Dozens of pro-Palestine activists launched a coordinated caravan demonstration early Friday at New Jersey’s Port of Elizabeth, timed to coincide with the global International Day of Action of Dockworkers, to condemn alleged complicity by shipping and logistics firms in what they describe as the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Many participants displayed bold signs reading “Zim ships death,” a reference to Israel’s oldest and largest shipping corporation, which protesters claim transports weapons components bound for Israeli military forces.
Organized by Palestinian refugee advocacy group Pal-Awda alongside the collective Port Workers and Communities for Palestine, the action kicked off at 5 a.m. when demonstrators taped protest signage to their personal vehicles before forming a long, coordinated convoy that circled the port’s perimeter for hours. The procession drew waves of supportive honks from passing port truck drivers, but also drew a sustained police presence that tailed and flanked the caravan from early morning through late Friday before dispersals began. This marks the latest in a three-year series of targeted actions at the Port of Elizabeth, where activists have repeatedly protested purported arms shipments transiting the facility en route to Israel, including cargo they allege contains pallets of bullets, cartridge casings, and munition components.
Pal-Awda representatives confirmed to Middle East Eye that the New Jersey action is part of a coordinated global mobilization spanning over 100 ports across 22 countries, with organizers projecting the day could see the largest coordinated dockworker work stoppage in recorded history if a critical mass of labor unions opt to participate. The group’s spokesperson explained the campaign’s core goal is to empower rank-and-file dock and port workers to leverage their collective labor power, strikes, and work refusals to disrupt what they call the global “machinery of death” that fuels conflict not just in Gaza, but across Yemen, Iran, Lebanon, Venezuela, Cuba, and other regions targeted by Western military and economic pressure.
Dawood, a 29-year veteran Port of Elizabeth employee who drove his Palestine-decorated blue Subaru in the convoy, said he felt morally compelled to join the action even though port staff are typically not informed of the contents of sealed shipping containers. “We show up here just to earn a living, but that doesn’t excuse looking away from what is being shipped out from under our watch,” he shared. “Any person with a conscience has a duty to stand for what is right, even when it runs counter to their own immediate self-interest.”
The action is part of the broader #DontMoveZIM campaign launched by Port Workers and Communities for Palestine, which has spent years lobbying members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, including port truckers and longshore crews, to formally refuse to handle all Israeli-linked cargo. 77-year-old activist Linden Jenkins, who drove four hours to join Friday’s convoy, was among a group of demonstrators arrested earlier this year during a port entrance blockade where protesters chained themselves to vehicles to block access to the facility. She told Middle East Eye she has grown deeply frustrated with mainstream U.S. progressive movements that rely heavily on symbolic rallies, vigils and marches that rarely deliver concrete policy demands and are routinely ignored by elected officials. Jenkins emphasized that escalating to targeted, supply-chain-disrupting direct action is the only viable path to halt the flow of deadly weapons and surveillance technology that fuels human rights abuses, from occupied Palestine and war-torn Sudan to domestic U.S. agencies including ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, which she accuses of eroding remaining democratic norms in the country.
‘Machinery of death’: Dock workers worldwide protest against arms shipments to Israel
