Press release of the No Harbor for Genocide campaign in Cyprus
Every two months, tankers dock in Mediterranean ports on their way from the US to Israel. They carry most of Israel’s supplies of fighter jet fuel. The last cargo departed Corpus Christi, Texas on July 15, 2024, with final destination Ashkelon, Israel. With the current siege in Rafah and the massacres in violation of the recent International Court of Justice ruling, it is now more critical than ever to understand how Israel is fuelling itself to carry out genocide. Recent reports investigating fuel to Israel reveal a steady supply of military jet fuel to Israel from the United States well before October 7, 2024. Since 2014 to date, the Overseas Sun Coast and Overseas Santorini tankers have transported millions of barrels of military-grade fuel from Valero Energy for use in Israeli F16 fighter jets under a U.S. government agreement with Israel. Their usual route for transporting JP-8 fuel from Valero’s Corpus Christi refinery in Texas to Israel’s Port Ashkelon includes stops in Limassol. Each shipment carries about 300,000 barrels of fuel – capable of refuelling an F-16 fighter jet about 12,000 times.
Building on the call for an arms embargo, UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese called on the international community to immediately impose oil sanctions and an arms embargo against Israel: “At this point, Israel has breached its international obligations to the extent that it justifies the urgent application of immediate and unconditional sanctions, which should first and foremost entail an arms and oil embargo,” Francesca Albanese said during a press conference on Thursday. Solidarity groups have launched an international campaign called No Harbour for Genocide in a joint effort to prevent the transfer of cargoes that would fuel the ongoing genocide of Palestinians. The campaign calls on all Mediterranean port cities to refuse to allow the tankers Overseas Santorini and Overseas Sun Coast to dock at their facilities and calls on states to comply with their obligations under the Genocide Convention, to refuse to be complicit in genocide and to prevent it, particularly following Israel’s violation of the International Court of Justice’s 24 May order to immediately cease operations in Gaza. The people of Cyprus stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine and demand that the Christodoulides government refrain from any involvement in the worst genocide of the century.
NO TO DOCKING OF SHIPS WITH CARGO DESTINED FOR THE MURDER OF PALESTINIANS
NO COOPERATION WITH GENOCIDAL ISRAEL
Signed:
- United for Palestine
- Genocide Free Cyprus
- AFOA
- Far Right Watch Cy
- Imitative against the Fascist Threat
- NEDA
- ANATROPI
- DIEM25
- Alliance against the Far-right, Fascism and Racism
- Cyprus Peace Council
