Melbourne, Australia – Ports have become the center of pro-Palestinian rallies in Australia as protesters target Israeli ships and vessels believed to have links to the country.
Last week, dozens of people attempted to block the container ship ZIM Ganges from reaching Melbourne Port, with police eventually deploying pepper spray to break the blockade against a backdrop of shipping containers and cranes, familiar symbols of a global industrialized world.
Dozens of people were arrested after the picket blocked access to the wharf and forced the closure of the Victoria International Container Terminal (VICT). The volunteer legal observers (MALS) who accompanied the demonstrators say they were greeted by around 200 police officers, some on horseback.
Tasnim Mahmoud Sammak, from community organization Free Palestine Melbourne, was present at the blockade, which lasted four days.
“I have family in Gaza and they have nowhere to go in the bombed prison that it has become,” she said.
Also present for the final showdown was Sofia Sabbagh, a prolific Palestinian artist based in Melbourne.
“They surrounded us in lines, intimidating us,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune, saying the group had complied with the request to move on to avoid arrest.
Legal observers say the crowd was not threatening and people were just chanting.
“Once we were on public property, the police took us away from our medical supplies and equipment, removing one person from a wheelchair and shoving many other people, pepper spraying more than 20 people,” Sabbagh added . “I was traumatized to see a person being taken out of their wheelchair. »
Victoria Police said the use of pepper spray was a response to the “dynamic nature” of the blockade and the threat of “aggressive” protesters.
After a dozen arrests, the enclave of exhausted activists descended on Sandridge Beach. There, Declan Furber Gillick, a representative of the revolutionary group Black People’s Union, delivered a passionate final speech calling for the continued disruption of the military-industrial complex through the use of “peaceful, people-powered revolutionary tactics” before the dissolution of the band. and I went home.
The blockade was established at the port on the afternoon of January 19, hours before the ZIM Ganges, which sails under the Portuguese flag, docked in Melbourne, Australia’s second largest city.
ZIM Shipping was founded in 1945 as part of Israel’s quest for statehood, initially helping Holocaust survivors travel to the new State of Israel. Currently Israel’s 10th shipping company, ZIM has sparked protests since CEO Eli Glickman promised to meet all of Israel’s needs following Hamas’ attacks on southern Israel on October 7 and the declaration of Israel’s war in Gaza.
Port Melbourne handles approximately 8,850 containers per day and is Australia’s largest commercial port. The protests “effectively disrupted operations” for nearly four days, VICT said in a news release after police broke up the picket line.
Tradition of radical action
This ragtag band of activists worked in shifts, preventing six consecutive shifts of port workers from entering the terminal and forcing the ZIM Ganges to anchor in the bay until it was finally able to enter the port around midnight on the 21st. January.
The blockade was initially organized by a group called Unionists for Palestine (U4P), but, as the days passed, it attracted wider interest. By January 20, it had become a broad coalition of Palestinian, First Nations and anti-war groups.
U4P member Fiona Healey said the picket was aimed at disrupting the company’s supply chain as it continues to “support and supply an apartheid regime”.
This was reiterated by another community organizer, John Smith.
“We targeted the Port of Melbourne in solidarity with the Palestinians’ call to disrupt all businesses complicit in the ongoing genocide in Gaza – and that includes ZIM shipping,” Smith said.
Members of the Maritime Union Australia (MUA), such as dockworkers, have been advised not to cross the picket line for health and safety reasons.
Many dockworkers, who were reportedly escorted to the terminal by police, refused to cross the picket line. An online fundraiser raised more than 25,000 Australian dollars ($16,469) for workers, who were initially not paid for the days they did not work, but the money was redirected to relief efforts in Gaza after union wins dockworkers’ wages.
U4P’s Ben Hjorth told Tel Aviv Tribune the movement was linked to a broader “anti-war” cause within the Australian trade union movement.
He referenced Nelson Mandela’s speech in Melbourne in 1990, thanking Australian workers for leading the world in boycotting ships to apartheid-era South Africa. Hjorth cited these radical but successful MUA protest actions as inspiration, adding: “Sometimes you have to break the law to change it. »
VICT chief executive Bruno Porchietto told Australian media outlet Channel 7 that the four-day picket had likely cost the port around “50,000 containers” and Victoria “millions of dollars”.
But state Treasurer Tim Pallas downplayed the financial impact of the blockade, saying the brief protest would have only a “minimal impact” on the economy in the long term.
As the ZIM Ganges finally arrived at the dock, some protesters followed it online via the tracking site shipfinder.com. They claim the ship turned off its GPS tracking when it entered port, noting that the two tugboats accompanying it did not, leaving a gap where the ZIM Ganges was.
“This is very unusual behavior,” said U4P’s Hjorth.
Under Australian maritime law, vessels can only disable their GPS tracking for safety and security reasons.
Since the protests, other ships have been able to dock in Melbourne without disruption.
But the threat of action remains.
Hjorth said the group aims to disrupt Israeli supply chains until there is a “permanent ceasefire in Gaza and an end to the occupation.”
On Monday, the ZIM Ganges was due to arrive in Sydney, where protesters staged a rally last November targeting another ZIM ship. The shipping company’s timetable indicates it is also expected to travel further up the east coast to Brisbane.
