As you read this, an oil tanker called the Overseas Santorini is crossing the Atlantic Ocean. It carries an estimated 300,000 barrels of military fuel, loaded from the Bill Greehey oil refinery in Corpus Christi, Texas destined for the port of Ashkelon, Israel. From there, the jet fuel will be unloaded and used to fuel the Israeli Air Force’s F16 and F35 that drop bombs on the people of Gaza. 300,000 barrels of fuel are sufficient for around 12,000 F-16 refuelings.
This journey is not a one-off. Roughly every two months since 2014, either the Overseas Santorini or the Overseas Sun Coast make this journey to supply military-grade jet fuel from Valero Energy, through a U.S. government contract to Israel. Their standard route for transporting JP-8 fuel from Valero’s Corpus Christi refinery in Texas to Israel’s port of Ashkelon includes stops in the Bahamas, at Algeciras, Spain, and Limassol, Cyprus.
The Overseas Santorini left Corpus Christi on Monday, 15 July and is scheduled to dock at the Spanish port of Algeciras on the Straight of Gibraltar on 30 July. The Overseas Santorini quite literally fuels genocide. It must be stopped.
Several groups – including the Progressive International, Disrupt Power, the Palestinian Institute for Public Diplomacy, Valero out of Corpus, and the Arab Group for the Protection of Nature – have come together to launch the No Harbour for Genocide campaign. Uniting struggles from Corpus Christi, where Valero is the largest polluter, to Palestine, the campaign calls on all Mediterranean port cities to refuse to allow the Overseas Santorini and Overseas Sun Coast tanker vessels to dock at their facilities.
All eyes will now be on the response of the Spanish government, which has previously recognised Palestine as a state, intervened on behalf of South Africa in its Genocide Convention case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and barred ships loaded with weapons destined for use in the genocide of Palestinians from docking at its ports. However, tankers carrying jet fuel destined for use in the genocide still appear to be welcomed. The Spanish government can rectify this violation by immediately banning such tankers from their ports.
We invite you to join the call to stop fuelling genocide, please share this call widely.
In solidarity,
The Progressive International Secretariat
