At the time when Israel, armed, funded and shielded from accountability by the US and other Western powers, continues its live-streamed genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, entrenching its 76-year-old regime of settler-colonialism and apartheid against all Palestinians, and following weeks of rolling massacres in Lebanon, stopping the transfers of supplies that enable Israel to continue its crimes and imposing a comprehensive two-way military embargo on it is more urgent than ever.
UNRWA has affirmed that in the past year, Israel has subjected Gaza to “the most intense bombardment of a civilian population since World War.” By February 2024 they had used over 25,000 tonnes of explosives across the Gaza Strip, equivalent to two nuclear bombs. In the first 10 month of genocide, the US alone transferred over 50,000 tons of military equipment to Israel, including 107 sea shipments.
This is only possible because the Israeli military is able to replenish its ammunition warehouses continuously, receiving arms shipments from the U.S, Germany and other countries, and materials (dual-use items, such as explosives and spare parts) used to produce ammunition and replenish military equipment by Israeli arms companies. The military deliveries have turned shipping companies and Third States into accomplices in Israel’s genocide. They are also fundamental in enabling Israel to maintain its regime of military occupation and apartheid regime, which is illegal, as the International Court of Justice ruled in July 2024.
While air transport and navy vessels are also used, a significant amount of military supplies for Israel’s genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, are shipped via sea on commercial merchant vessels.
Commercial shipping also enables and profits from Israel’s violations of international law by transporting non-military cargo, including, inter alia, construction equipment and material, technological products, and energy supplies. These enable the Israeli military to carry out war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide, and they enable Israel to to maintain and entrench its illegal occupation and apartheid regime, including its colonial settlements and wall.
The growing #BlockTheBoat campaign, led by the BDS movement, aims to block as much as possible the export and transport of military or dual-use equipment to Israel and the import of Israeli military-security materiel. The demand to impose a #MilitaryEmbargo against Israel has gained unprecedented traction among grassroots activists, trade unions, student groups, among others, and is now taken up by the United Nations General Assembly, dozens of UN human rights experts, and a growing number of governments as well. It is urgent that we organize to pressure governments and corporations to take effective and decisive action to stop the direct and indirect transfer of military and dual-use supplies to and from Israel.
In maritime transfer in particular, the supply chain that enables Israeli crimes includes multiple State and corporate actors that are knowingly violating international law. These include:
(1) Flag states
(2) Port authorities
(3) Ship owners
(4) Ship managers and operating companies
(5) Insurance companies
Workers in the ports, on the vessels, in the companies and in the government offices involved, most often without their knowledge and/or willingness, end up being the ones to actually implement the illegal transfers.
What are “Flag States” and what is a “Flag of Convenience”?
No vessel sails without a flag.
International law requires that merchant ships are registered in a host country. Registration in a shipping register gives the ship the right to fly a country’s flag. The ship is then bound to carry the flag of that State and also to follow the rules and regulations enforced by it. Its host country is required to inspect the ship periodically.
For a country to be included in the list of flag States, it has to have the necessary maritime infrastructure – both financial and technical – and should, most importantly, adhere to all the norms and regulations established by the International Maritime Organisations (IMO).
Owners of ships are not obligated to register with the country in which they are headquartered. They can choose a “flag of convenience” (FOC) and register the ship in a different country than the one where they are headquartered, reside or hold citizenship.
According to UNCTAD, almost 73% of the world fleet is flagged in a country other than that of the vessels’ owner. This means that the illegal shipments to Israel are often carried out under flags of countries that did not export the cargo, nor will the vessel ever transit through their seas.
States offering FOC
At least 43 countries worldwide that have been declared FOCs by the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) Fair Practices Committee (a joint committee of ITF seafarers’ and dockers’ unions):
- Antigua and Barbuda; Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Bermuda; Bolivia; Cameroon; Cayman Islands; Comoros; Cook Islands; Curacao; Cyprus; Equatorial Guinea; Eswatini; Faroe Islands; French International Ship Registry (FIS); Gabon; German International Ship Registry (GIS); Georgia; Gibraltar; Honduras; Jamaica; Lebanon; Liberia; Malta; Madeira; Marshall Islands; Mauritius; Moldova; Mongolia; Myanmar; North Korea; Palau; Panama; San Marino; Sao Tome and Príncipe; Sierra Leone; St Kitts and Nevis; St Vincent; Sri Lanka; Tanzania (Zanzibar); Togo; Vanuatu.
In the total amount of tonnage shipped worldwide, Panamá and Liberia lead the flags of registration.
Many States are not listed as FOC but also offer flags on the market to shipments from other countries.
Illegal transfers to Israel and the Obligations of Flag States
A flag State is entrusted with the responsibility to exercise effective jurisdiction and control over vessels flying its flag. This relationship is governed by international law, primarily by Article 94 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which enshrines a clear set of rights and duties for the flag State.
- Regulatory Control: The flag State has the right to inspect, detain, and regulate ships flying its flag to ensure compliance with national and international regulations.
- Ensuring Compliance with International Law: The flag State is responsible for ensuring its ships comply with international conventions.
- Exercising Effective Control: The flag State has a duty to exercise effective control over its ships to prevent ships from engaging in unlawful acts.
