Passing by Morocco’s ports, it is impossible not to notice Maersk dominating the shipping containers. The heavy presence of the Danish company in the North African country’s harbours might not be overly intriguing, if the international logistics giant was not known for shipping military equipment to Israel amid its war on Gaza.
Morocco has become a crucial location on the arms route that facilitates shipments of military cargo to Israel, especially through Maersk. This includes components of F-35 jets, which have fuelled Israel’s attacks on Palestinians.
A recent report by Declassified UK and the Irish investigative news outlet The Ditch delved into Morocco’s role in transferring the components of F-35 fighter jets via Maersk.
The report specified a shipment in April, saying the jet equipment set sail from the port of Houston, in the United States. Two weeks later, the US-flagged Maersk Detroit arrived in Tangier, Morocco, where the cargo was transferred onto another container ship named Nexoe Maersk.
The shipment travelled through the Mediterranean Sea before arriving at the Israeli port of Haifa. The military cargo was then transported to the Nevatim air base, a key launchpad for the Israeli air force to bomb Gaza.
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When the allegations were made in April, public outrage in Morocco spread. Protesters turned out in the thousands at the ports of Casablanca and Tanger Med, while at least eight dock workers resigned over the contested Maersk shipments.
There are conflicting reports regarding when similar cargos started to dock in the kingdom, but Moroccan ports became an attractive option on the transfer route after two Maersk cargos were prevented from docking in Spain in November due to suspicions that they were carrying weapons to Israel.
Instead, they docked at the Tanger Med port, which also triggered protests in Morocco.
Alejandro Pozo, researcher on peace, armed conflicts and disarmament at Centre Delas, told MEE that arms transfers to Israel via the Spain-Morocco route are considered “regular traffic and have not stopped”, according to the databases that the Spanish independent research centre has accessed.
Amid the recent controversy, Maersk released a statement in March saying it “upholds a strict policy of not shipping weapons or ammunition to active conflict zones, ensuring compliance with international regulations”.
A Maersk representative also told Declassified UK that Maersk Detroit and Nexoe Maersk “are carrying containers with F-35 parts. However, these shipments are destined for other countries participating in the F-35 programme”. The F-35 jets programme “relies on a complex network of international partners and suppliers across multiple countries,” the Danish group added in June.
‘Hiding behind wording’
The company acknowledged however its contracts with the US government through the participation of its US-flagged subsidiary, Maersk Line Limited (MLL), in the Maritime Security Programme (MSP).
This programme, which Maersk joined in 1996, requires companies to make ships available to the US authorities for a large sum of money to transport equipment for wars. Subsequently, the shipping company becomes a facilitator of the arms transfer process.
‘Of course, a government can know what is inside a shipment container – if they want to know, that is’
– Alejandro Pozo, researcher at Centre Delas
Through Maersk’s support of US policy, its contracts include shipping cargo to over 180 countries “under security cooperation programs, including also the transportation of civilian and military-related cargo to Israel,” the company statement from March reads.
Maersk told Danish outlet Danwatch that the voyages of its ships to Israel were “not part of the MSP”, but of another military programme under US authorities.
However, a report by Centre Delas highlighted (in annex four) that vessels on the route were part of the MSP. In the annex, Delas listed the MSP shipments to help identify the vessels that are likely to transport weapons to Israel.
According to the centre, MSP shipments that commonly stop in Morocco and southern Spain indicate the onward journey to Israel. For Pozo, the protests occurred for certain shipments because the information became public, not because they were the only occasions.
Morocco has stayed silent on its involvement in arms transfers to Israel. For many observers, this silence itself on the topic is suspicious.
“Of course, a government can know what is inside a shipment container – if they want to know, that is,” Pozo told MEE.
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Those implicated in arms transfers “hide behind wording”, he added, for example saying “military equipment or components”. The wording the expert mentioned is similar to the terminology Maersk uses in its statements.
Pozo also emphasised that although the Spanish government had stopped three shipments, due to public pressure, “Spain has not imposed any administrative measures, including sanctions against arms transfers to Israel”.
MEE has contacted Maersk, the Moroccan Port Authority and the ministry of foreign affairs to find out their ethical stance on the matter considering the devastating impact that arms have in Gaza.
