Pro-Palestine protesters block Israeli ship from port of Melbourne

Around 4,000 pro-Palestine protesters in Australia's Melbourne rallied on Saturday and Sunday for the 15th week in a row, calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and blocking a major freight terminal.

The protest came amid an ongoing blockade of an Israeli ship at the city dock. 

The blockade at the Port of Melbourne has been ongoing for over two days, starting on Friday, and has prevented an Israeli-owned ship from being unloaded. It resulted in four cargo ships being stranded along with 30,000 containers. 

Mohammed Helmy, one of the protest organisers, told Middle East Eye that the protest and blockade has been effective so far and is intended to pressure the government to take action on the atrocities unfolding in Gaza as a result of Israeli aggression. 

"The action has completely blocked the port at the moment to send a strong message to the government that Melbournians are not happy with Zim ships being loaded from the Melbourne port," he said. 

"Currently, the port is completely blocked from loading and unloading ships and this was possible because of workers' unions support. It is intended to pressure the government to take action and stop the genocide in Gaza," he added.

Helmy said that police presence has been varied, but on Saturday riot squad police used pepper spray to try to disperse protesters but were unsuccessful.

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