PS Socialists pressure government to get off fence and act
In little more than 48-hours time, the Portuguese flagged vessel carrying explosive material for weapons manufacture by Israel will have delivered its cargo in Montenegro, for onward transport.
In spite of all the entreaties that have taken place for weeks, the Portuguese government has still failed to do the one thing that will take the heat off Portugal in this situation.
All it has to do is remove the Portuguese flag from the MV Kathrin.
Then, German owners Concord Shipping will be the only ‘guilty party’ in this tawdry picture that has seen other countries refuse the vessel permission to berth.
“This situation puts the whole world’s eyes on Portugal and its government”, says a petition delivered today in parliament by Socialist MPs, adding: “The bloody drama into which the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the Middle East have been dragged needs to come to an end, quickly” – not that withdrawing the flag can hasten this result, but it can, in campaigners’ eyes, remove Portugal from the stain of complicity in genocide.
For now, the Portuguese government still has 48 hours to make a decision.
The petition delivered today, addressed to Minister of State and Foreign Affairs Paulo Rangel states that the Kathrin, carrying explosive material destined for Israel, Poland and Slovakia, “left Vietnam with eight containers of Hexogen/RDX explosives and 60 containers of TNT’ and has already been prevented from docking in Namibia and, more recently, in Angola”.
Socialist MPs recall that Rangel announced in June that the Portuguese government had given “an unfavourable opinion on any arms exports to Israel” – a statement they now find “difficult to reconcile with the passive acceptance of the transport of this type of material on Portuguese-flagged ships”.
Last week, the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, “implored” the Portuguese state to withdraw the ship’s flag.
Portugal is a state party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and the Geneva Conventions – and in January 2024 the International Court of Justice recognised the plausibility of genocide in Gaza, the UN expert also pointed out, noting that Portugal has “international obligations regarding the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict”.
The PS also wants to understand the role of the Ministry of National Defence, the national authority responsible for licensing imports and exports, transit and passage, “with a view to carrying out acts of international trade in defence-related products”.
MPs question what “procedures and measures the Portuguese government will adopt to ensure that Portuguese-flagged ships do not transport arms, ammunition and other military equipment to Israel” (in future) and how it will “make the control of content carrying Portuguese-flagged ships whose cargoes have war zones as their final destination more efficient?”
They ask: “Has the Portuguese government been contacted or sensitised by other EU member states or NATO allies to prevent the cargo on the MV Kathrin from reaching Israel?”
This case has already prompted a request by the Left Bloc to hear Minister Paulo Rangel in the Foreign Affairs and Portuguese Communities Committee, which has also asked the Public Prosecutor’s Office to “monitor and prevent Portugal from being accused internationally of complicity in genocide”.
On September 19, the Minister for the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, admitted that the government was analysing the legal possibility of withdrawing the Portuguese flag from the ship, but stressed that it was “a complex legal issue”.
It won’t be in little more than 48-hours time.
By Thursday afternoon, the MV Kathrin will not be carrying explosives to be turned into weapons in Israel – but Portugal will still have to explain why it ‘sat on its hands and achieved nothing’ while it was. ND
Source material: LUSA
