No Harbour for Genocide

 

 
The Palestine Institute for Public Diplomacy

Mobilisations across the Mediterranean Disrupt Military Fuel Transit to Israel

Over the past few weeks, civil society organisations and social movements across the Mediterranean have tracked and disrupted US Military chartered tanker vessels delivering military jet fuel to 'Israel'. Activists, politicians and workers in Cyprus, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Spain, Tunisia and elsewhere have come together - under the banner of 'No Harbour for Genocide' - to successfully delay military jet fuel deliveries, with more disruptions planned.

U.S. contracted fuel tankers have continued to transit military fuel to Israel through Mediterranean ports, despite warnings that their cargo is used by Israel to commit genocide in Palestine.

A report by Oil Change International and Data Desk revealed that three deliveries of JP-8 military jet fuel took place between October 2023 and March 2024. The fuel was carried by US flagged tankers Overseas Santorini and Overseas Sun Coast, with each tanker carrying enough fuel for an estimated 12,000 flights of Israel's F-16 and F-35 aircraft. In April 2024, UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution expressing deep concern over the use of jet fuel by Israel to commit violations of international law.

Yet state-operated and privately-owned ports in the Mediterranean Sea, along with NATO and US military bases, have continued to service these oil tankers with fuel, food, supplies and crew changes, enabling them to continue transit fuel shipments to Israeli fighter jet planes uninterrupted.

In response, over the past three weeks activists throughout the Mediterranean have come together to disrupt and delay the delivery of military jet fuel. Groups working together under the banner of No Harbour for Genocide, who have been monitoring the vessels, confirm that the Overseas Santorini delivered an additional shipment of military fuel to the Israeli government at the port of Ashkelon. The delivery took place on August 8, 2024 'in the dark' after the ship turned off its transponder due to mounting public pressure.

Yet the significant disruption caused to the Overseas Santorini's latest voyage demonstrates the possibilities of ending such deliveries through popular action.

Successful Disruption

The Overseas Santorini's transport route reveals the web of government-state-military partnerships profiting from Israel's ongoing genocide against Palestinians. The Overseas Santorini is one of ten ships enrolled in the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration's Tanker Security Program, which provides these "militarily useful" vessels with $6 million in annual stipend to "allow for committed, reliable and loyal fuel transportation to the US military during a time of national crisis."

Both vessels, in addition to the Overseas Mykonos, are all contracted by the U.S. government to deliver military fuel supplied by the Valero Energy Corporation to the Israeli government, which negotiated the purchase of the fuel through the U.S. State Department at a cost of $3 billion in 2020. Valero was granted a contract by the US Defense Logistics Agency Energy (DLA Energy) to provide nearly one billion litres of JP-8 jet fuel, diesel fuel, and unleaded gasoline covering many years' supply to the Israeli Armed Forces. Valero refines the petroleum products used by the Israeli air force at its refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas.

On its most recent delivery, the Overseas Santorini left Corpus Christi on July 15, 2024, and entered the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar on July 31. Through coordinated actions by civil society groups, social movements and dockworkers, the vessel was pressured to abandon its routine ports of call in Algeciras, Spain and Gibraltar. Further pressure was mounted in Malta, forcing the vessel to skip the country and continue directly to the Ashkelon terminal in Occupied Palestine.

The Overseas Santorini's entire voyage was beset with problems created by the mass, transnational mobilization against its delivering of jet fuel to Israel's genocide. On July 25, dockworker unions in Spain issued a statement saying they would refuse to service the ship, numerous Spanish politicians spoke out against it docking and hundreds turned out in the city of Algeciras calling on the city to reject what they referred to as "The Ships of Death".

Once the tanker rerouted to Gibraltar, dozens of British MPs wrote to UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Fabian Picardo, the chief minister of Gibraltar, calling on them to refuse the ship's request to dock, meanwhile activists on the ground in Gibraltar mobilised their community to monitor and protest the ship's activities. Similar campaigns by civil society, activists and politicians - working closely with trade unions and port authorities - were established in every potential harbour along the Overseas Santorini's route, forcing it to turn off its tracking system for over a week in order to evade further activist disruption.

Announcements, protests and actions organised as part of this mobilisation can be found on the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine social media pages, both Instagram and X/Twitter.

 

 

Tracking Ships in the Dark

Both vessels have routinely and deliberately obscured their voyage details and positions. While the Overseas Santorini has been in the dark since it entered the Mediterranean Sea and during its offloading of military fuel, the Overseas Sun Coast has not revealed its next destination.

Turning off AIS tracking can prevent other vessels from identifying a ship's identity and increases the potential for collisions at sea, and likely to constitute a breach of maritime law. In the context of the genocide in Palestine, turning off the AIS reduced state and public accountability in monitoring and intervening in the operations of the vessels, in line with international laws and obligations. These actions raise significant concerns over navigational safety in addition to public and state accountability.

These evasive actions led to the posting of lookout notices throughout the Mediterranean, mobilising activists, fishermen, dockworkers and other boaters to seek out and identify the route of the Overseas Santorini. This uncovered its docking and unloading in Ashkelon on August 8, and is expected either in the port of Limassol, Cyprus or Souda, Crete. The Progressive Party of Working People (AKEL) in Cyprus has already called on its government to prevent the vessel from docking or refuelling in Cypriot ports, whilst activists in both Cyprus and Crete have been mobilising against the ship docking there.

Meanwhile, the other military partner vessel - the Overseas Sun Coast - which was docked in the southern French port of Lavera, 30 miles west of Marseilles, departed on August 7. The vessel had arrived from the U.S./NATO naval base at Rota, Spain, with its next port of call yet to be declared. Palestinian-solidarity groups, including Comité local des Soulèvements de la terre de Marseille, Urgence Palestine Marseille, and BDS Provence demanded the French government prevent and prohibit the undocking of vessels engaging in the transit of military fuel to Israel from its port; or risk being complicit in genocide. The call urged workers at the port of Lavera to refuse complicity in genocide; and the harbouring of the Overseas Sun Coast.

Growing Legal Consensus

Alongside the UN Human Rights Council statement in April, legal experts have also expressed that in the context of Israeli genocidal practices, states have an obligation to prevent the transit of military fuel through their ports. A letter signed by more than 60 international legal experts was sent to the UN missions of all states bordering the Mediterranean Sea and Gulf of Mexico warning that the transit of military fuel through their territory breaches international law.

The letter underlines the responsibility of states to "refuse permission to either of these vessels to transit within states’ territorial waters or to provision them within ports under states’ jurisdiction." It further emphasises that "Failure to do so could amount to a breach of international legal obligations and complicity in the international law violations being committed by Israel."

The experts make clear that Mediterranean ports must act to fulfil their legal obligations under international law and refuse transit and services to vessels directly enabling Israel to commit war crimes, crimes against humanity and other grave breaches of international law. Such actions are consistent with those taken by states and workers to end Apartheid in South Africa, and more recently, in campaigns to identify and sever links between shipping firms and the military junta in Myanmar.

These recent, successful mobilisations are only the first phase in a series of planned global disruptions that will target Valero Energy, the OSG tankers used to transfer military jet fuel, the companies servicing these ships, the ships' insurers and all entities profiting from the murder of Palestinians. As the campaign outlines, as long as corporations and states continue to provide, and profit from, the sales and transport of weapons, ammunition and military fuel, there must be No Harbour for Genocide.

~ For more background information on these shipments, the popular mobilisation against them or anything else, please contact the Global Energy Embargo for Palestine: info@palenergyembargo.com