CODEPINK, in partnership with Palestinian Youth Movement’s campaign #MaskOffMaersk, is applying pressure on Maersk, the multinational shipping company sending military cargo to Israel. In unmasking Maersk, we’ve learned that Zurich Insurance insures Maersk’s weapons shipments to Israel for its genocide in Gaza.
No one should insure Maersk’s weapons shipments, either to military contractors in the United States or to the Israel Occupation Forces (IOF). Zurich Insurance, based in Switzerland, and Maersk shipping, based in Denmark, both violate obligations under international law, effectively operating outside the law to ensure the slaughter of innocent Palestinians. As international accountability for Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza catches up, Zurich Insurance will inevitably have to speak to the crimes it facilitated.
Sign the petition telling Zurich Insurance: Cut ties with Maersk! Cut ties with genocide!
We, the undersigned individuals against genocide, demand Zurich Insurance stop insuring the shipment of military cargo for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Since October 7th, Israel has killed or maimed 100,000-200,000 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, damaged or destroyed every hospital, bombed refugee camps, schools and escape routes and destroyed every university in Gaza.
Most of Israel’s weapons, over 60%, are manufactured in the United States, where Zurich Insurance insures Maersk shipments of military cargo to Israel, as well as between weapons manufacturers in the United States to fulfill Department of Defense (DOD) contracts for weapons Israel is using to devastate Gaza. No one should insure Maersk’s weapons shipments, either to military contractors in the United States or to Israel. Doing so implicates Zurich Insurance in the slew of war crimes Maersk is facilitating in which violate both international law as well as domestic laws in the various countries Maersk operates.
Even Vincent Clerk, the CEO of Maersk, recently admitted the company cannot guarantee the safety of its commercial shipping through the Red Sea, where Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement has targeted Maersk shipments to Israel in an effort to uphold the UN Convention on Genocide.
Zurich Insurance, stop your complicity in genocide, pull your insurance from Maersk’s weapons cargo, and demonstrate respect for international law.
The International Court of Justice concluded in a preliminary Janury, 2024, ruling that Israel has committed a “plausible genocide” in Gaza. Slowly but surely, international accountability is catching up with those executing and facilitating Israel’s U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza. When the consequences inevitably reach shipping companies like Maersk, Zurich Insurance will have to speak to the crimes you facilitated. If Zurich Insurance is uninterested in confronting the moral implications of supporting a genocide, are you also prepared to face the legal and financial consequences that come with it?
The government in Switzerland, where your company is headquartered, has called for a ceasefire. Moreover, as a party to the UN Convention on Genocide, Switzerland has an obligation to prevent and punish genocide. Yet Zurich Insurance, based in Switzerland, and Maersk shipping, based in Denmark, are both flouting obligations under international law, effectively operating outside the law to ensure the slaughter of innocent Palestinians.
Now is the time for Zurich Insurance to tell its stockholders it will no longer be complicit in US-Israel genocide in Gaza. Cut ties to Israel’s genocide! Cut ties with Maersk!