Report: BDS claims it forced Israeli-operated ship from Tunisian port

BDS activists took credit for the fact that a Tunisian port turned away a ship allegedly operated by the Israeli company ZIM, which denied it had leased the vessel in question.

By: World Israel News Staff

Last week, an Israeli ship on its way to Spain was denied permission to dock at the Rades Port in Tunisia, according to a report by the Jerusalem Post.

At the port’s entrance, the ship discovered that anti-Israel boycott operatives had threatened to block the port. Port workers also reportedly refuses to process the ship’s cargo, leaving the crew to reroute the vessel to its ultimate destination, Spain.

The events were allegedly set into motion based on the activities of Palestinian trade unions, a local Tunisian union and international boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) operatives.

While BDS activists claimed a victory by turning the vessel away, a ZIM spokesman told the Jerusalem Post that the ship did not belong to it, nor was it rented by the company or carrying any cargo belonging to the company.

TACBI, an organization that promotes anti-Israel boycotts, claimed that ship the “may have made regular stops for several months” in Tunisia, representing part of what it called “an undercover network of Israeli business that attempts to work around the boycott of the State of Israel,” according to a report in Arutz 7.

According to statistics maintained by ZIM, the shipping giant operates 80 vessels in 180 ports of call worldwide, with 170 offices and representatives in over 100 countries.

In addition to the Rades Port incident last week, a Tunisian anti-Israel boycott made the news at the end of July, when a seven-year-old chess champion was barred from competing in the Muslim-majority nation.

Promoters of anti-Israel initiatives such as these, which fall under the BDS umbrella, claim they are using a new tactic to pressure Israel into political concessions regarding the Palestinians.

In reality, the Arab world initiated its first organized boycott of Israel even before the state was established, with the Arab League’s adoption in December 1945 of an official boycott of the pre-state Jewish community in the territory that later became Israel. This boycott was maintained through the mid-1990s.