The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) clarifies that States Parties have the obligation to deny arms exports if they “know” that the arms “would” be used to commit international crimes, or if there is an “overriding risk” that the arms transferred “could” be used to commit serious violations of international humanitarian law. Under Article 6(3) of the ATT, States Parties undertake not to authorize any transfer of arms if they have knowledge that those would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes.
On January 26 2024, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) declared there is a plausible genocide being carried out by Israel against the Palestinian people in Gaza. Moreover, in its Advisory Opinion in July, the ICJ determined that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), including its military occupation and settlements, is unlawful and must be brought to an end as rapidly as possible. The Court has found that Israel’s policies and practices breach the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination. The inaction and direct complicity of most States will only reinforce the status quo, which means the continued denial of the Palestinian people its right to self-determination and the prevalence of an international order based on “might make right,” not the rule of law.
The UNHRC resolution A/HRC/55/L.30 of April 5, 2024 “calls upon all States to cease the sale, transfer and diversion of arms, munitions and other military equipment to Israel, the occupying Power, in order to prevent further violations of international humanitarian law and violations and abuses of human rights, and to refrain, in accordance with international norms and standards, from the export, sale or transfer of surveillance goods and technologies and less-lethal weapons, including “dual-use” items, when they assess that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that such goods, technologies or weapons might be used to violate or abuse human rights.”
Statements by dozens of UN human rights experts are calling for a military embargo on Israel due to its illegal occupation and its commission of a plausible genocide against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza, as the ICJ determined earlier this year.
The UN General Assembly’s resolution of September 13, 2024 calls upon all States: “To take steps towards ceasing […] the provision or transfer of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power.”
On November 4, 2024, over 50 States signed a letter initiated by Turkey to the UN Secretary General, demanding “immediate steps to be taken to halt the provision of arms, munitions and related equipment to Israel, the occupying Power” and asserting that “Decisive actions are urgently needed to stop this dangerous trajectory, to end impunity and ensure accountability for all violations, in line with obligations under international law.” This was reiterated during the resolution of the emergency Arab Islamic summit on November 12, which called on “all countries to ban the export or transfer of weapons and ammunition to Israel” and urged for more countries to join the Turkish initiative.
Our Call to Action:
We call on civil society across the world, and particularly in States issuing Flags of Convenience, to raise awareness and mobilize pressure to ensure their governments take immediate action and issue and enforce regulations that include:
I. Investigation:
- Investigate without delay all vessels where reasonable suspicion arises that they may be involved in illegal, direct and indirect transfers to/from Israel, disclose the cargo bills, and in case the cargo may be illegal, stop it from being delivered to its final destination.
- Deflag without delay any vessel that is in breach of the State’s obligation under international law.
II. Due diligence:
- In line with their obligations under international law, immediately put in place stringent measures of due diligence and issue clear ordinances to ban the provision of flags to vessels that are involved in direct or indirect transfer of supplies to Israel that aid or assist its genocidal acts, illegal occupation, or the perpetration of the crime against humanity of apartheid. In particular:
- Weapons, military and dual use equipment or fuel potentially used for military purposes with end destination Israel or its military industries or relevant companies.
- Weapons, military and dual use equipment produced by the Israeli military and “security” industry as it directly sustains Israel’s military capacity and therefore banning its import is an essential part of a military embargo.
- Goods that originate from Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
- Goods that imply recognition of, or render aid or assistance for Israel in its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory.
- Ensure compliance with the ordinances through a thorough and transparent review of the shipping documentation, export and import licenses and end user certificates, and install a system of heightened control of “vessels of interest,” including shipping companies/routes/vessels/specifically categorized as having been involved in carrying suspicious cargo.
III. Accountability:
- Comply with their obligation to ensure accountability, including through ensuring that if companies under their flag/jurisdiction were involved in illegal transfers to Israel they are held legally accountable.
IV. Cooperation:
- Cooperate in the setting up and maintenance of an international alert system to ensure swift due diligence, alert and control.
We call in particular on seafarer trade unions to mobilize to ensure not only that their countries are not complicit in Israel’s genocide and its regime of illegal occupation and apartheid, but also that their colleagues and workers on the vessels are not, without their prior knowledge and consent, put in the situation where they actually become the ones to implement the illegal transfer of weapons and military supplies for Israel’s genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation.
Our context-sensitive approach
For States to comply fully with their basic obligations under international law, they must take immediate and concrete steps to stop shipping to Israel all of the four levels of merchandise below.
Nevertheless, as always, the global BDS movement takes a gradual, sustainable, and context-sensitive approach to our campaigning. Pressure your government to incorporate at least one and as many as possible into a policy for the flag registered under their jurisdiction:
Level 1: Direct and indirect transfer of weapons, military and dual use equipment or fuel/energy potentially used for military purposes with end destination Israel, its military industries, or other relevant companies.
Level 2: Transfer of weapons, military and dual use equipment produced by Israeli military and “security” industry, as it directly sustains Israel’s military capacity and therefore banning its import is an essential part of a military embargo.
Level 3: Transfer of goods that originate from Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
Level 4: Transfer to and from Israel of goods that imply recognition of, or render aid or assistance for Israel in its illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories.
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