MEE also wished to understand exactly the quantity of arms that Maersk is transporting via Morocco to Israel, why Morocco has become a key location on the route and for how long Maersk has been transferring arms to Israel via this specific route.
No reply had been provided by the time of publication.
Moroccan-Israeli interdependence
The Palestinian Youth Movement said in November 2024 that Maersk “shipped millions of pounds (lb) of military goods to the Israeli military from the US, across more than 2,000 shipments” over 12 months starting in September 2023.
The majority of Israel’s arms capacity results from imports, especially from the US, according to Zain Hussain, a researcher in the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Programme.
‘Israel is heavily reliant on arms imports for its war in Gaza and its military actions in other states in the region’
– Zain Hussain, researcher at SIPRI
Since taking office, the Trump administration has approved nearly $12bn in major foreign military sales to Israel.
“Israel is heavily reliant on arms imports for its war in Gaza and its military actions in other states in the region,” Hussain told MEE.
“Having reliable and secure routes of transfer of arms and components is incredibly important for Israel, and the support of certain states is key in making that happen,” he added.
Pozo hypothesised why Morocco is a stable location on the arms transfer route via the Strait of Gibraltar.
“I can only assume one of the reasons is geographical location,” he said, adding Morocco’s proximity to the US allows for “efficiency in logistics and saving energy costs”.
An alternative route would be to go around Africa and access via the Red Sea, a longer, more expensive, and dangerous itinerary, Centre Delas explained in its report.
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Another key factor, the researcher mentioned, is Morocco’s dependence on Israel for military equipment, as illustrated by the kingdom’s recent move to select Israel’s Elbit Systems as one of its main weapons suppliers.
Morocco normalised ties with Israel in December 2020 as the kingdom joined the Abraham Accords under President Donald Trump’s first term, in exchange for the US and Israel recognising Moroccan claim of sovereignty over the contested region of Western Sahara.
Since then, cooperation between the two countries has flourished, including in the military field. Morocco has been accused of using arms to support its ongoing conflict with the Polisario Front, a Sahrawi independence movement that is backed by neighbouring Algeria.
“Israel and the US know Morocco will cooperate, there is also the political aspect that the US recognised Western Sahara as part of Morocco, which adds another dimension to this cooperation,” Pozo said.
‘Betrayal’
Unlike Spain, Morocco did not stop some of its shipments when met with public protests.
A Moroccan activist at the local branch of Amnesty International, who prefers to remain anonymous, told MEE how “painful” it was for her “to witness that [her] country is connected to the machinery of genocide in Palestine”.
‘The public wants Morocco to cut ties with Israel and to take a firm, unapologetic stance against occupation and apartheid’
– A Moroccan activist
For the activist, resistance goes beyond politics, “it’s about our humanity and moral responsibility […] Every bomb dropped, every child buried under rubble, should shake us to our core,” she said.
“The public wants Morocco to cut ties with Israel and to take a firm, unapologetic stance against occupation and apartheid,” she added.
“At Amnesty, we work to expose these violations and demand accountability. And I say this with love for my country but also with the courage to hold it accountable. We must demand transparency. We must speak up. Because silence in the face of genocide is not neutrality. It’s betrayal.”
She mentioned how there is a “constant threat of repression” against pro-Palestinian activism in the kingdom, despite Morocco regularly releasing statements of support for the Palestinian cause.
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Twenty activists have been arrested and sentenced to jail since 2021, according to data by the Moroccan Front for the Support of Palestine and Against Normalisation – a coalition that brings together some 20 associations, unions and political parties – and the number of arrests has been accelerating since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in October 2023.
One expert from Carnegie, who wishes to remain anonymous, told MEE that “despite the scale and visibility of protests, they have not yet led to a substantial shift in policy”.
However, quoting a recent statement by the opposition Justice and Development Party (PJD) that reiterated “the party’s criticism of normalisation” and the necessity of a “re-alignment” of the kingdom with the overwhelming pro-Palestinian position of Moroccans, the expert outlined the possibility of a change to come.
“Public sentiment can have a constraining or cumulative effect, especially when it intersects with issues of domestic legitimacy, or fuels opposition discourse and mobilisation,” they said.
