A few weeks ago, it was revealed that Sidenor had commercial ties with the Israeli army. Since then, various channels have been opened to put pressure on Sidenor, both in the Basque Country and internationally, resulting in Sidenor announcing today that it is ending its commercial relations with Israel.
LAB declares that it will remain alert to ensure that Sidenor’s announcement is fulfilled and calls on Confebask and CEN (Employers Associations) to follow suit and suspend all collaboration with the Israeli war machine. It will not allow business to be done at the expense of genocide.
On 25 June, at the initiative of LAB, an extraordinary meeting of the works council was called, after which LAB, ELA and ESK trade unions explicitly asked the company to clarify whether this information was true and to commit to ceasing all collaboration with any Israeli company or entity involved in the genocide of the Palestinian people and the occupation of their territory. This call by the works council was joined by the World Federation of Trade Unions, the International Dockworkers’ Council (IDC) and finally the BDS movement together with Basque trade unions.
Credible evidence obtained through customs documentation, port authority records, and journalistic investigations show that Sidenor had exported more than 1,200 tonnes of military-grade steel to Israel Military Industries (IMI Systems) since August 2024. The latest shipment, bound for Haifa via the ZIM-operated vessel Luanda, is scheduled to depart from the Port of Barcelona on 1 July. IMI Systems plays a key role in the Israeli military-industrial complex and is directly responsible for the production of heavy munitions, including artillery and armoured systems deployed in densely populated areas of Gaza and the West Bank.
This material support was being provided in the context of the findings of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the case of South Africa v. Israel, in which the Court, in its Orders for Provisional Measures of 26 January, 28 March and 24 May 2024, determined that there is a plausible basis for considering that Israel is committing acts constituting genocide under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. It should also be noted that, according to Article 25 (3)(c) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, any natural or legal person who aids, abets or otherwise assists in the commission of a crime, including by providing the means for its commission, may be held criminally responsible.
