Protest demand Jacksonville Port Authority break ties with apartheid Israel

Jacksonville, FL – On Saturday, March 22, over 200 community members gathered to protest the genocide carried out by Israel after it violated the ceasefire on March 18. Community members protested in the town center, on one of Jacksonville’s busiest streets, to demand an end to U.S. aid to Israel and call for the Jacksonville Port Authority to end its contracts with two shipping companies, Maersk and ZIM.

The shipping giant Maersk is among the wealthiest in the world. While they recently denied shipping arms to Israel, records show they have shipped millions of dollars’ worth of military cargo since the attack on Gaza began in 2023. ZIM is Israel’s largest and oldest shipping company, a direct supporter and facilitator of the occupation and genocide in Palestine.

The Jacksonville Port Authority has refused to answer organizers’ calls to end their complicity in the genocide since the Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network (JPSN) took up their Genocide Out of Jaxport campaign last October. A leading Palestinian JPSN organizer said, “After the people of Gaza were finally able to poke their head above water for a fragile gasp of air, they are again drowning in the blood that is Zionism. At the same time, we are witnessing a new level of destruction and settler violence in the West Bank. We must not slow down our fight, we must continue to reach people from different areas of Jacksonville and bridge the connection of our suffering!”

On April 5, JPSN plans to take their action directly to Jacksonville’s Dames Point Terminal, where Maersk and ZIM operate, as part of the national week of action for Palestinian Land Day called by the Anti War Action Network (AWAN). Speaking to the crowd, Ryan Delaney of AWAN’s steering committee said, “If you take one thing home with your today, let it be this: if that port in your own backyard stops shipping with Maersk and ZIM, that disrupts the killing of Palestinians from being killed. If we can stop them, we can save lives, and we can stop them, because when we fight, we win!”

The action was called by Jacksonville Palestine Solidarity Network, and answered by a broad coalition of organizations, including American Muslims for Palestine, Jacksonville Community Action Committee, Students for a Democratic Society, Jacksonville Immigrant Rights Alliance, and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization.

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