موقع وجه أفريقيا موقع وجه أفريقيا هو موقع مهتم بمتابعة التطورات في القارة الأفريقية
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More than 1,000 people protested Sunday in the Moroccan port city of Tangier against the planned docking of a Danish vessel said to be carrying fighter jet parts to Israel. The French CGT union claims no such weapons have been found.
Dockworkers and organisations supporting Palestinians in Gaza said in separate statements that the Maersk vessel was transporting spare parts for F-35 warplanes from the United States to Israel, and was due to dock in Tangier on Sunday.
A crowd of around 1,500 people chanted, “The people want the ship banned,” and “No genocidal weapons in Moroccan waters” as they marched down a road alongside the Tanger Med container port, correspondents from the AFP news agency reported.
The accusations against Maersk followed an investigation by Declassified UK, based on cargo data it reviewed.
“Goods from US Air Force Plant 4 in Fort Worth are being transported to Haifa port in Israel on two Maersk container ships between 5 April and 1 May, and then a separate company will courier them by land to Nevatim air base”, Declassified wrote.
The Danish company denies transporting weapons or ammunition to Israel, though it has a contract with the US government and has previously acknowledged shipments that “contain military-related equipment” derived from “US-Israeli security cooperation”.
Inspections of the Nexoe Maersk’s cargo have, so far, not confirmed the presence of any weapons, according to Moroccan online media Yabiladi.
The website cited a statement by the CGT General Union of Dock Workers and Port Personnel of the Gulf of Fos: “All containers have been checked, nothing to report, no weapons, no parts” aboard the Nexoe Maersk.
An end to diplomatic ties
The protesters in Tangier also called for the severing of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel, which were normalised in 2020 as part of the US-led Abraham Accords.
There have been several large-scale demonstrations in Morocco demanding ties with Israel be cut since the start of its war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October 2023.
On 6 April several thousand people demonstrated in the capital Rabat against the conflict in the Gaza Strip.
Israel and Morocco to ‘normalize’ ties, Western Sahara will pay the price
The North African kingdom has officially called for “the immediate, complete and permanent halt to the Israeli war on Gaza”, but has not publicly discussed reversing normalisation.
The Israel-Hamas conflict began after Palestinian militants attacked communities in southern Israel on 7 October, 2023, killing 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
The death toll since the war erupted now stands at more than 50,000, according to the Gaza health ministry.
