Pod Save America Hosts Call on Democrats to Cut All Israel Military Aid, No Longer Accept AIPAC Funding
Jews, Israelis Targeted in Austria Amid Surge in Antisemitic Incidents; Local Jewish Community Calls for Action
‘All of Our Strength’: Over 1,000 Pro-Israel Activists Gather in DC for Solidarity Conference
‘Devastated’: Wesley LePatner, Killed in Manhattan Mass Shooting, Was a Jewish Communal, Philanthropic Leader
Sen. Angus King Vows to No Longer Vote for Israel Military Aid Until Gaza Conditions Improve
Europe Won’t Pressure Israel to ‘Commit Suicide’ Amid Gaza Backlash, Palestinian State Push, Says Israeli FM
Israel’s National Soccer Coach Attacked in Athens Before Soccer Fans Chant ‘F–K Israel, Free Palestine’ at Match
New York Judge Sentences Neo-Nazi to 5 Years for Livestreaming Bomb Threats Against Jewish Hospitals
US Pressures Lebanon to Issue Cabinet Decision to Disarm Hezbollah Before Talks Continue
UK Plans to Recognize Palestinian State in September Unless Israel Meets Conditions, Starmer Says
Bay Area Labor Union to Weigh Endorsing BDS, Blocking of Israeli Ships at Port
by Dion J. Pierre
‘Block the Boat’ protestors in Vancouver on June 8, 2021. Twitter.
Weeks after a group of Bay Area longshoremen helped prevent an Israeli ship from unloading in Oakland, a 100,000-strong San Francisco Labor Council plans to vote on becoming the latest union to endorse the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The Labor Council, an AFL-CIO affiliate, will vote on a resolution to back BDS against “apartheid in Israel” and to “stand in solidarity with dockworkers in Italy, South Africa, the US West Coast, and elsewhere, who have refused to handle military equipment and weapons and other cargo destined for Israel.”
The motion was proposed on June 14 by 19 members of its delegate assembly, and may come up for a vote as soon as August 9, reported the local Jewish news outlet J.
In addition to the call for a boycott of Israel, it praised the Block the Boat campaign, a protest effort organized by the Bay Area-based Arab Resource and Organizing Center (AROC) that aims to prevent Israeli ships from docking and unloading in cargo ports.
On June 4, dockworkers representing the Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 10 (ILWU) — several members of which signed the San Francisco Labor Council BDS resolution — helped AROC protesters turn away a ship owned by Israel’s ZIM International Shipping from unloading at the Port of Oakland.
Claiming “thousands” of supporters, AROC said the workers had “honored the 6 simultaneous community pickets during both the morning and evening shifts, and did not work the ship.”
Two weeks later, the same ZIM ship was able to successfully dock at a port in British Columbia, Canada, after a temporary delay due to Block the Boat protests.
