<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
</head>
<body>
<div dir="ltr">
<div id="gmail-toolbar" class="gmail-toolbar-container"> </div>
<div class="gmail-container" dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail-header gmail-reader-header
gmail-reader-show-element"> <font size="1"><a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/oakland-dockworkers-refuse-unload-israeli-cargo-ship"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/nora-barrows-friedman/oakland-dockworkers-refuse-unload-israeli-cargo-ship</a>
</font>
<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Oakland dockworkers refuse to
unload Israeli cargo ship - ship
pulls out of port with its cargo intact
</h1>
<div class="gmail-meta-data">
<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">June 4,
2021<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<hr>
<div class="gmail-content">
<div class="gmail-moz-reader-content
gmail-reader-show-element">
<div id="gmail-readability-page-1" class="gmail-page">
<div>
<span><img
src="https://electronicintifada.net/sites/default/files/styles/original_800w/public/2021-06/brooke_anderson_photo.jpeg?itok=r6aDL7o6×tamp=1622843799"
alt="Protesters hold signs in front of cargo ships"
title="" style="margin-right: 25px;"
moz-do-not-send="true" width="445" height="297"></span>
<p>Hundreds of Bay Area activists and dockworkers
picketed at the Port of Oakland, successfully
preventing an Israeli vessel from unloading, 4 June. (<a
href="https://www.facebook.com/movementphotographer"
moz-do-not-send="true">Brooke Anderson</a>)</p>
<p>Hundreds of activists and dockworkers responded to an
<a
href="https://blocktheboat.org/nationwide-week-of-action-6-2-to-6-9/"
moz-do-not-send="true">international call to action</a>
and successfully prevented an Israel-owned vessel from
unloading its cargo at Oakland in California on
Friday.
</p>
At around 6pm, the <em>Volans</em>, a cargo vessel <a
href="https://www.zim.com/it/schedules/schedule-by-vessel?vesselcode=JLP&voyageno=23"
moz-do-not-send="true">owned and operated</a> by the
ZIM shipping corporation, pulled out of port with its
cargo intact.
<p>It was apparently bound for Los Angeles, according to
an online schedule.</p>
<p>Protesters had prevented the ship from docking at
Oakland for more than two weeks after its scheduled
arrival date.</p>
<p>The vessel ostensibly attempted to avoid the picket
line.</p>
<p>“By refusing to unload Israeli cargo, Oakland workers
are throwing a wrench in the Israeli economy and
putting pressure on Israeli apartheid,” <a
href="https://twitter.com/jvplive/status/1398016611102064640"
moz-do-not-send="true">tweeted</a> Jewish Voice for
Peace.</p>
<p>“Each day the ZIM ship can’t unload, the largest
Israeli shipping company loses millions of [dollars],”
the group added.
</p>
“We are sending a strong message that profiteering from
Israel’s apartheid and ongoing violence against the
Palestinian people will not be welcome in the Bay Area,”
stated Lara Kiswani, executive director of the Arab
Resource and Organizing Center.
<p>Her group has led the <a
href="https://blocktheboat.org/endorsers/"
moz-do-not-send="true">global #BlockTheBoat
coalition</a> organizing to prevent Israeli cargo
ships from unloading.
</p>
At the break of dawn, at least 500 activists picketed at
six different gates to ensure that the Israeli-operated
ship could not offload its containers.
<p>“We just declared victory for the morning shift in
preventing workers, having workers honor our picket
line and not unloading an Israeli ZIM-operated ship at
the Port of Oakland,” Mohamed Shekh of the Arab
Resource and Organizing Center told The Electronic
Intifada.</p>
<p>Later on in the day, activists reanimated the picket
line as a new shift of dockworkers clocked in.</p>
<p>Workers with 10 local chapters of the <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/tags/ilwu"
moz-do-not-send="true">International Longshore and
Warehouse Union</a> (ILWU) in Northern California
had <a
href="https://blocktheboat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/ILWU-Northern-California-Palestine.pdf"
moz-do-not-send="true">released a statement of
solidarity</a> with Palestinian trade unionists on
25 May, condemning Israeli attacks on Gaza and the
ongoing expulsion of Palestinians from their homes in
Jerusalem.
