The trigger is in Yemen, but the crosshairs to identify sensitive targets, suspected of any connection with Israel, are online where the BDS National Committee (BNC) has relaunched in recent weeks a campaign aimed at identifying and obviously reporting, in fact also to the Houthi rebels, cargo ships suspected of heading towards Israel or even of having had any kind of frequentation of Israeli ports or of being owned by shipowners or charterers linked, even in distant generations, to interests of the Jewish state.
The uniqueness of the campaign, called “Block the Boat”, consists in the singularity of the method to identify the ships to be hit: in the field, with the coordination of BDS, the following have been deployed and are being used: anti-Israel activists in several countriesor pro-Pal associations that have within them individuals capable of reporting and analyzing the routes of the ships, the cargoes they carry, but also the respective flag owners or the headquarters of the companies that manage, even on a rental basis, the merchant vessels.
Mobilization online to block ships
Several organizations joined the campaign along the route. In Portugal, the Joint Platform of Solidarity with Palestine in Portugal (PUSP) called on activists to ask the Portuguese government to “remove the flag” from the shipwhile groups in Slovenia and Montenegro have been encouraged to pressure their governments to block the ship from entering their ports or search it once it docks. BDS Malaysia has also joined the campaign against the MV Kathrin, filing a complaint with local police, claiming that the ship’s operator, Ocean 7 Project, has its regional headquarters in Kuala Lumpur.
And – according to reports in the Israeli press – a prominent promoter of the campaign was United Nations Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanesewhich joined calls to put pressure on European governments and impose an arms embargo on Israel, warning that any cooperation with the suspect vessel could lead to a violation of the Genocide Convention and other United Nations resolutions.
A platform for terrorists
According to a 2019 report published by the now-defunct Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy, the BDS National Committee (BNC) comprises 28 Palestinian groups, one of the most important of which is the Council of National and Islamic Forces in Palestine (PNIF). It is a coalition of Palestinian factions, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)all designated as terrorist groups by various countries around the world.
The campaigns’ path is always the same: first create a media echo supported by public statements also headed by the United Nations, promote inspections on the ships, and in the case of a departure of the same, publicly report them. Even to those who could put them in their sights.
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