Refusal of Spain to handle US munition

Outgoing Federal Maritime Commissioner Carl Bentzel told Seatrade Maritime News that in FMC meeting debate and vote ended in agreement that there should be an investigation into whether Spain’s reticence to handle US cargo involved violations of international agreements.

Bentzel confirmed that Spanish authorities had denied permission to dock in Spain to the Maersk Denver and the Maersk Seletar, which left New York on October 31 and November 04, respectively. The Spanish authorities suspected the vessels were carrying arms for Israel’s military.

On November 07, a Spanish foreign ministry spokesman confirmed that the vessels would not be allowed to call at Maersk’s southern Spanish hub at Algeciras.

Spanish politician, Enrique Santiago warned at the time that allowing these Maersk vessels to dock could violate Spain’s penal code, which prohibits the transit of military material that could exacerbate conflicts.

FMC discussions have concluded that Spanish authorities may be in violation of the Foreign Shipping Practices Act and/or Section 19 of the Merchant Marine Act, which looks at trade remedies.

“The FMC will initiate an investigation to see if they - the Spanish authorities - are in violation of these acts,” said Bentzel, adding that a formal announcement of the investigation is expected imminently.

Maersk operates around 20 vessels under the US Voluntary Intermodal Sealift authority, having acquired the lucrative contracts when the Danish carrier bought the major US container carrier Sea-Land in 1999.

Bentzel pointed out that these contracts can be for the carriage of all sorts of cargo, not just weapons, “including humanitarian aid, in support of the Gazan population."

It is not clear what freight was on board these ships, or whether other cargo destined for Mediterranean or other destinations was affected.

Spanish authorities have announced a ban on vessels carrying arms for Israel from its ports. 

A report from the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM)’s Mask Off Maersk campaign, published on November 04 said it reviewed 2,110 US shipments on Maersk vessels, between September 2023 and September 2024, listed as shipped on behalf of Israel’s Ministry of Defense (IMOD), 827 of which were for armoured vehicles, tactical vehicles, weapons systems, or parts.

The report lists other hardware shipments totalling close to US$ one billion worth of military hardware and ammunition.

“Almost all of the military goods shipments examined (2104/2110) departed from the Port of Elizabeth, NJ, with the remainder (6/2110) departing from the Port of Houston, TX and while not all explicitly state that the destination country was Israel, the receiving agent is listed as the Government of Israel’s Ministry of Defense, such that it can be assumed they were ultimately delivered to Israel for military purposes. Approximately half (1238/2110) of these shipments transited through the Port of Algeciras, Spain,” reported PYM.

 

 

Israel to get US$3.5 billion to kill Palestinians

According to Reuters, Washington will provide Israel US$3.5 billion for the purchase of US weapons and military equipment. The money will be released after the US Congress appropriated it during Israel's war in Gaza.

A State Department spokesperson said on Friday that the department notified Congress on Thursday that the government intended to release the billions of dollars of foreign military financing to Israel.

CNN reported earlier on the release of this amount which comes from a US$14 billion supplemental funding bill for Israel passed by the Congress in April.

Tensions in the Middle East have been mounting and many fear a widening of Israel's war in Gaza that has already killed tens of thousands and caused a humanitarian crisis.

There has been an increased risk of escalation into a broader Middle East war after recent killings of Palestinian Islamist group Hamas' leader Ismail Haniyeh in Iran and of Hezbollah military commander Fuad Shukr in Beirut allegedly by Israel.

The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered on October 07, 2023 when Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

The Gaza health ministry says that since then Israel's military assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed nearly 40,000 Palestinians (genocide) and also displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing humanitarian crisis.

 

 

 

Has Gregory Meeks succumbed to Jewish lobby pressure?

Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee will not request a delay to an arms sale to Israel after the Biden administration agreed to brief lawmakers on the deal. “What we wanted to do is to have a dialogue and conversation,” committee Chairman Gregory Meeks told reporters Tuesday.

Meeks’ comments come after he told Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday night he was planning to send a letter to the Biden administration asking for a delay in a recently approved US$735 million sale so members could have more time to review it.

