(JTA) — Pro-Palestinian protesters prevented an Israeli cargo ship from unloading at a California port.
The protesters gathered Sunday at the Port of Oakland to stop a ship from Zim Integrated Shipping Services, Israel’s international maritime cargo company, from docking and unloading. The protest is under the auspices of the Block the Boat coalition organized by the San Francisco-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center.
The ship docked at the port Sunday evening after remaining at sea on Saturday to avoid arriving in the middle of a protest by thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators.
Unionized dockworkers at the port on Sunday honored the picket line and refused to unload the ship.
“Workers honored our picket and stood on the side of justice, as they historically have,” the center said in a statement on its website. “Oakland said no to Zionism and blocked the boat for an entire weekend. This is the first time in history that this has happened. Israeli apartheid is falling one port at a time.”
Similar actions are expected to take place at ports in Seattle and Tacoma, Wash., this week and later in Vancouver.
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