Art of the Week: Thieves in the Forest, Varunika Saraf, 2024.
The Danica Violet is a ship — part of a seven-vessel fleet — operated by H. Folmer & Co., specialising in explosive cargo. In December 2024, it delivered over 18,000kg of demolition explosives from India to Israel. This journey was just one of twelve the fleet has made since December 2023.
The Danica Violet’s explosive cargo was denoted as “HMX prepared explosives (10 KG)” in bills of lading — contracts between shippers and carriers that detail the type, amount, and destination of goods being moved — obtained from India. These explosives may have been used in recent home demolitions in Jenin in the West Bank.
Following recent research about the fleet by the Progressive International and the Palestinian Youth Movement, which revealed that the Danica Violet was headed to France, legislators from La France Insoumise raised the alarm and called on Emmanuel Macron and the French state to deny the ship harbour.
"At a time when Donald Trump threatens to ‘rekindle hell; and plans the U.S. annexation of Gaza, allowing this stopover would be a clear act of complicity in the extermination of the Palestinian people," said La France Insoumise.
"Reports from international organisations and independent observers continue to mount, leaving no doubt that we are witnessing a crime against humanity… We will never accept that France becomes a link in the chain of this crime."
Shamefully, the Macron/Bayrou government permitted the Danica Violet harbour in Toulon, contributing to genocide.
One week ago, another ship from the fleet, Danica Sunrise, left Haifa en route to Cartagena, Spain. It is currently in the middle of the Mediterranean. The Danica Sunrise’s sister ship, the Marianne Danica, was denied harbour at the port of Cartagena by the Spanish Foreign Ministry in May 2024.
More recently, an American vessel named the Sagamore delivered a new shipment of 2,000-pound bombs from the US to Israel. This is the same boat used by the Joe Biden administration to construct the so-called “Gaza pier” — a $320 million structure erected for 90 days off the coast of Gaza to support Israeli occupation forces in carrying out the genocide. The Sagamore was operated for almost a decade by Maersk and is now run by a New York-based company named Sealift Inc. The Palestinian Youth Movement has documented the ship’s role in reports prepared for the Mask Off Maersk campaign.
We call on progressive forces across Europe and around the world to help track, trace, disrupt, and dismantle the arms traffic to Israel.
In solidarity,
The Progressive International Secretariat
