Forced a ship to change its course entirely
Pro-Palestine activists in California’s San Francisco Bay Area declared a “decisive victory” on Tuesday after receiving news that an Israeli ship had redirected its course to Russia.
It was the first time that the Block the Boat campaign - which had planned to picket the Zim Beijing upon its arrival at the port of Oakland - had forced a ship to change its course entirely.
While the long-term significance was not immediately clear, supporters and opponents of the campaign have said another success in preventing a ship owned by Israel’s Zim Integrated Shipping Services from unloading in Oakland could drive the company out of the port altogether.
“All indications lead us to believe that it is possible for Zim to withdraw its operations from the port of Oakland,” Lara Kiswani, executive director of San Francisco’s Arab Resource and Organising Centre and a spokesperson for Block the Boat Oakland, told Middle East Eye.
Sam Levine, executive director of the Zionist Organisation of America Western Region, agreed that the campaign was on the verge of pushing Zim out of the port.
“This situation is unacceptable, and cannot be allowed to continue,” he told MEE. “Either the police need to arrest these protesters who are blocking commerce, or the union workers need to grow up and do their jobs. If this happens again I think the Zim ship will have no choice but to stop coming to Oakland.”