Even as media attention wanes, #BlockTheBoat campaign continues

By C. Y. Anderson and S. Borović, YCLers in Vancouver

On Sunday, July 18th, the Vancouver clubs of the YCL-LJC and the Communist Party of Canada joined a demonstration organized by member groups of the Vancouver #BlockTheBoat coalition, including the Palestinian Youth Movement, Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, BAYAM-Canada, and BDS Vancouver-Coast Salish, among others.

The demonstration began at the Vancouver offices of ZIM Shipping Services, an apartheid-profiteering Israeli shipping company. During the assault on Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere last May, dockworkers refused to unload ZIM ships in Italy and South Africa. Following that, a ZIM ship was forced to leave the Port of Oakland, CA, after ILWU dockworkers refused to cross a community picket line. The #BlockTheBoat movement also succeeded in getting ZIM ships turned away from Vancouver and Prince George, BC, last month. These actions continue the longstanding legacy of workers around the world uniting against imperialism and apartheid.

After rallying outside the ZIM offices, protesters then marched to the nearby BC Liquor Store, owned and operated by the BC government, where they expressed support for the longstanding Boycotts, Divestments, Sanctions (BDS) campaign to end the sale of wine produced on occupied Palestinian land. Speakers emphasized that wines from Israeli settlements in the West Bank, which are illegal under international law, are systematically mislabelled as being from Israel. The continued selling of these apartheid-profiteering wines in province-owned stores under Horgan’s supposedly-progressive NDP government exposes the NDP’s statement last month in support of boycotting illegal settlements as just so many empty words.

The protest then continued to its final destination, London Drugs, which sells Teva pharmaceuticals, SodaStream products, and HP technology. Speakers highlighted the ways in which each of these products upholds the apartheid system of Israel: Teva is Israel’s largest pharmaceutical company, making it a key source of tax dollars for the Israeli Government; SodaStream previously manufactured their devices in the West Bank using Palestinian labour and have since moved to a new factory on stolen Bedouin land in the Negev; meanwhile, HP provides its products to the Israeli state for several programs, including administering its prison network and the biometric ID system that tracks and controls the movement of Palestinians, thus turning them into prisoners on their own land.

After the brutal attack on Palestinians this past May, Canadians have begun to take greater notice of Israel’s ongoing war crimes. The organizers of the event hope to capitalize on this awareness going forward and turn it into concrete action in future #BlockTheBoat events and other solidarity actions against Israeli apartheid.

Photos via Matt Rowan