After Italy’s ground breaking move to block military steel moving through their ports from being transferred to genocidal Israel, the pressure of the BDS movement across the Mediterranean to stop such transfers continues to grow. The latest reports confirm that another shipment of the same military-grade steel destined for genocidal Israel has been discharged at Port Said port in Egypt on 17 June.
The military shipment, sourced from R L Steels & Energy Limited (Aurangabad, India) and transported aboard the vessel Angelica Maersk (IMO 9948798), had previously transited through Tanger Med port in Morocco.
Based on an alert received from No Harbour for Genocide, and confirmed by available trade data, the ultimate destination of this military cargo is the Israeli military company, IMI Systems (Elbit Systems Land). Elbit Systems is Israel's largest private weapons manufacturer and primary supplier to Israel’s genocidal army. It directly profits from and enables Israel's apartheid and ongoing genocide against Palestinians as well as its ongoing criminal aggression against the peoples of the region.
The discharged shipment at Port Said is expected to continue onward from Egyptian territory, with current information indicating involvement of the vessel Maersk Wakayama (IMO 9550357), which had arrived at Port Said on 19 June.
At the time of writing, 27 containers, with the same cargo from the same supplier, have been held for official inspection by the Italian authorities. Parliamentary interrogations (on 11 containers) and official hearings (on all the 27 containers) in Italy have confirmed that this cargo can’t continue its journey to Israel without a specific authorisation from the Arms and Dual-Use Materials Control Authority. These steel shipments could produce up to 15 thousand 155mm artillery shells.
These 155mm shells can be loaded with different warheads, from conventional explosives to cluster bombs and white phosphorus. They are used extensively in Israel’s bombing of densely populated areas in Gaza. In just the first seven weeks of the genocide, Israel fired over 90,000 artillery shells into Gaza. Additionally, 155mm shells were used in Israel’s chemical weapons attack on Yohmor, Lebanon.
On April 1, the Italian Deputy Minister of Transport responded to a number of parliamentary questions on this matter, stating:
“The aforementioned materials are currently stored temporarily in a suitable port area under the authority of the customs service and will remain stored pending decisions by the Arms and Dual-Use Materials Control Authority (UAMA), the national body responsible for overseeing the export, import, and transit of military materials and dual-use products.”
Allowing the docking and reloading of the military shipment bound for Israel, while knowing of the “plausibility” of its genocide against Palestinians and its illegal occupation and apartheid, constitutes a clear violation of obligations triggered by the decisions over the past two years by the International Court of Justice, the UN General Assembly Resolution on September 18 2024, and the International Criminal Court regarding Israel’s leaders’ involvement in the commission of international crimes.
The Palestinian-led BDS movement calls on unions, solidarity groups and wider civil society:
- In Egypt, to escalate pressure on the Egyptian authorities to immediately investigate the cargo that was discharged at Port Said, obstruct its transhipment to genocidal Israel, and impose rigorous due diligence measures to halt the flow of future military materiel (including dual-use items) to Israel through Egypt.
- In Morocco, to escalate pressure on the authorities to end all forms of military, security, and logistical cooperation with the Israeli genocidal regime, in line with the decisions of the ICJ and the rejection of the overwhelming majority of the Moroccan people of normalization with apartheid Israel.
- In India, to pressure their government to stop military cooperation with Israel, and investigate and take effective action to prevent further exports of illegal military materiel (including dual-use items) to genocidal Israel.
- In Denmark and Singapore, to pressure authorities to investigate vessels flying their flag for involvement in shipping illegal military materiel to Israel and to adopt effective sanctions and remedial measures in case they are.
- Across the Mediterranean and all other seas, to pressure authorities to stop the illegal transfer of military and dual-use materiel to Israel by investigating and taking appropriate action, including the confiscation of illegal military and dual-use cargo en route to Israel.
- Across global networks, to keep pressuring shipping giants Maersk, MSC, , and all other shipping companies to end their criminal complicity in facilitating the supply of military materiel to the Israeli regime despite its genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation.