Revealed: How anti—Jewish activists plot to stop Israeli cargo
A report detailing how to block Israeli-owned cargo ships has been obtained by hardline pro-Palestinian activists in Australia.
Radical anti-Israel activists targeting Jewish interests have obtained a sophisticated strategy developed in the US for tracking and blockading boats and engaging unions and the trucking industry, to stifle the shipping company ZIM.
Israel-based ZIM has been the target of an offensive in Australia by hard-left activists who have staged lock-ins at ports and water-based activities to retard ship progress and undermine the company’s operations.
The tactics have escalated since the Hamas attack on Israel on October 7, when about 1200 people were killed, raped and tortured and hundreds of people abducted.
The Australian has seen a series of documents in the possession of activists, including Block the Boat’s US strategy for harming ZIM interests, which was originally stored in encrypted form. “This is a toolkit for tracking ships owned by Israel’s ZIM Shipping, and offers a starting point for organizing a port blockade with the Block the Boat movement,’’ one document says.
“Palestinians are under threat as they face ethnic cleansing, forced evacuation, apartheid and genocide.’’
The document, which is not dated, urges protesters to build relationships with unions and to use the trucking industry as a means of achieving results.
The Weekend Australian revealed on Saturday that radical groups in Australia were circulating and sharing guides for anti-Israel activists, unionists and educators to sabotage and vandalise property and evade police by using encrypted communications and special codes.
One document details a running sheet for a non-violent direct action training session in Newcastle, NSW, which was published on November 10 but the event may have been held earlier.
The document names Blockade Australia and states as its strategy: “The Australian system relies on the flow of goods and labour through roads, ports and rail networks. Prolonged disruption of these bottlenecks threatens the ongoing function of policies of economic, political and social value, creating a political crisis around climate response.”
There is now an Australian version of Block the Boat, called Block the Dock, which has become one of the main protest groups against Israel, highlighting the large human toll in Gaza after the war was sparked by Hamas. Socialists have accused maritime unionists in Australia of failing to do enough to block the Israeli-owned ships.
A ZIM cargo ship, which has been off the NSW south coast, was diverted from Melbourne to defeat the Block the Dock campaigners and last week another ZIM ship was met by campaigners on kayaks.
The US Block the Boat strategy document outlines how to track ships around the world to help plan protests, with the company’s website and global shipping apps making the vessels slow-moving targets for campaigners. The document suggests getting unionists to invoke health and safety issues as part of the drive to shut down the shipping line.
“Another option is to work with truckers moving among ZIM containers out of the terminal,’’ the document suggests.
“More research needs to be done on how to track which trucking companies are contracted to move ZIM containers, and who might organise those companies.
“It’s worth considering that it takes over 4000 trucks to unload a single ZIM ship, so the extent to which a trucker’s work stoppage might be effective relies on mobilising them at a much more massive scale.”
Campaigners in possession of the ZIM strategy document also have a document called the Direct Action Planning Guide, which outlines in detail how to stage protests and deal with the fallout if people are caught.
The guide, written in Melbourne, suggests that protests could include blockades, barricades, sabotage, animal liberation, sabotaging construction machinery, graffiti and squatting.
There appear to be two tiers of protesters operating in Victoria.
The first is the majority of pro-Palestinian activists who have gathered to march in Melbourne’s streets who, until now at least, have been largely peaceful.
However, some attendees have displayed crude anti-Israel posters and messaging and at the weekend a sit-in at a Melbourne shopping centre was opposed by police prompting claims by protesters of low-level violence against them by the force.
There is a second tier of activists on the hard left who are radical protesters adopting criminal tactics to get their message across, according to documents and social media activity.
The protesters have vandalised the US consulate and BAE Systems in Melbourne’s inner east, smashing plate glass and spraying paint and anti-Israel messaging. Pro-Palestinian protesters are planning to reignite the weekend public protests soon.
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