Steel shipment from the port of Barcelona to Israel's main arms manufacturer canceled

BarcelonaThe shipment of 122 tons of steel that was scheduled to be sent from the port of Barcelona to Israel's main arms manufacturer has finally been cancelled, according to sources at the port confirmed to ARA. The shipment, containing material from the Basque steel company Sidenor, destined for Israel Military Industries (IMI), He was due to board a ship bound for the Israeli port of Haifa on July 1., was never loaded and will not be loaded next week, the same sources claim. The cancellation comes after protests from unions and solidarity movements with the Palestinian people and the filing of a complaint by the Palestinian Community of Catalonia against the steelmaker and the carrier before the National Court for two alleged crimes of smuggling and complicity in genocide.

When contacted by ARA, Sidenor declined to comment and neither confirmed nor denied the cancellation of the shipment nor whether it will be carried out through another port. The steelmaker announced on July 1 that it was "suspending the sale of steel" to Israel following the controversy. IMI is a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, the Israeli government-owned company that is the main manufacturer of weapons for its military, according to the documentation provided in the complaint. Since August 2024 (eight months after the UN International Court of Justice opened proceedings against the State of Israel, accused of the crime of genocide), the steelmaker has allegedly shipped 1,207 tons of steel to the Israeli arms manufacturer.

The complaint recalls that the marketing of steel for military use requires administrative authorization from the Spanish government. Pedro Sánchez's government has frequently asserted that it has not authorized any new export operations of defense material to Israel since October 7, 2023. It is in this sense that the complainants, who demanded the suspension and inspection, also saw a possible crime of smuggling.

The Palestinian Community and the Stop Arms Trade with Israel campaign are calling on the Spanish authorities to inspect another ship linked to the shipping company itself, the Zim Iberia, which is scheduled to sail from Barcelona on July 15th bound for Haifa, via Valencia. They also want the government to "take the necessary measures to ensure that this steel, nor any other military or dual-use cargo from Spanish ports, reaches Israel." And they demand that the Sánchez government impose a formal comprehensive arms embargo on Israel.

When the controversy erupted, Barcelona City Council reminded the president of the Port of Barcelona, ​​​​José Alberto Carbonell, that the municipal plenary session approved an institutional declaration in May urging the prevention of ships involved in arms trafficking with Israel from docking in the Catalan capital.