The Captain of the heavily protested ship Maersk Nexoe, Dsilva Malcolm Joseph Nolasco, was interrogated in court in Barcelona on Friday June 13th, marking the beginning of what is likely to be the next many years of legal prosecution of all the different accomplices participating in Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.
Maersk has been extensively documented delivering a large amount of shipments of weapons and military equipment directly to Israel and have continued long after Israel’s actions have been widely documented as genocide, most recently by the UN that states it as the worst of the 11 crime against humanity: Extermination.
After the Barcelona court summoned the captains of both Maersk Nexoe and Maersk Detroit on May 7, both captains failed to show up for the court date on May 12, even though Maersk Nexoe was docked just a few km away from the courtroom on the same day.
A month later the court was finally able to interrogate one of the captains: Dsilva Malcolm Joseph Nolasco, captain of Maersk Nexoe.
According to the Mask Off Maersk campaign’s latest investigative report, Maersk has shipped every single wing for Israel’s F-35 jets since March 2022.
These wings are critical components for the jets that have played a major role in bombing Gaza, including densely populated civilian areas: apartment buildings, hospitals, schools and refugee camps.
Thousands of bills of lading and extensive documentation by The Palestinian Youth Movement, Declassified, Danwatch, Kollektivist and others show that Maersk has a fleet of at least 15 ships that have all delivered military equipment to Israel in the last 20 months:
Maersk Nexoe, Maersk Detroit, Maersk Chicago, Maersk Atlanta, Maersk Denver, Maersk Columbus, Maersk Sentosa, Maersk Hartford, Maersk Kensington, Maersk Karachi, Maersk Kinloss, Maersk Pittsburgh, Maersk Selektar, W Kithira and W Kyrenia.
These 15 Maersk ships have been documented transporting following weapons parts and military equipment to Israel:
All wings for Israel’s F-35 jets
Maintenance material for F-35 jets
Shell casings for missiles
Combat vehicles
Patrol vehicles
Maersk Nexoe alone has shipped weapons parts and other military equipment to Israel’s Haifa and Ashdod ports at least 11 documented times since early 2024:
2024: March 1, April 27, September 1, September 14, September 28 and November 7.
2025: January 7, January 30, March 4, April 4 and April 30.
But in court on Friday Captain Nolasco made the controversial claim to not be aware of what is in his cargo.
His statement comes shortly after his ship was blocked and delayed for hours in april in Tangier and Casablanca on its way to Israel.
And when the ship returned from Haifa, Israel to Spain after its delivery of F-35 maintenance material and docked in Valencia and Barcelona, 100.000 people took to the streets in Madrid to protest Maersk and the Spanish government's failure to stop their weapons transport to Israel.
In court on Friday, however, even when presented with extensive documentation showing his ship carrying numerous shipments of military equipment directly to Israel, Captain Nolasco maintained the claim that he does not know the contents of what is on his ship.
The captain's statements leave the impression that the delayed appearance in court was to align with Maersk management’s strategy of feigning innocence and ignorance.
Maersk leadership has repeated the following statement many times when confronted with their actions:
"Maersk upholds a strict policy of not shipping weapons or ammunition to active conflict zones, ensuring compliance with international regulations."
Kollektivist recently revealed that Maersk executive leadership sent out two similarly worded messages explicitly misinforming all of their 100.000+ employees globally.
The messages had the following headlines:
“Maersk does not accept any shipments of military weapons or ammunition to Israel or Gaza.”
“Maersk is not shipping weapons or arms into Israel nor into Gaza. The same goes for our subsidiaries.”
This pattern of direct misinformation and neglect of truth of both Maersk corporate leadership and now one of their most involved captains is likely to only heighten the eventual legal consequences of Maersk's direct complicity in Israel's genocide and crimes against humanity.
Possibly the most honest moment for Maersk during the last two years came a few months ago:
During the company’s Annual General Meeting on March 18, the Head of Maersk's Board of Directors, Robert Mærsk Uggla, proudly stated that “Maersk has had the third-best year ever” in 2024 — revealing that for Maersk financial profit is directly synonymous with how they measure good/bad and worst/best.
In the same Annual General Meeting shareholders voted down two resolutions to stop sending weapons and military equipment to Israel.
Yet Maersk management continues to say publicly that they do not ship weapons or military equipment to Israel.
There is an old saying that goes: “When someone tells you who they are, believe them.”
When Maersk tells us what they’re doing - in the media, to their employees and now in court, they are repeatedly lying and neglecting the truth. But when they tell us who they are, whether conscious or not, they are brutally honest.
And who they have told us they are, is a company that celebrates their “third best year ever” - in the same year in which they transported large amounts of weapons and military equipment shipments to Israel documented by the UN of carrying out the worst of the 11 crime against humanity: extermination of the Palestinian civilian population.
