More appeals for Portugal to withdraw flag from MV Kathrin
The Portuguese-flagged cargo ship carrying explosive material for Israel is days from docking in port in Montenegro, from which point the cargo will be transported to an arms manufacturer.
Time is running out for the Portuguese government – which has signed a pledge AGAINST supplying arms to Israel – to act in the only way it can to remove itself from this conundrum, by withdrawing the Portuguese flag.
The MV Kathrin is not Portuguese owned: it is owned by German company Concord Shipping, based in Jork near Hamburg.
Numerous voices have been speaking out against this situation since August when Namibia refused the Kathrin permission to dock in its port, precisely because of its cargo.
Today – as Israel is reportedly preparing a ground assault on Lebanon – the United Nations Special Rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, has called on the Portguese government once more to ‘urgently request the removal’ of the Portuguese flag from the ship ‘Kathrin’.
“Over the past year, I have praised Portugal’s principled stance on Palestine, especially in the face of the hypocrisy shown by many other European countries. I now implore the Portuguese government to preserve this integrity and to urgently request the removal of its flag from the ship ‘Kathrin’, since it is carrying weapons destined for Israel”, she writes over social network X.
Left Bloc (BE) coordinator Mariana Mortágua recently delivered a petition signed by 3,000 people to the Council of Ministers building in Lisbon calling for the removal of the Portuguese flag from the ship which is specifically carrying “material to manufacture weapons in Israel”.
BE has also submitted a report to the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in which it asks the Public Prosecutor’s Office to “monitor and prevent Portugal from being accused internationally of complicity in genocide”.
A hearing of the Minister of State and Foreign Affairs, Paulo Rangel, on this subject is scheduled for October 15 – but by this date the whole issue will be a ‘fait accompli’: the Kathrin’s cargo will have been unloaded: the ‘weapons’ will almost certainly have arrived in Israel – withdrawing the flag at such a juncture could not stop Portugal being ‘complicit’, in the eyes of human rights campaigners.
Says Francesa Albanese: “After recognising the plausibility of #genocide in Gaza in Jan 2024, the #ICJ has subsequently made crystal-clear that all states are under an obligation “to respect and to ensure respect” for the Genocide Convention “in all circumstances”, and that states have “international obligations relating to the transfer of arms to parties to an armed conflict”.
“Imposing an #ArmsEmbargo on Israel, which continues to commit acts of genocide in #Gaza, is one of such legal obligations as also recalled by the #HumanRightsCouncil this year.
“European law cannot supersede international law, particularly amid atrocities. To do otherwise would compromise the supremacy of international law.
“Portuguese friends, by standing together in firm defense of international law, we can stop this genocide and restore humanity and peace for Palestinians, Israelis, and beyond”, she appealed, ending the post with: “Juntos nós podemos” (Together, we can).
In spite of the days counting down now to Kathrin’s arrival in Europe, the Portuguese government has been agonisingly slow in its response.
Last Thursday, Presidency Minister António Leitão Amaro said that the government was analysing the legal possibility of withdrawing the Portuguese flag from the ship.
At the end of August, following questions raised by BE and PCP communists, Paulo Rangel said that the cargo ship ‘Kathrin’ was carrying explosives and not weapons, that it had a Portuguese flag but was German and that it was not going to Israel.
This was all ‘nit-picking’ in as much as in interview with Público and Rádio Renascença last week, Minister Paulo Rangel admitted that the ship’s final destination was Montenegro and Slovenia and the material it was carrying would be used in arms factories in Poland, Slovakia and Israel.
As a result, BE has said Paulo Rangel “will go down in history as the ferryman of the bombs causing the genocide of the Palestinian people”, while PCP communists have simply accused him of political manoeuvering.
Whatever the insults, the truth is MV Kathrin still flies the Portuguese flag, and is days away from delivering material that will go into the fabrication of weapons to be used in a conflict for which the world is fast running out of patience and understanding.
Source material: LUSA
