SEATTLE WASHINGTON (11 JUNE 2021) Read the full article BDS Is Gaining Momentum With #BlockTheBoat Actions in Oakland and Seattle
A community picket line in support of Palestinian rights and liberation has succeeded in delaying a vessel operated by Israel’s largest cargo shipping company from docking at the Seattle Port for over a week.
Zim San Diego, was originally scheduled to unload its cargo in Seattle on June 2, but has postponed docking in response to the ongoing #BlockTheBoat picket line organized by Falastiniyat, a Seattle-based Palestinian feminist collective. Hundreds of people are expected to show up in protest of the Zim San Diego if it eventually manages to dock.
The current picket line in Seattle comes on the heels of a #BlockTheBoat victory in Oakland, California, where a community and worker coalition led by the Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) successfully blocked an Israeli ZIM ship on June 4 after 17 days of delaying the ship from attempting to dock.
The mobilizations in Seattle and Oakland are part of a coordinated, international #BlockTheBoat campaign that has been taking place across both U.S. coasts, in Canada, South Africa, Lebanon and at European ports. They are part of a global response to the renewed calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) made by Palestinian civil society following the most recent Israeli massacre of the Palestinian people in Gaza and violence within the West Bank and the 1948 borders by Israeli military and Zionist vigilante groups.
