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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://theintercept.com/2024/12/17/israel-weapons-spain-embargo-shipping/">theintercept.com</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">U.S. Defied Spanish Embargo on Arms Bound of Israel by Making Enforcement More Difficult</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Natasha Lennard</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time" dir="ltr">December 16, 2024<br></div>
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<img src="cid:ii_m4st8r660" alt="GettyImages-2189456229-e1734385791427.jpg" width="394" height="197"><br><p><span>The U.S. Department</span> 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.</p>
<p>The ship, owned by Sealift Inc., was also used for delivering aid to Gaza last spring, when the U.S. carried out its <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/how-bidens-gaza-pier-project-unraveled-2024-07-25/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">disastrous</a> and short-lived floating pier aid mission.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<blockquote>“Shipments through American military bases in Spain of military materials are harder to detect.”</blockquote>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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.)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<h2 id="gmail-h-unending-legal-battle"><strong>“Unending Legal Battle”</strong></h2>
<p>Last month, The Intercept <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/11/04/maersk-israel-gaza-spain-embargo-military-shipping/">reported</a>
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.</p>
<p>Following reporting in The Intercept and Spanish newspaper El Diario, Spain in recent weeks <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/11/04/maersk-israel-gaza-spain-embargo-military-shipping/">blocked</a> two vessels from docking, forcing Maersk to <a href="https://misbar.com/en/editorial/2024/11/20/us-supplied-military-goods-transited-through-moroccan-port-to-israel" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">reroute</a>
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.)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>“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.”</p>
<p>Spain’s United Left political coalition last week <a href="https://www.publico.es/politica/iu-lanza-protocolo-incautar-armas-buques-destino-israel-pide-gobierno-convertirlo-ley.html" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">proposed</a>
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 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/01/26/icj-ruling-gaza-genocide/">allegations</a> of <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/02/02/israel-gaza-icj-palestinian-deaths/">genocide</a> and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/05/20/icc-arrest-warrant-israel-hamas/">other</a> war <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/11/21/icc-netanyahu-arrest-us-war-crimes/">crimes</a> — as well as to the Spanish judicial system.</p>
<p>In response to Spain denying entry to ships, the U.S. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-spain-israel-weapons-shipping-7cb890af47716111445f7726ce19ddb4" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">opened</a>
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.”</p>
<blockquote>“Should this happen, an unending legal battle would begin.”</blockquote>
<p>If the investigation finds Spain to be in breach of the regulations, the U.S. could fine the Spanish government <a href="https://apnews.com/article/us-spain-israel-weapons-shipping-7cb890af47716111445f7726ce19ddb4" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">up to $2.3 million</a>
per voyage. In effect, the <a href="http://U.S.is">U.S.is</a> threatening a NATO ally for upholding
its own policies and attempting to comply with international
humanitarian law.</p>
<div><p>“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.”</p><p>“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.”</p></div>
<h2 id="gmail-h-a-million-pounds-of-ammunition"><strong>A Million Pounds of Ammunition</strong></h2>
<p>In their latest report, researchers from the Palestinian-led diaspora
group Palestinian Youth Movement and the left-wing umbrella coalition
Progressive International <a href="https://www.maskoffmaersk.com/reports" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">traced the journey</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://www.ustranscom.mil/cmd/panewsreader.cfm?ID=CDAE32EE-B72A-C849-D8641D184EE68B10&yr=2023" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">notes</a>
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.</p>
<p>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.”</p>
<p>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 <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/03/23/biden-israel-gaza-aid-ethnic-cleansing/">delivering humanitarian aid</a> to the bombarded Strip, as Israel <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/05/18/israel-blocking-aid-gaza/">blocked aid</a> by land. The temporary dock cost <a href="https://apnews.com/article/pier-military-gaza-war-humanitarian-aid-76ff45e7ef81ae68a75ac269daaa0dd3" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">$230 million</a> and delivered about a <a href="https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2024/07/16/us-gaza-pier-close-after-costing-230-million-days-worth-aid" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">day’s worth</a> of aid to Palestinians in Gaza.</p>
<p>The pier was dismantled after 20 days in use, following damage due to bad weather. Video evidence also <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/6/11/nuseirat-anatomy-of-israels-massacre-in-gaza" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">appeared</a> to show that the pier, intended for delivering aid, was used by the U.S. military to <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-support-israeli-forces-rescue-hostages-gaza/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">assist</a> Israeli soldiers in the June <a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/06/10/nuseirat-massacre-israel-hostage-rescue-gaza/">Nuseirat refugee camp massacre</a>, in which the Israeli military killed over 275 Palestinians, including dozens of children, and extracted four<a href="https://theintercept.com/2024/06/13/intercepted-israel-hostage-rescue-nuseirat-massacre/"> Israeli hostages</a>. (The U.S. denied that the pier was for the operation.)</p>
<p>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.</p>
<p>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
<a href="https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2024/05/29/a-timeline-of-the-us-built-gaza-pier-and-the-challenges-its-faced/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" aria-describedby="targetBlankDescription">publicly-stated narrative</a> that the MV Sagamore was engaged in simple humanitarian aid transfers.” </p>
<p>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.</p>
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