12/11/2023 Several hundred pro-Palestinian protesters have converged on the Port of Botany in Sydney, claiming to have forced an Israeli cargo ship to reschedule its arrival.
Protesters waved flags and chanted from the shore, while others yelled from jetskis on the water where the ship Contship Dax, owned by Israeli company ZIM, was due to arrive at midday.
Saturday’s rally is the sixth in the city since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza conflict on October 7, when a terrorist attack by Hamas killed about 1,200 Israelis — a figure recently revised down from 1,400 by Israel’s foreign ministry.
During this period, at least 11,078 Palestinians, including 4,506 children, have been killed in Israeli retaliatory attacks, according to Gaza health authorities.
Protest organisers, the Palestine Justice Movement for Sydney and Trade Unionists for Palestine, said the action was the “first step of the campaign against the Israeli shipping line ZIM”.
They claim the international company is a transporter of weapons to Israel.
The ship was not in port when protesters arrived and It is understood the schedule was changed after the rally was announced.
NSW Police on foot and on horseback patrolled the area, but no port operations were blocked.
Last week, demonstrators stopped trucks by standing on a road at Melbourne’s Webb Dock, where another ZIM ship was due to arrive.
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