</p>
The ILWU stood firm for Palestinian rights and prevented
ZIM ships from docking in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/content/activists-prevent-israeli-ship-unloading-us-port/8886"
moz-do-not-send="true">2010</a> and again in <a
href="https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/charlotte-silver/activists-declare-first-victory-israeli-ship-delays-docking-oakland"
moz-do-not-send="true">2014</a>, the last time that
ZIM-owned shipping vessels were able to use the Oakland
port.
<p>Since then, ZIM ships have not tried to dock at the
Oakland port – until this past month.</p>
<p>“Rank-and-file members of ILWU Local 10 stand against
Israeli apartheid and with our brothers and sisters in
Palestine,” union member Jimmy Salameh stated.</p>
<p>Shekh told The Electronic Intifada that community
organizers have been working closely with ILWU members
to maintain the protest.</p>
<p>“The rank and file members were right there, standing
beside the picket – and stated their commitment to
honor the picket and to really show their solidarity
with the workers of Palestine,” he said.</p>
<p>There are <a
href="https://blocktheboat.org/actions-by-city/"
moz-do-not-send="true">simultaneous actions</a>
being planned at other ports on the US and Canadian
west coast, as well as at docks in New York, New
Jersey and Houston, Texas.
</p>
Activists say they are ready to continue the picket line
actions to ensure that the ZIM cargo is not handled or
unloaded, as long as necessary.
<p>“We will continue to do that until it is clear to ZIM
that it will not be able to unload cargo and that it
will have to leave,” Shekh said.</p>
<p>Listen to the interview with Mohamed Shekh:</p>
<h2>Honoring the Palestinian picket line</h2>
<p>The ILWU has a long history of honoring picket lines.</p>
<p>In 1978 and 1980, ILWU refused to load military cargo
headed for Chile and El Salvador respectively. And in
1984, the union refused to unload a South African ship
for 11 straight days.</p>
<p>But port workers around the world have backed the
boycott call made by Palestinian trade unionists for
more than a decade.</p>
<p>In 2009, the Durban-based South African Transport and
Allied Workers Union <a
href="https://countercurrents.org/essa110209.htm"
moz-do-not-send="true">refused</a> to offload an
Israel-owned cargo ship.</p>
<p>Durban dockworkers <a
href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/israel-gaza-south-african-dockworkers-refuse-unload-ship-solidarity-palestinians"
moz-do-not-send="true">again took the same action</a>
last month in protest of Israel’s crimes in Gaza.</p>
<p>Earlier in May, as Israeli airstrikes pounded Gaza,
dockworkers in Livorno, Italy, <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israel-palestine-arms-livorno-port-italy-b1848773.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">announced</a> they were
refusing to load a shipment of weapons headed for
Israel.</p>
<p>“The port of Livorno will not be an accomplice in the
massacre of the Palestinian people,” members of
L’Unione Sindacale di Base <a
href="https://www.usb.it/leggi-notizia/il-porto-di-livorno-non-sia-complice-del-massacro-ai-danni-della-popolazione-palestinese-no-al-transito-della-nave-delle-armi-nel-nostro-scalo-1329.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">said in a statement</a>.</p>
<p>Israel’s largest trade union, the Histadrut, “ordered
Ashdod and Haifa port workers to decline service to
all Italy-bound ships in response,” <a
href="https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/italian-dockworkers-walk-back-brief-israel-boycott-action"
moz-do-not-send="true">according</a> to the JTA.</p>
<p>Italy’s embassy in Israel also pressured the Italian
dockworkers to break that strike.</p>
<p>Workers at Italy’s Ravenna port also <a
href="https://www.cgilra.it/news-dettaglio.aspx?id=4408"
moz-do-not-send="true">planned</a> a strike for 3
June, stating that they “refuse to load weapons,
explosives or other war material” destined for Israel.</p>
<p>The strike was called off after the vessel’s owner <a
href="https://www.ansa.it/english/news/world/2021/05/25/ravenna-dockers-call-off-strike-as-israel-arms-shipment-ko_d5d7b628-1896-4f25-a0ad-6af0e239fc14.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">decided</a> to cancel the
shipment – a win for the workers.</p>
<p>The victory at the Port of Oakland “is a win for the
international movement to boycott, divest and sanction
the apartheid state of Israel,” the Arab Resource and
Organizing Center stated.</p>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>