melbourne, australia – Ports have emerged as hubs for pro-Palestinian rallies in Australia, as protesters target Israeli ships and vessels allegedly linked to Israel.
Last week, dozens of people tried to block the ZIM Ganges container ship from arriving at the Port of Melbourne, with police eventually deploying pepper spray against a backdrop of shipping containers and cranes, symbols of the world's developed nations. The blockade was lifted.
Dozens of people were arrested after pickets blocked access to piers and forced the closure of the Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT). According to a member of the Voluntary Legal Surveillance Service (MALS) who was accompanying the demonstrators, about 200 police officers met them, some on horseback.
Tasnim Mahmoud Samak, from community organization Free Palestine Melbourne, took part in the blockade, which lasted four days.
“I have family in Gaza, but they have nowhere to go in a bombed-out prison,” she said.
Prolific Melbourne-based Palestinian artist Sophia Sabbagh also took part in the final showdown.
“They formed a line around us and threatened us,” she told Al Jazeera, adding that the group complied with requests to move to avoid arrest.
Law enforcement observers said the crowd was not threatening and were just chanting.
“While we were on public property, police separated us from medical supplies and equipment, pulled one person out of his wheelchair, pushed many others to the ground, and pepper-sprayed more than 20 people.” Saba added. “It was traumatic to see people being dragged out of wheelchairs.”
Victoria Police said the use of pepper spray was in response to the “dynamic nature” of the lockdown and the threat posed by “aggressive” protesters.
After more than a dozen arrests, a weary enclave of activists descended on Sandridge Beach. There, Declan Farber Gillick, head of the revolutionary group Black Alliance, calls for the continued destruction of the military-industrial complex using “peaceful, people-powered revolutionary tactics” before the group disbands. He gave a passionate final speech. And then I went home.
The blockade was placed at the port on the afternoon of January 19, hours before the Portuguese-flagged ZIM Ganges was scheduled to enter Melbourne, Australia's second largest city.
ZIM Shipping was founded in 1945 as part of Israel's quest for statehood and initially helped Holocaust survivors travel to the new state of Israel. ZIM, currently Israel's 10th-largest shipping company, has announced that CEO Eli Glickman will It has drawn protests ever since it promised to meet all of Israel's needs.
Port Melbourne handles approximately 8,850 containers per day and is Australia's largest commercial port. The protests have been “virtually inactive” for almost four days, VICT said in a press release after police ended the picket.
tradition of radical action
A ragtag group of activists worked in shifts to block dockers from entering the terminal for six consecutive shifts, keeping the ZIM Ganges anchored in the bay until it was finally able to enter the port around midnight on January 21st. I let it happen.
The blockade was initially organized by a group called the United Palestine Union (U4P), but as the days passed, it began to attract wider attention. By January 20, it had become a broad coalition of Palestinian, indigenous, and anti-war groups.
U4P member Fiona Healy said the picketing was aimed at disrupting supply chains as the company continues to “support and supply the apartheid regime”.
This was echoed by fellow community organizer John Smith.
“We targeted the Port of Melbourne in solidarity with the Palestinian call to disrupt all businesses complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza, including ZIM shipping,” Mr Smith said. Told.
Members of the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA), including dockworkers, were advised not to cross the picket lines due to health and safety concerns.
Many longshoremen who were to be escorted to the terminal by police refused to cross the picket line. An online fundraiser raised more than A$25,000 ($16,469) for the workers. The workers were initially not paid for the days they did not work, but after the union secured wages for the longshoremen, the funds were directed to relief efforts in Gaza.
U4P's Ben Joos told Al Jazeera that the movement was linked to a broader “anti-war” cause within Australia's trade union movement.
He referenced Nelson Mandela's speech in Melbourne in 1990, in which he thanked Australian workers for leading the world in boycotting ships to South Africa during apartheid. Joos cited these radical but successful MUA industrial actions as a source of inspiration, adding: “Sometimes you have to break the law to change the law.”
VICT CEO Bruno Porchietto told Australia's Channel 7 that the four-day picket had caused perhaps “50,000 containers” at the port and “millions of dollars” in damage to the state of Victoria. He said it happened.
But state Treasurer Tim Pallas downplayed the economic impact of the lockdown, saying the short-term protests would have “minimal impact” on the economy in the long term.
When the ZIM Ganges finally docked, some protesters followed it online through the vesselfinder.com tracking site. They said the ship had disabled its GPS tracking upon entering port, and the two accompanying tugboats had not disabled it, leaving a gap where the ZIM Ganga was.
“This is a very unusual act,” said U4P's Hjorth.
Under Australian maritime law, ships can only disable GPS tracking for safety and security reasons.
Other ships have been able to enter Melbourne without disruption since the protests.
But the threat of action remains.
Hjors said the group aims to disrupt Israeli supply chains until a “permanent ceasefire and end to the occupation in Gaza” is achieved.
The ZIM Ganges was due to arrive in Sydney on Monday, but protesters had held a rally targeting another ZIM ship in November last year. According to the shipping company's schedule, the ship will sail further north up the east coast to Brisbane.
