The shipping company Evergreen became the target of protests after it became known that the container ship “Ever Golden” was transporting supplies for the Israeli military.
In the past, other shipping companies with links to Israel have also come under fire.
On July 3, activists from the “Taiwan Alliance for a Free Palestine” protested outside the headquarters of Evergreen Marine Corporation in Taipei after it became known that the Taiwanese shipping company’s 20,000 TEU ship, the “Ever Golden”, was transporting military-grade steel products for the Israeli military.
The “Ever Golden” is now on its way to Piraeus, Greece, and is expected to arrive there on July 10. There, the goods loaded in Singapore will be transhipped in the Israeli port of Haifa. It is believed that the steel products were manufactured in India and transhipped from the Indian port of Nhava Sheba to Singapore.
The activists demanded that the ship stop transporting goods that support Israel’s armed activities in the Gaza Strip and threatened to file a complaint with the Taiwanese Ministry of Transport and Communications.
Criticism of Maersk and Zim
This is not the first time that shipping companies have been criticized – directly or indirectly – for transporting goods to Israel. In June, the Palestinian youth movement declared its year-long “Mask off Maersk” campaign, which was directed against Maersk’ s shipments from abroad, a success. Finally, Maersk announced that it would end its business relations with Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The Israeli shipping company Zim was also inevitably targeted due to its origins. In December 2023, the Malaysian government banned Zim ships from calling at the Southeast Asian country’s ports.
Yixiang Shi, a researcher at Taiwan’s Human Rights Commission, accused Evergreen of complicity in Israel’s “alleged atrocities” in Palestine and called on the Ministry of Economic Affairs to put the shipping company in its place.
In a statement to HANSA, Evergreen said: “Evergreen’s responsibility extends solely to the transportation of the shipment, which was properly declared and loaded in accordance with the contract with the shipper. The company is therefore not involved in the sale or final use of the goods contained in a shipment.”
