Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (C-R) and his wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail (C-L) wave as they arrive at a gathering in Kuala Lumpur in November 2022. File Photo by Vincent Thian/EPA-EFE
Dec. 20 (UPI) -- Malaysia has banned Israeli ships over the country's war on occupied Palestine, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim announced Wednesday. Ibrahim specifically called out the Israeli firm ZIM but added that the decision applies to any ship bearing the Israeli flag.
The company was founded as the ZIM Palestine Navigation Company in 1945 to carry Jewish immigrants fleeing Europe after World War II to what was then the predominantly Arab territory of Mandatory Palestine. It is headquartered in the city of Haifa and offers cargo shipping services. Malaysia began allowing ZIM ships to dock in the country in 2002 but has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
"The Malaysian government decides to block and disallow Israel-based shipping company ZIM from docking in any Malaysian ports," Ibrahim said in a statement on Facebook.
Ibrahim said Malaysia's Transport Ministry would take "immediate action" and impose a permanent ban on ZIM effective immediately. Malaysia has also banned domestic ships from traveling to Israel.
"These sanctions are a response to Israel's actions that disregard basic principles of humanity and violate international law through continued genocide and cruelty against Palestinians," Ibrahim said. "Malaysia is confident that the decision will not affect Malaysia's trading activities."
Nearly 20,000 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces amid the war.
Meanwhile, the United States has again delayed a vote on a new resolution calling for a cease-fire in Gaza. The United States has firmly remained behind Israel, despite a growing list of condemnation for the humanitarian crisis caused by Israeli forces.
The United States has also unveiled a military initiative to combat the targeting of Israeli ships in the Red Sea by the Houthis. The Houthis are a militant group in Yemen that has been fighting a civil war since 2014 against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and a third faction, backed by the United Arab Emirates, that is against both the Houthis and the Saudi-backed forces.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE both consider the Houthis, an anti-imperialist insurgency that also condemns the United States and its support for Israel, to be a terrorist organization. The United States backs the Saudis in the Yemeni conflict.
