Dozens of social justice activists managed to prevent a ship that is owned by the Israeli company ZIM from unloading its cargo last weekend at the port of Tampa Bay in Florida as part of a wider solidarity campaign to prevent Israeli ships from loading and unloading their cargo at American ports.
According to Al-Quds newspaper, the Department of Expatriate Affairs at the Palestine Liberation Organisation said in a press statement issued on Sunday that protesters showing solidarity with Palestine were present, in spite of the bad weather and heavy rain, since the early morning hours after the ship approached the port and docked ahead of schedule during the night hours, preventing the port crews from unloading the Israeli ship.
A coordinator of the Alliance for Boycotting Israel in the United States told the newspaper that this protest is part of a new solidarity framework that is working on establishing alliances between dockworkers and pro-Palestinian organisations in American cities that have ports on the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.
The coordinator added that the boycott campaign against Israel is escalating at all levels across the United States, where broad sectors and new organisations, movements and civil institutions, as well as university students and labour unions, are getting involved everyday.
During Israel’s recent aggression on the Gaza Strip, American activists organised similar protests at several ports, including Oakland in California and Tacoma in Washington.