A protester holds up a sign during a Block the Boat rally at the Port of Prince Rupert, Canada, on June 14, 2021. (Photo by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)

Fort Rupert, June 16 (RHC)-- Protesters have prevented an Israeli container ship from docking at one of the busiest seaports in Canada, in response to the latest war on the besieged Gaza Strip that left hundreds of people dead last month.

The activists formed a picket line at an entrance to the Fairview container terminal, and did not let the vessel, identified as the Volans and owned by Israeli shipping company ZIM, to berth at the Port of Prince Rupert in British Colombia, Canada.

The protesters said they were acting in solidarity with Block the Boat movement, whose aim is to block Israel from shipping goods to North America in protest at the latest Israeli war.  “We can't deny that the world is an interconnected place, so the ship that unloads here has an impact on the lives of people on the other side of the world,” Francis Riley, one of the several protesters holding signs, said.  “And I think that it's a difficult point to make but I think it's an important point to make,” Riley added.

The activists finally left the entrance and allowed the port to continue with other business, after the Prince Rupert Port Authority confirmed that the Volans would not be unloading there.

Earlier this month, dockworkers in the U.S. Port of Oakland refused to unload the Volans as part of an international boycott campaign against Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.

The American activists held banners and waved Palestinian flags in support of the movement which seeks to impose an economic boycott on the Israeli regime.  “Back up!  Back up!  We want Freedom, Freedom! All these Zionist attacks, we don’t need ’em, need ’em,” demonstrators chanted, calling on the Israeli cargo ship to leave the port.