The entry into Turkish ports of ships belonging to ZIM Integrated Shipping Services, Israel’s largest shipping company, sparked protests in Istanbul, Mersin and Kocaeli.

Through its important role in Israel’s foreign trade, ZIM fuels the Zionist regime’s war machine and plays a crucial role in perpetuating the occupation and genocide in Palestine. Eli Glickman, CEO of ZIM, said the company supports Israeli operations in Gaza and announced in October that it had offered to put all of its ships and infrastructure into service for Israel.

A mass protest was organized on Sunday after reports that the Kathrin ship, which docked at the Haydarpaşa port in Istanbul’s Üsküdar district, was transporting ammunition to Israel. Five of the youths who were on board the German-flagged ship were arrested, while the ship was allowed to leave port.

On October 1, the public company Anadolu Agency reported that “Amnesty International has called on Slovenia and Montenegro not to allow the ship ‘MV Kathrin’… carrying explosives to Israel to dock in their ports and not to facilitate the transfer of weapons to Israel” .

Another port protest took place in Mersin. In late October, based on open source data, journalist Metin Cihan reported that ZIM ships were in the port of Mersin, using videos posted by the pro-Palestinian account “Direniş Çadırı” (Attempt to the Resistance) on the X/Twitter platform. Cihan previously revealed that trade between Turkey and Israel continued despite President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s condemnation.

“I found new evidence that trade with Israel continues,” Cihan said: “I found out that a container loaded from the Israeli port of Haifa on October 9 arrived at the port of Mersin on October 17 and was discharged.”

After this revelation, anti-genocide demonstrators who came with banners to the entrance of Mersin port to protest against the ZIM ship were not allowed to demonstrate and the demonstrators were dispersed by port security.