DON’T MOVE ZIM: ‘Port Workers & Communities for Palestine’ Picket to Block Ammunition Shipments & Call for End to War on Gaza and Iran

March 4, 2026

Instagram: @portworkers4palestine

DON’T MOVE ZIM: ‘Port Workers & Communities for Palestine’ Picket to Block Ammunition Shipments & Call for End to War on Gaza and Iran

ELIZABETH, NJ, March 4, 2026 – ‘Port Workers and Communities for Palestine’ are picketing outside of the Maher Terminal at the Port of Elizabeth to protest the arrival of the ZIM Integrated Shipping Services LTD (ZIM) Virginia.

The picket is part of the #DontMoveZim campaign, which calls on longshore workers of the International Longshoremen’s Association and port truckers to not handle Israeli cargo or do business with Israeli companies. Organizers are mobilizing to block ZIM’s ammunition and weapons shipments in service of Israel’s genocidal campaign on Gaza and to demand an arms embargo on Israel.

ZIM is israel’s largest and oldest shipping company. Research by Progressive International and the Palestinian Youth Movement has shown that the ZIM Virginia is one of ZIM’s shipping lines which carries weapons to Israel from a weapons warehouse in Jersey City. These shipments are only a handful of thousands of shipments by ZIM & Maersk of weapons, weapons components, armored and tactical vehicles, etc. that have already been transported from the Port of Elizabeth.

Port Workers and Communities for Palestine previously protested ZIM Virginia in August 2025, when the boat was docked in Elizabeth and loaded shipments of bullets containing cartridges and bullet case cups destined for Israel. Following a successful boycott of the ship by Italian port workers in February 2026, the same ship is now back to Elizabeth to transport more weapons to Israel.

A spokesperson from Port Workers and Communities for Palestine stated: “We know it is our responsibility to disrupt the flow of arms that fuels the genocidal US-Israeli war machine. We will continue to show up in protest alongside port workers to refuse the movement of this shipment.”

ZIM not only ships military cargo directly responsible for the killing of Palestinians, but also ferries goods of ancillary use including food for Israeli military contractors and components for surveillance technology. ZIM laid the foundation for Israel’s settler colonial project by transporting the earliest settlers to Israel and serving as Israel’s first and main maritime connection. The company’s current CEO, Eli Glickman, a former Israeli naval commando, pledged to deploy all of the company’s vessels, ships, and infrastructure to support and expand Israel’s ongoing extermination campaign.

Today’s action joins over a decade of anti-war port worker organizing in the country. In 2014, with the support of International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU) Local 10, community organizers formed the #BlocktheBoat campaign in Oakland, California and blocked cargo ships operated by ZIM keeping them from returning to that port. In 2021, the #BlocktheBoat NY-NJ campaign held mass pickets against the unloading of the ZIM Tarragona at the Port of Elizabeth.

Organizers from Wednesday’s action also join the broader call for an end to the US and Israeli war on Iran, commenting “As part of our demand for an immediate arms embargo, we condemn the brutal U.S. and Israeli assault on Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza. The US-backed Israeli genocide of the Palestinian people cannot be separated from Israeli expansionism and aggression across the region.”

Port Workers and Communities for Palestine joins people of conscience around the world in heeding the urgent demand from the Palestinian General Federation of Trade Unions. Port Workers and Communities for Palestine remains committed to building sustained pressure and boycotts to end the genocide in Gaza and end to the occupation of Palestine.