SOMALP sent letter to Maersk to protest against transportation of weapons to Israel
28.07.2024
Managing Director Maersk Mauritius Ltd.
1st Floor, MFD Building,
Freeport Zone 5, Mer Rouge, 11609
(230) 206 2211
9th july 2024
Dear Sir,We write to you as the agency representing the interests of Maersk in Mauritius to draw your attention on the role of this company in supporting genocide in Gaza. Maersk one of the largest container shipping company in the world, is responsible for transporting arms from USA to Israel. These arms are being used at this very moment to carry out the massacre of Palestinians, particularly in Gaza as well as in other occupied regions of Palestine.
Since October last year, the Israel military has killed more than 38,000 Palestinians, of whom 15,000 are children. Now Israel has expanded its military operations to the Southern area of Rafah, an area where the vast majority of displaced Palestinians had specifically been told by the same Israeli authorities to seek refuge. So Maersk is consciously facilitating Israel’s massacre of Palestinians to continue by ensuring the constant and consistent supply of weapons used to kill Palestinians and destroy Gaza to the extent that it becomes uninhabitable.
This criminal regime of Israel is today more and more isolated due to a combination of different actions, namely the persistent worldwide street protests in support of Palestine, the different court cases brought by South Africa in the ICJ, with an interim judgement calling for an end to the killing, maiming and destruction, and by other countries at the International Criminal Court, the growing number of countries recognising Palestine as a sovereign State (a majority of 145 countries out of 193), the condemnation of the Israeli genocide in Parliaments all over the world, as well as in the UN General Assembly and even the Security Council. Thus, all institutions and companies should end all co-operation and commercial transactions that are fuelling the genocide against the Palestinians, and thus at once begin to, instead, contribute to further isolating Israel.
This month the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) has taken the initiative of singling out your company, Maersk, to launch a global campaign against it, precisely because it persists in the criminal activity of transporting weapons and weapons’ components to Israel, thus facilitating the supply of weapons to Israel, weapons that are used in its criminal war in Gaza. Between 2018 and 2022, 68% of Israel’s weapons imports came from the US. Maersk plays a major role in shipping these weapons to Gaza, as well as shipping component parts to the USA factories. These arms suppliers include Northrup Grumman, Woodward, RTX/Raytheon, and Lockheed Martin. It is public knowledge that the USA gives Israel military aid to the tune of $3.8 billion a year, most of which is for arms produced in the USA.
The PYM campaign will also engage in a divestment strategy involving putting pressure on city councils, pension funds, and university campuses that might have partnerships or investments in Maersk.Maersk and all its sub-agents should put an immediate end to the transportation of weapons to Israel, at once cut all contracts that fuel the genocide, and begin to implement an overdue arms embargo against Israel. This cannot go on. We call on you to stop being an accomplice to Israeli genocide and to dissociate your agency from this ongoing slaughter and to do so by putting an end to your representation of Maersk in Mauritius.
We hope that you will give the necessary attention to our call to stop participating in genocide. Remember that the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide under which Israel is on trial also specifies that “complicity” with genocide constitutes the crime of genocide.
Yours sincerely,Alain Ah Vee, Reeaz Chuttoofor Solidarite Morisyin Ar Lepep Palestinn (SOMALP)
which regroups: Mauritius Labour Congress (MLC), Confederation des Travailleurs des Secteurs Publique et Privé(CTSPP), All Workers’ Federation (AWF), Federation of Parastatal Bodies and Other union (FPBOU), Confederation of General Trade unions (CGTU), Federation of Civil Service and Other unions (FCSOU), Dr. Idrice Goomany Treatment Centre, Association des Consommateurs de l’Ile Maurice (ACIM), Chagos Refugees Group(CRG), Ledikasyon pu Travayer(LPT), Muvman Liberasyon Fam(MLF), LALIT and individual members.