“We’re going to have a meeting with the administration tomorrow where the issues and the questions that one may have will be able to be asked, and that was the purpose of considering the letter.”

The administration notified Congress on 5^th May it approved the sale to Israel. The bulk of the deal is for Boeing-made Joint Direct Attack Munitions that can turn so-called dumb bombs into precision-guided missiles.

The notification set off a 15-day congressional review period in which lawmakers could block the sale. But that window is all but closed now with just three days left in the review period.

The approval for the arms sale came five days before Hamas, the militant group that controls the Gaza Strip, began firing rockets toward Israel in response to Israeli police action at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Several Democrats have expressed concern about the administration proceeding with the sale amid the conflict, including Foreign Affairs Committee member Rep. Ilhan Omar, who said it would be “appalling” for the sale to move forward.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Tuesday defended the Biden administration’s approach to the conflict, saying intensive diplomatic discussions behind the scenes are the best means of reducing the violence. 

“The president’s objective is clear, which is that he wants to see an end to the violence on the ground, an end to the suffering of the Israeli and Palestinian people,” Psaki told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.

“Our focus and our strategy here is to work through quiet, intensive diplomacy, and he’s been doing this long enough to know the best way to end an international conflict is typically not to debate it in public.” 

Biden administration officials have conducted more than 60 calls to date with Israelis, Palestinians and other regional officials, Psaki noted, including President Biden’s three calls with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in less than a week.

Biden last spoke with Netanyahu on Monday and expressed support for a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, but stopped short of backing or publicly urging a cease-fire.

“UK should freeze arms sales to Israel”, demands Jeremy Corbyn

UK Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn renewed his call for a British arms embargo against Israel after a United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry said that IDF has likely committed war crimes on the Gaza border.

“The UK government must unequivocally condemn the killings and freeze arms sales to Israel,” Corbyn tweeted on Friday. Last year, the Labour Party approved a motion that called for an arms ban to Israel.

The 22-page report investigated the death of 189 Palestinians by the IDF during the Hamas-led weekly Great March of Return protests which have taken place along the Gaza border.

The UNHRC report was authored by a three-person commission of inquiry, which plans to submit a full report prior to a March 18 debate on the matter at the UNHRC’s 40th session in Geneva.

The report focused primarily on Israeli and not Hamas violence, and concluded that the protests were peaceful. It warned that the International Criminal Court could prosecute Israeli leaders and soldiers.

Last year, the UNHRC passed a resolution which called on all UN member states to halt the sale of any arms to Israel that could be used to violate international human rights law. United States special envoy Jason Greenblatt attacked the UNHRC report on Gaza in a series of tweets.

“This [commission of inquiry] report is another manifestation of the UNHRC’s clear bias against Israel, which remains the only country that the Council dedicates an entire standing agenda item to targeting. When will the HRC speak the truth?” he wrote.

Hamas behaved with reckless irresponsibility [and] disregard for human life when it incited violent (not ‘civilian’) protests, breaches [and] attacks at the Gaza fence-line,” Greenblatt wrote. “Hamas is directly responsible for the miserable situation of the people of Gaza.”

Israel has rejected the report and holds that the protests are violent riots led by Hamas members.

During those riots, Palestinians in Gaza have thrown stones and Molotov cocktails at soldiers. The protesters have attempted to breach the border fence and have placed explosive devices by the fence. Palestinians in Gaza have also launched incendiary devices into Israel, burning thousands of dunams of fields and forests.

Republican lawmakers in the US also spoke out against the report and in support of Israel’s right to self-defense.

Congressman Lee Zeldin, a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations and co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, was among those who issued a statement on the matter.

“This one-sided, highly biased and woefully inaccurate report fails to take into account key facts; most evidently, Hamas’s provocation and orchestration of this violence, its purposeful destabilization of order along the border and its continued incursions into Israel’s sovereign soil, including the launching of over 10,000 rockets and mortars on Israeli towns and villages, and the dozens of tunnels, enabling their death squads, since the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza,” Zeldin wrote.