weapons to Israel during the same voyage, the report said, “A review of the
federal DoD contract data and vessel travel data complicates the
publicly-stated
narrative
<https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/05/29/a-timeline-of-the-us-built-gaza-pier-and-the-challenges-its-faced/>
that the MV Sagamore was engaged in simple humanitarian aid transfers.”

MV Sagamore’s journeys, as detailed in the report, included a voyage on
which the ship loaded vast weights of materiel at the North Carolina
military terminal, then stopped at a joint U.S.–Spain operated military
port in Spain, before heading to Israel to unload the cargo.
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