Pro-Palestinian protesters in Melbourne, one of Australia's major cities, blocked the Victorian International Container Terminal (VICT) and the Port of Melbourne on Monday (Jan. 22), targeting the Israeli-owned shipping company ZIM, which has been trying to unload cargo.
Local media cited a shipping insider claiming that businesses within the port have incurred losses in the multiple millions of dollars after protesters successfully prevented a ZIM ship from unloading and forced it to anchor offshore.
According to Victoria Police, protesters' activities "escalated in recent days," prompting them to make a proportionate response, such as increasing their presence and using pepper spray toward aggressive protesters.
Free Palestine Melbourne, the group organizing the protests, said in its statement that its aim was to "[block] worker shifts from entering the terminal and stranding four ships with 30,000 containers."
Mohammed Helmy, one of the group's leaders, also told the Middle East Eye that the protest and blockade was a message to the state government of Victoria that the people of Melbourne were "not happy with ZIM ships being loaded from the Melbourne port."
Shipping Insider Admits Protests Sting Businesses
Police told News Corp that they have arrested 10 people on trespass and criminal damage charges after the VICT requested their assistance in keeping protesters out of the premises.
"I work in the freight industry and we currently have one effective port in Melbourne now that VICT has been blocked by protest," the insider wrote as part of messages shared by local radio station 3AW. "All of these issues combined stretching into next week will have (a) very debilitating impact."
The insider added that there should be rules that protesters should not shut down major infrastructure as the current protests have already cost businesses millions of dollars.
Police said that they offered to assist workers at the VICT and the Port of Melbourne to enter the terminals "to and from work via alternate routes," which the workers initially declined until Sunday afternoon (Jan. 21).
According to The Age, VICT CEO Bruno Porchietto also supported police intervention as the demonstration prevented at least six vessels from different countries from operating out of the port.
The industry insider also pointed out that the pro-Palestine protest was just the latest setback for Australia's shipping ports after the Maritime Union of Australia conducted a strike against port operator DP World last year.
