Mask Off Maersk: The People’s Arms Embargo Against Israel
A strong majority of Americans want an arms embargo to cut off the endless supply of weapons to Israel. During an unthinkable genocide against the Palestinian people, our government has failed to represent us, and so the masses must intervene. We will build a People’s Arms Embargo from the bottom up, disrupting the economic systems for manufacturing and shipping weapons.
What Is Maersk?
Maersk is one of the world’s largest shipping and logistics companies, directly responsible for transporting millions of pounds of military cargo for genocide. Weapons manufacturers rely on Maersk’s logistics networks to build their bomber planes or ship them to the rogue Israeli state to massacre the Palestinian people.
Just as Adolf Eichmann was tried as a war criminal for the “thoughtlessness” in doing his job of planning the railroad infrastructure of the Holocaust¹, Maersk executives could be tried as war criminals in international court for upholding the infrastructure of the Palestinian genocide.
PYM’S Mask Off Maersk Campaign
Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM) has identified Maersk as a strategic target to effect a People’s Arms Embargo and bring the weapons pipeline to a grinding halt. PYM’s Mask Off Maersk campaign demands that Maersk:
- Stop transporting military cargo complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people.
- Terminate all contracts that support war and genocide, including Maersk’s contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Since the campaign launch, Maersk has been forced to pay attention, with organizers confronting Maersk at ports around the world, shareholder meetings, and their corporate headquarters. On March 18, 2025, Maersk shareholders still shamefully voted to keep shipping weapons to the apartheid state of Israel, but now the pressure on them is building.
WIN: In June 2025, our global movement pressured Maersk to stop transporting goods from illegal Israeli settlements, which set a new precedent in the industry. Now Maersk must sever all ties with genocide by ending military cargo shipments to Israel. Keep up the fight through PYM’s Mask Off Maersk campaign.
📺 Lunch & Learn: Background On The People’s Arms Embargo
We are not alone. We are not helpless. Learn from social justice history in this webinar, and then apply the strategies to divest from weapons companies like Maersk.
How to Impose a People’s Arms Embargo on Israel
Maersk has a legal and moral duty to stay vigilant to uphold human rights and stop transporting these deadly weapons, which Israel uses to violate international law. It is our duty to make sure Maersk knows we’re watching and ready to hold it accountable. Everything you need to take action can be found in Palestinian Youth Movement’s #MaskOffMaersk campaign toolkit.
🏛️ Institutional Divestment
Learn how to organize to get your institution (college, pension fund, city council, etc). to vote to divest municipal funds (such as pension funds or other city-managed investments) from Maersk on the basis of its complicity in genocide and gross human rights violations.
Leverage An Ethical Investment Policy
If an ethical investment policy is passed, you can then reference the policy to divest from specific complicit companies. If a broad policy fails to pass or is not pursued for other reasons, the city can still target specific companies or sectors for divestment.
Our sibling organization, USCPR Action, has a city council divestment toolkit that may be useful for a variety of institutional divestment targets of all types. Click below to be taken to this resource on another site.
Cut the Contracts
Organize a campaign to call for terminating contracts with Maersk, at a university or institutional level, including research collaborations. You can demand the cancellation of joint projects, grants, and supplier contracts.
Cultural Boycott
Cultural boycotts can involve pressuring arts institutions to reject grants from Maersk, or pressuring arts events or festivals to drop Maersk as a corporate sponsor.
Trade Unions
If you’re in a trade union, consider passing a resolution that calls for an arms embargo. Check out this example!
If you are interested in launching a local #MaskOffMaersk campaign, please reach out to [email protected] or [email protected].
📧 Email Maersk Executives
The absolute fastest action you can take is to email Maersk executives to let them know that the pressure will keep building until demands are met:
📞 Call Maersk
Give Maersk a call, using the #MaskOffMaersk campaign call script.
- General UK Phone Line: 0330 912 0431
- General US Phone Line: 800 321 8807
- APM Terminals (A.P.Moller-Maersk) North America Phone Line: 973-514-5335
- General Canada Phone Line: 877-338-0165
☎️ Organize a Phone Blockade
You can host a phone blockade virtually or in-person. Make it a weekly occurrence. The goal is to have friendly conversations with the people who work at Maersk and disrupt their business as usual. If we do this often enough, it will eat away at their genocide profiteering until they have no choice but to divest. Palestinian Youth Movement has made it incredibly easy to:
- Promote the blockade using their customizable graphic
- Track targeted phone lines & visualize success with their phone tracker spreadsheet
🪧 Print & Paste Flyers
Make Maersk notorious for its crimes. Print any of these posters to hand them out and/or paste them in visible, high traffic areas, especially near Maersk offices and transportation centers. #MaskOffMaersk
Plug in to The People’s Movement
PYM’s Mask Off Maersk campaign is tracking weapons shipments to Israel, and alerting folks to show up and block the flow at the source. Protest with a purpose at the next action.
- Keep an eye on campaign reports.
- Follow the Mask Off Maersk Instagram.
Footnotes
- Eichmann in Jerusalem by Hannah Arendt, https://platypus1917.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/arendt_eichmanninjerusalem.pdf