Tag Archives: Israeli Palestinian Conflict

Activists Delay Ship Operated by Israeli Firm ZIM From Unloading at Port of Seattle

by Guy Oron

The Seattle Globalist was a daily online publication that covered the connections between local and global issues in Seattle. The Emerald is keeping alive its legacy of highlighting our city’s diverse voices by regularly publishing and re-publishing stories aligned with the Globalist’s mission. 


On Saturday morning, June 12, around 250 protestors rallied on Harbor Island to block the Port of Seattle from unloading cargo from an Israeli shipping company’s vessel, the ZIM San Diego. Gathering at 5:30 a.m., protestors marched to the entrance of Terminal 18 and blocked the road, disrupting traffic for about an hour. 

After an hour, protestors declared victory after hearing from sources within the longshore workers’ union that the ship would not be worked on that day.

Organizers are targeting ZIM as part of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) for its role in supporting the state of Israel. The company, once owned by the state, is now a publicly traded corporation and is the tenth largest shipping company in the world.

The BDS movement aims to isolate the state of Israel and complicit corporations economically and politically until it upholds equal rights for the Palestinian citizens of Israel, ends the military occupation Palestine and the siege of Gaza, and guarantees the right of return for Palestinian refugees displaced from their homes. ZIM, along with a number of other companies, is on the boycott list. 

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OPINION: Stop Equating the State of Israel With the Jewish People

by Wendy Elisheva Somerson

(This is one of three essays from local community members that the Emerald will be publishing on this topic.)


In a recent spate of local op-eds, Jewish institutional leaders are once again accusing local pro-Palestine protesters of antisemitism, but as a Jewish resident of Seattle who has attended many gatherings protesting the state of Israel’s violent actions, I want to offer a different perspective.

We must, once and for all, get clear that Jews, a diverse and diasporic people, hold and have always held a variety of opinions about Zionism, and that we, as Jews, cannot and will not be made synonymous with the Israeli state.

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OPINION: The Palestinian Uprisings in Jerusalem Hit Close To Home In Seattle

by Alia Taqieddin

(This is one of three essays from local community members that the Emerald will be publishing on this topic.)


Last week, the world watched as 22-year-old Muna El Kurd — in a viral video from her family’s home in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem — confronted Yacoub, a Brooklyn-raised Zionist settler who has forcibly taken residence in the El Kurd family’s garage since 2009. 

“If I don’t steal your home, someone else will,” Yacoub said, gesturing matter-of-factly at Muna and her family members. 

As disturbing as this justification is, it reflects the reality that, since 1948, Zionist settlers have been stealing Palestinian’s homes and land. Forced expulsions have been commonplace across Occupied Palestine since the expulsion of 750,000 Indigenous Palestinians from our homes during the 1948 Nakba, which established the settler state of Israel. They continue this project of ethnic cleansing today in Sheikh Jarrah, in the neighboring villages of Silwan and the South Hebron Hills, and across Palestine.

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