RABAT (Dispatches) – Passing by Morocco’s ports, it is impossible not to notice Maersk dominating the shipping containers. The heavy presence of the Danish company in the North African country’s harbors might not be overly intriguing, if the international logistics giant was not known for shipping military equipment to the Zionist regime amid its war on Gaza.
Morocco has become a crucial location on the arms route that facilitates shipments of military cargo to the Israeli-occupied territories, especially through Maersk. This includes components of F-35 jets, which have fuelled Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.
A recent report by Declassified UK and the Irish investigative news outlet The Ditch delved into Morocco’s role in transferring the components of F-35 fighter jets via Maersk.
The report specified a shipment in April, saying the jet equipment set sail from the port of Houston, in the United States. Two weeks later, the U.S.-flagged Maersk Detroit arrived in Tangier, Morocco, where the cargo was transferred onto another container ship named Nexoe Maersk.
The shipment travelled through the Mediterranean Sea before arriving at the Israeli-occupied port of Haifa. The military cargo was then transported to the Nevatim air base, a key launchpad for the Israeli air force to bomb Gaza.
When the allegations were made in April, public outrage in Morocco spread. Protesters turned out in the thousands at the ports of Casablanca and Tanger Med, while at least eight dock workers resigned over the contested Maersk shipments.
There are conflicting reports regarding when similar cargos started to dock in the kingdom, but Moroccan ports became an attractive option on the transfer route after two Maersk cargos were prevented from docking in Spain in November due to suspicions that they were carrying weapons to the occupied territories.
Instead, they docked at the Tanger Med port, which also triggered protests in Morocco.
Alejandro Pozo, researcher on peace, armed conflicts and disarmament at Centre Delas, told MEE that arms transfers to Israel via the Spain-Morocco route are considered “regular traffic and have not stopped”, according to the databases that the Spanish independent research center has accessed.
Amid the recent controversy, Maersk released a statement in March saying it “upholds a strict policy of not shipping weapons or ammunition to active conflict zones, ensuring compliance with international regulations”.