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22-12-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
MELBOURNE: Pro-Palestinian protestors have attempted to block an Israeli cargo ship from entering the Yarra River by paddling into its path.
A series of videos show about a dozen demonstrators moving alongside the 41,000-tonne freighter under Melbourne’s West Gate Bridge in the early hours of Thursday.
The ship named Vela, which was carrying containers from Israel-based cargo shipping company Zim, doesn’t appear to stop or move out of the way of protestors as it continued its journey towards the Port of Melbourne.
Police interviewed about 30 kayakers who had conducted a similar protest on December 7, however officers deemed there had been ‘no offences… and the group left the area’.
Some of the mariners can be seen looking over the edge of the ship as they pass by the protestors.
Demonstrators on the riverbank can be heard chanting anti-Israel slogans as one of the kayakers raises his paddle towards the ship’s hull towering over him.
‘Israel out, out, out… From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free… Israel out of Palestine, Israel out of Palestine, Israel out of West Bank,’ the group can be heard chanting.
Zim has faced protests at least once a week since early November while operating in Sydney’s Port Botany or the Port of Melbourne.
Footage from December 7 shows a larger amount of protesters forming a line of kayaks across the Yarra River to stop another Zim ship from passing.
The kayakers held the blockade for about two hours as the ship waited for a tug boat to break through so it could to guide it into port.
Another protest in Sydney on November 11 spearheaded by Palestine Justice Movement Sydney saw a line of protestor on jet skis instead of Kayaks.
Some activists had claimed the vessel would be taking supplies of armaments to be shipped to Middle East for the Israeli Defence Force to use against Hamas in Gaza.
However, a spokesperson for Zim dismissed the claims and said it was simply on its regular run between Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
‘The ships carry all types of Asian consumer products like white goods, textiles and food stuffs,’ a spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.
‘The ship does not carry any arms shipments.’
However, a holiday party hosted by Michigan Democrats spiraled into violence after pro-Palestine activists crashed the event and sent one attendee to the hospital.
‘Them Arabs in motherf***ing Detroit tried to kill me!’ said an activist who sustained two black eyes in the clashes.
On December 16, the 13th Congressional District Democratic Party held a private party at the Common Pub in Detroit, where around 200 people were in attendance.
