[News] Italian dockworkers block passage of Saudi ship carrying arms for Israel

[Anti-Imperialist News]

 Italian dockworkers block passage of Saudi ship carrying arms for Israel

Union leaders in Italy have warned that handling weapons shipments for
Israel constitutes complicity in war crimes

News Desk <https://thecradle.co/authors/news-desk-9>

AUG 10, 2025 -
https://thecradle.co/articles/italian-dockworkers-block-passage-of-saudi-ship-carrying-arms-for-israel
(Photo credit: AFP via Getty Images)

Workers in the Italian port of Genoa have blocked
<https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2025/08/09/ryao-a09.html> passage of a
Saudi vessel carrying weapons shipments for Israel.

The Bahri Yanbu, operated by Saudi shipping firm Bahri, which arrived from
Baltimore, Maryland, was slated to take on military hardware made by
Italian arms giant Leonardo — including an Oto Melara cannon destined for
Abu Dhabi – along with tanks or other heavy weaponry reportedly already
positioned in the terminal yard.
Routine inspections revealed that the ship was carrying weapons and
ammunition for Israel after 40 dock workers boarded the vessel.

“We don’t work for war,” said Jose Nivoi from the Autonomous Collective of
Port Workers and the Union Sindicale di Base, adding that the Port
Authority has promised talks for establishing “permanent observatory on
arms trafficking.”

Italian union leaders have warned that handling such shipments constitutes
complicity in the war crimes carried out by Israel in the Gaza Strip,
vowing a ban on unloading weapons for warzones “by any means.”

Genoa port workers had previously intercepted a similar arms shipment on
the same ship in 2019.

The incident is the latest of several similar shipment interceptions,
signaling growing international opposition to Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

On 4 June, French dockworkers refused
<https://labornotes.org/2025/06/european-dockworkers-refuse-load-weapons-aimed-palestine>
to load arms components destined for Israel at France’s Fos-Marseille. The
ship was forced to leave the port without the cargo.

The latest interception comes as Israel is planning a full occupation of
Gaza City. The brutal Israeli siege on the strip continues to worsen a
severe famine, which has seen dozens, including children, die from
starvation in recent weeks.

Publicly, Saudi Arabia demands Palestinian statehood in exchange for
officially normalizing ties with Israel, despite under-the-table dealings
between Riyadh and Tel Aviv. In 2023, former Saudi intelligence colonel
Rabih al-Anzi admitted <https://t.me/roaamedianews/85679> back in 2023 that
Saudi Arabia was helping arm Israel for its war against Hamas due to a
shortage of western ammunition resulting from the Ukraine war.

In June this year, Anzi also said that Riyadh supported Israel's war on
Iran by opening its airspace to Israeli jets and helping to intercept
Iranian drones.

Other Arab states, including the UAE, which normalized ties with Israel in
2020, have contributed to the Israeli military industry and the Israeli
economy throughout the genocidal war on Gaza.

Since Israel's war on Gaza following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, the UAE has
facilitated a land route <https://thecradle.co/articles-id/21707>between
Israel and Arab states to help the Israeli government bypass the Yemeni
blockade.

As part of these efforts, goods arrive in the UAE by ship and are trucked
into Saudi Arabia and Jordan before being delivered to Israel via the King
Hussein Bridge.

UAE-Israeli defense ties
<https://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/israel-uae-defense-cooperation-grows-under-abraham-accords>
have rapidly expanded since the 2020 Abraham Accords. A most recent deal,
which has yet to be finalized, will see the Emirati Edge Group procure the
Hermes 900 drone from Israeli military company Elbit Systems.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20250810/6fdeff14/attachment-0001.htm>