Watermelon Index names and shames companies complicit in Israel's war on Gaza
A new database of over 400 companies that operate in the UK and are deemed complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza has been launched by a collective of unions and organisations led by Progressive International.
The Watermelon Index, which the international left-wing organisation describes as “a tool for worker-led resistance against the occupation and genocide in Palestine”, will allow employees to connect with each other and with activists to challenge their bosses over connections to Israel.
Among the companies listed are Barclays, shipping firm Maersk, e-commerce giant Amazon, software company Microsoft and holiday rental outfit Airbnb.
As well as these multinationals, there are a host of other operations with ties to Israel, in industries including finance, insurance, technology, logistics and energy. Progressive International is focusing its efforts within these sectors.
A company’s complicity with Israel’s war on Gaza is measured through “the different kinds of support, including financial, military, diplomatic, cultural, trade and social” it provides, according to Progressive International.
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The Watermelon Index also contains details of worker-led campaigns that are being mounted against the war, and includes tools that enable workers to organise and connect with each other.
Since Israel began its war on Gaza in the wake of the Hamas-led 7 October attacks, Palestinian trade unions and other organisations have called for arms and energy embargoes, as well as for workers around the world to act against their employers’ complicity with Israel.
Israeli forces have killed close to 44,000 Palestinians in Gaza, obliterating the coastal enclave in the process and extending the war to Lebanon.
Mass protests have taken place on an almost-weekly basis in western cities including London, but the UK, US and other western governments continue to arm Israel and provide it with diplomatic and other support.
It is in this context that the Watermelon Index is being launched.
James Schneider, Progressive International's communications director, told Middle East Eye: "The West’s political-media class won’t challenge the genocide it arms and supports. We have to take action ourselves, wherever we are, to confront the grave crimes against the Palestinians."
Schneider said that many people employed by the companies listed in the database might not be aware of their ties to Israel and could then use the Watermelon Index as a way of connecting with other pro-Palestine workers.
Workers against Israel's war
This kind of worker-led action has been seen throughout the war. On 11 November, dockworkers in Tangier refused to load a Maersk vessel with "cargo containing military equipment", according to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.
“Whoever welcomes Israel’s ships is not one of us,” protesters in Morocco chanted, while Maersk said the cargo did not include any "military weapons or ammunition".
' We have to take action ourselves, wherever we are, to confront the grave crimes against the Palestinians'
- James Schneider, Progressive International
Elsewhere, dockworkers from Spain, Italy, Belgium, Namibia and India have refused to handle military cargo destined for Israel. Pressure from Japanese unions and protesters forced Japanese trading giant Itochu to end cooperation with Israel’s largest private military company, Elbit Systems.
“Israel's war machine is enabled by the financial, military, diplomatic, and cultural support it gets from companies around the world. In ways big or small, thousands of companies are complicit,” Kimia Talebi, the Progressive International’s Watermelon Index organiser, said.
“Workers in these companies hold the power to throw sand in the wheels of the war machine. And many thousands of them are, like the Indian dock workers at 11 ports, refusing to handle weaponry that could be used to kill Palestinians.”
Talebi said that people should “use the Index to find existing campaigns against corporate complicity or contact us to get support in setting up new ones”, with Progressive International and other groups aiming to facilitate worker-led campaigns against complicity with Israeli actions.
Other groups and unions involved in the Watermelon Index include the Palestinian Youth Movement, Workers for a Free Palestine, Campaign Against Arms Trade, United Tech and Allied Workers, No Tech for Apartheid, Energy Embargo for Palestine, Organise Now!, Disrupt Power and the Movement Research Unit.
The Palestinian Youth Movement has already enjoyed some success with its Mask off Maersk campaign.
This included the publication of critical research into the shipping giant’s use of Algeciras port for transporting military cargo to Israel, despite Spain’s stated arms embargo. Activists eventually succeeded in getting the Spanish government to block the departure of two Maersk ships carrying military cargo to Israel.
No Tech for Apartheid, another partner of the Watermelon Index, has led a campaign organising mass sit-ins, petitions and pickets demanding the end of Project Nimbus, a contract between Google, Amazon and Israel.
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