For the second time in six weeks, activists angry about Israel’s summer war with Hamas and other Israeli policies prevented a cargo ship from being off-loaded at the Port of Oakland.
Protesters showed up at Oakland’s International Container Terminal on Sept. 27 intending to prevent dockworkers from unloading the Zim Shanghai, which is owned in part by an Israeli shipping company. Estimates of the number of demonstrators varied in accounts, ranging from as few as 60 to as many as 200.
A statement from the International Longshore and Warehouse Union noted that its workers “were met with hostile demonstrators, effectively blocking access to the terminal.” It added that union workers were “threatened physically at some points of ingress and their personal vehicles were physically blocked.” It emphasized that the union is not helping to organize the protests and takes no position on the “Israel-Gaza conflict.”
Faith Meltzer, a pro-Israel activist with StandWithUs who attended the protest as an observer, said protesters “blocked the various entrances to the docks and attempted to intimidate workers. Drivers trying to go to their jobs were photographed and their cars were physically blocked. ILWU workers became increasingly frustrated and angry.”
Robert Bernardo, a spokesman for the Port of Oakland, slightly contradicted that version of events, telling J. that workers were able to enter the terminal to report for work, though “labor was insufficient to successfully work the vessel.”
The ship departed Oakland on Sept. 28 and was unloaded at the Port of Long Beach on Sept. 30, reportedly without incident.
The action in Oakland was similar to an earlier protest against another ship, the Piraeus, partly owned by Zim Integrated Shipping Services, Israel’s largest shipping company. After the ship docked on Aug. 17, its unloading was held up by anti-Israel protesters for several days before union workers managed to unload it. — dan pine