The Water Transport Workers Federation of India, representing 3,500 workers across 11 major Indian ports, has refused to handle any weaponized cargo shipments to Israel.
“We the port workers, part of labor unions, would always stand against the war and killing [of] innocent women and children,” the union said in a statement.
“The recent attack by Israel on Gaza plunged thousands of Palestinians into immense suffering and loss. Women and children have been blown into pieces in the war. Parents were unable to recognize their children killed in bombings,” it added.
The statement comes in solidarity with a call by Palestinian trade unions, T Narendra Rao, the federation’s general secretary told Indian news outlet, The Wire.
Rao said they had not encountered any report of any weapons shipment bound for Israel so far but were issuing the statement “to express solidarity with Palestine” and make clear that they would not be part of any future enterprise to support Israel’s war on Palestinian people, according to reports in The Wire.
Meanwhile, India has exported more than 20 military drones to the Israeli military, adding to Tel Aviv’s expanding fleet of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that are being used extensively in its military operation in Gaza, The Wire and NDTV reported, citing Sheperd Media.
According to reports from these news outlets, an India-Israel joint venture, in which Indian business magnate Gautam Adani has a controlling stake, has manufactured and dispatched more than 20 Hermes 900 drones to the Israeli military.
