Photo: Malta Ship RegistryWith a Malta-flagged vessel set to complete a delivery of military-grade steel to an Israeli arms manufacturer shortly, Ġustizzja għall-Palestina have condemned Malta’s failure to act, accusing the country of falling foul of its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
The Malta-flagged Valor, a freighter built in 2013, has now reached the Egyptian port of Abu Qir, near Alexandria.
Its journey is being followed by the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Movement, which reported that the vessel plans to load eight containers of military-grade alloy steel – which originated from India – for transhipment to Israeli firm Banyan Group International.
The BDS Movement reported that Banyan acts as a procurement intermediary for the Israeli military sector, and that available data indicated that the ultimate destination for this material was Israel’s largest arms manufacturer Elbit Systems, the primary supplier of ammunition for the Israeli military.
The shipment is part of a broader consignment of at least four shipments originating from India and linked to the same supply chain, and three of them were held for investigation by the Italian authorities last month.
Malta, however, has so far washed its hands of the matter, an approach that Ġustizzja għall-Palestina – in the name of Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Grupp Newtralita u Paċi, and Front Maltin Inqumu – has strongly condemned.
The steel set to be transported by the Valor is enough to produce 4,250 155m artillery shells, of the type that Israel has used indiscriminately in Gaza over the past 30 months in what is broadly recognised as a genocide by genocide scholars.
It is in this context that Malta is being accused of failing to meet its obligations under the Genocide Convention.
Ġustizzja għall-Palestina had alerted the authorities late last month, only to receive contradictory messages on which Maltese authority is actually responsible.
While it reached out to the Malta Sanction Monitoring Board and the Shipping Registrar, “each authority points to another as responsible,” it exclaimed.
“This raises very grave doubts about the seriousness of Malta’s due diligence regarding human rights violations,” it added.
Ġustizzja għall-Palestina insisted that Malta’s silence on Malta-flagged vessels’ transport of military or dual-use cargo to Israel represented a de facto approval of these shipments “which clearly aid Israel’s genocide in Gaza, its apartheid system, and its illegal occupations of Palestinian stolen land.”
“We call for the illegal transfer of military and dual-use materiel to be prevented through an effective and consistent sanctioning system now and in the future,” it added.
