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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2025/01/report-danish-company-maersk-exports-cargo-from-illegal-israeli-settlements-to-the-u-s/">mondoweiss.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Report: Danish company Maersk exports cargo from illegal Israeli settlements to the U.S.</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Michael Arria</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">January 23, 2025<br></div>
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<p>A <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/664aed65d320123f2b3ab647/t/6791e493ef0cd438e6e6b314/1737614484665/PYM-Maersk-SettlementExports-Report-01222025.pdf">new report</a>
details a shipping and logistics giant’s role in sustaining illegal
Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine and Syrian territories.</p>
<p>A.P. Moller Maersk is a publicly traded Danish company that netted a
revenue of $51.1 billion in 2023. According to research compiled by the
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) and its Mask off Maersk campaign, the
company has repeatedly facilitated shipments to the United States from
illegal settlements in the occupied<br>West Bank and the Syrian Golan Heights.</p>
<p>“The global structures of financialized capitalism, logistics and
supply chains play an outsize role in the maintenance of extraction and
accumulation. As one of the largest corporations that serves these
functions, Maersk helps both to arm the Israeli regime and export the
spoils of its colonial project,” PYM’s Kaleem Hawa told <em>Mondoweiss.</em></p>
<p>This is the <a href="https://www.maskoffmaersk.com/reports">third report</a> on Maersk that’s been released by the group, but the first to specifically focus on the transport of goods<em> from</em> illegal settlements, along with its other connections to Israeli apartheid.</p>
<p>In one section of the report, PYM documents multiple shipments that Maersk made for companies that appear on the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/business/bhr-database">United Nations’s (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) database</a>
as a result of their connections to illegal Israeli settlements. These
include businesses Extal Ltd, a private aluminum company that partners
with Israeli weapons manufacturers and operates out of the illegal
Ma’ale Adumim settlement in the occupied West Bank. Another Maersk
client is Comasco Ltd, a construction company that maintains contracts
with the Israeli Ministry of Defense and has sold products used to
demolish Palestinian homes.</p>
<p>Maersk has also shipped for companies that do not appear on the OHCHR
database, but are connected to Israeli apartheid and occupation. This
includes Elbit Systems Ltd, Israel’s largest private arms supplier.</p>
<p>The report notes that Elbit’s weapons have been used to attack people in Gaza during the current genocide, including the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/mondoweiss/reel/C5i05ostt2e/">seven aid workers</a>
who were killed by the Israeli army last April. Elbit has faced a wave
of protests across the world, which led to the French multinational
insurance company AXA <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/08/bds-win-axa-divests-from-israeli-banks-and-elbit-systems/">divesting</a> from the company in August 2024.</p>
<p>PYM’s investigation only covers shipments that were imported into the
United States between February 20, 2019, and November 8, 2024, meaning
the information is only a small sample of Maersk’s activity. “Rather
than serving as a comprehensive account, these findings should be viewed
as an indication of a broader pattern of Maersk’s involvement in the
export of goods for companies operating within illegal settlements,”
notes the report.</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.maskoffmaersk.com/">Mask Off Maersk</a>
campaign was launched last June, to raise awareness about the company’s
connection to Israeli apartheid and the genocide. “Maersk is one of the
most profitable companies on earth, with money soaked in the blood of
over 40,000 Palestinian martyrs. It is involved in all aspects of the
supply chain of death – bringing military cargo to arms companies for
assembly and shipping cargo to Israel from the US,” reads its website.</p>
<p>As a result of these efforts, Maersk ships have been <a href="https://peoplesdispatch.org/2024/11/09/spain-to-block-maersk-ships-bound-to-israel-after-pressure-from-activists/">blocked</a>
from docking in Algeciras, Spain. Maersk denied that the cargo included
military weapons or ammunition, but essentially confirmed that it was
headed to Israel. “It is our understanding that Spain has in its
discretion changed its criteria and is now rejecting vessels that carry
anything military-related going to, or from, Israel, notwithstanding
such cargo being legal,” said the company in a statement.</p>
<p>Hawa points out Israel’s occupation and apartheid policies could not
be maintained without companies like Maersk, including the Gaza genocide
or the current <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2025/1/23/live-israeli-raid-forces-palestinians-to-flee-jenin-as-aid-flows-to-gaza">Israeli offensive taking place in the West Bank</a>.</p>
<p>“The current military campaign in the West Bank could not exist
without a stably-reproduced system for the transportation of goods
produced on stolen Palestinian land,” he told <em>Mondoweiss</em>. “With
this report, we tried to make it clear that Zionism depends on more
than just weapons for its ethnic cleansing, and that companies like
Maersk will continue to violate international law unless we stop them.”</p>
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