South African dockers protest Israeli goods
South African dockworkers are threatening to boycott the unloading of any Israeli cargo to protest Israel’s recent military campaign in the Gaza Strip, AP reported Wednesday.
The report cited comments from Randall Howard, general secretary of the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union, who said dockworkers would refuse to unload any cargo determined to originate from Israel.
“If it’s an Israeli product, we’re going to boycott it, plain and simple,” Howard told the news service.
A spokesman for Israel’s foreign ministry denounced the protest, telling AP that the union has “misread the situation in the Middle East big time.”
Unionized dockworkers last year refused to unload a ship carrying weapons from Zimbabwe in protest of the President Robert Mugabe’s rule over South Africa’s neighbor.
South African dockers protest Israeli goods