Morocco: Dockworkers Call for Boycott of Maersk’s Arms Shipment to Israel

Morocco’s Port Workers’ Union, affiliated with the Moroccan Labor Union, has called on workers, users, and operative companies at the port of Casablanca to boycott the Nexoe Maersk ship, which will arrive to the port on Friday, April 18, due to its planned shipment of military equipment to Israel between April 20 and 22. The union made the call in order to protest Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza.

The union urged dockworkers to abstain from unloading or servicing operations for the ship, warning that facilitating its passage would make all involved “direct accomplices in the genocidal war against the Palestinian people.” It also called on the authorities to prevent the ship from docking at Casablanca or at Tangier Med, which is the largest Moroccan industrial port complex. 

A report published by Declassified UK on April 4 revealed that Maersk is transporting fighter jet equipment to Israel, including spare parts for F-35, which have been used by the Israeli air force to commit the genocide in the Gaza strip. According to the report, the equipment was loaded in Houston, Texas onto the US-flagged Maersk Detroit which headed to Morocco and then the parts would be transferred to Nexoe Maersk.

The trade union’s call was preceded by a joint edict issued by religious groups, including scholars affiliated with Morocco’s Islamist movement Al-Adl Wal Ihssan, forbidding the docking of Nexoe Maersk ship. The edict labelled such an action as “a grave betrayal of the Muslim community.”

“Mask off Maersk” campaign aims to “cut ties with the genocide”

It is worth noting that prior to the Moroccan dockworkers’ call, the Palestinian Youth Movement launched the “Mask off Maersk” campaign in mid-2024, calling for people around the world to “cut ties with the genocide” by imposing a “people’s armed embargo.” According to PYM, people of conscience should not solely wait for officials to stop the flow of weapons to Israel, but rather to build the movement for an arms embargo.

A video and a statement were published on the campaign’s website, which provided facts about Maersk’s complicity in the genocide that claimed the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza.

“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,” the statement reads. “Maersk has been carrying everything from tactical vehicles to parts for armored tanks and aircraft and artillery systems to the Israeli Ministry of Defense.”

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch