The fallout from Israel’s brutal attack on Gaza last month, the killing of over 1,300 mostly civilian Palestinians including 411 children, has now energized the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel’s apartheid trajectory, and its treatment of the occupied Palestinians. In this case, South African dockworkers, and dockworkers from other countries are boycotting ships from Israel and refusing to unload them. As reported by the Palestinian Call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS), the Maritime Union of Australia (Western Australia) last week resolved to boycott all Israeli vessels and all vessels bearing goods arriving from or going to Israel. Before that, Greek dock workers threatened to block a ship carrying weapons to Israel during its criminal war on Gaza.
The Global BDS Movement likewise reports ongoing boycott, divestment, and sanctions efforts in Norway, Sweden, Britain, Ireland, Turkey, Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, Spain, USA, Brazil, New Zealand, among others, to end Israel’s unending military occupation of the Palestinian territories, whose sole purpose is to support the colonization of Palestinian lands making peace impossible.
The decision by Venezuela, Bolivia, Qatar and Mauritania to sever diplomatic ties with Israel after Gaza may also be mentioned.
The Global BDS Movement reported the South African dockworker boycott this way:
The BNC Salutes South African Dock Workers Action!
Palestine, 3 February 2009 — The Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee, BNC, warmly salutes the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU), a member of COSATU, for its decision today not to offload an Israeli ship that is due to arrive in Durban, South Africa, on 8 February.
Coming weeks after the massive Israeli massacre in Gaza, this distinguished expression by SATAWU of effective solidarity with the Palestinian people in general, and with Gaza in particular, sets a historic precedent that reminds us of the first such action during the apartheid era taken by Danish dock workers in 1963, when they decided not to offload ships carrying South African products, triggering a similar boycott in Sweden, England and elsewhere.
Support in South Africa for the Palestinian struggle against Israel’s colonial and apartheid policies and its war crimes is reaching new heights, with COSATU, the South African Council of Churches, the Palestine Solidarity Committee, the Young Communist League and many grassroots organizations and networks leading diverse forms of BDS campaigns, informed by the long and ultimately successful struggle of South Africans against apartheid. The Palestinian and global BDS movement against Israel is indebted to the people of South Africa for their inspiring and morale-boosting solidarity.
Subsequent to Israel’s defiance of Obama’s request to open the gates to Gaza, it is reported that Israel blocked another ship carrying humanitarian aid from Lebanon.
Aid ship leaves Lebanon en route to Gaza
Tuesday, 03 February 2009
A cargo ship carrying activists and supplies set sail Tuesday from Lebanon en route to the Gaza Strip in defiance of an Israeli blockade on the coastal Palestinian territory, organizers said.
The Togo-flagged ship “Tali” is carrying about 60 tons of medicine, food, toys, books and stationery, as well as eight activists and journalists. The ship set sail from Tripoli in northern Lebanon. It plans to stop in Larnaca, Cyprus, for inspection before continuing to Gaza, where organizers say it is scheduled to arrive midweek.
But then we heard,
Israel seizes Gaza-bound aid ship
A Lebanese ship carrying aid for Gaza was stopped by the Israeli navy and is being escorted into port, Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak says.
The siege and starvation of Gaza continues. For Palestinians, nothing has changed. For Israel, things have gotten worse. It is raising the ire of ordinary people and nations.
