^{May 19 2025}

For the past year and a half, Maersk has been delivering weapons to Israel’s active genocide in Gaza, targeting primarily children and other civilians.

Several attempts have been made to hold the company accountable—primarily by global movements such as the Palestinian Youth Movement and their Mask off Maersk campaign —but Maersk has repeatedly managed to bypass both port blockades and international protests, continuing their participation in violations of international law and crimes against humanity.

How is it possible that this has been allowed to continue for so long?

Maersk’s temporary immunity could possibly be boiled down to three primary reasons:

1. Their primary client in this case is the largest and most geopolitically powerful military in the world.
2. A national and global image as a trustworthy international institution and a culturally significant company—one that donates buildings “to the people,” helping sustain a positive brand that takes time to dismantle.
3. A professionalized PR strategy focused on positive “we say what they want to hear”- communication.

This investigative piece zooms in particularly on the third point.

Because while Maersk’s leadership smiles tensely to the outside world, there has long been a state of crisis behind the polished walls and image.

This is the story of how Maersk systematically hides from questions about its active involvement in Israel’s genocide in occupied Palestine, while internally carrying out crisis communication, blocking and censoring fact based critique and in various ways trying to cover up their crimes.

The investigative journalistic work conducted by Kollektivist over the past months reveals a pattern of persistent efforts by Maersk leadership to silence criticism in order to continue their systematic shipping of weapons components and military equipment to Israel—despite being fully aware that their actions violate international law.

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Maersk Dodging Questions

Two Maersk captains failed to appear in court in Barcelona on Monday, May 12 (LINK). This happened despite the hearing being scheduled for 9:30 AM and the captain of one of the ships, Maersk Nexoe, having been docked at the Port of Barcelona all day Sunday and that very Monday—only 6km from the courtroom.

In recent months, similar examples of evasive behavior have emerged at Maersk HQ.

On February 6, 2025, I managed to get through to Jesper Lov, Maersk’s Head of Media Relations.
It was a very brief call. He refused to answer questions over the phone but, like Terma’s communications director (LINK), promised to respond if I emailed my questions.

Three months later, neither he nor anyone else at Maersk has replied.

Here are the questions:

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In English:

Are you still transporting weapons to Israel?

Have you shipped weapons to Israel through Spanish ports since Spanish authorities opposed it and dock workers protested?

Do you expect to become part of the ICJ’s genocide case regarding the Palestinian civilian population, where the weapons you transported to Israel have primarily been used to kill children aged 5–9, followed by those aged 0–4, 10–14, and then other civilians?

How do you avoid prosecution for delivering weapons to a genocide against civilians, committed by an occupying power whose two top leaders currently have active international arrest warrants issued against them?

Have you previously delivered weapons to anyone who was under an international arrest warrant?

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Since that short call, Maersk has removed Jesper Lov’s phone number from their official website—along with all other press contacts except for Head of Global Media Relations, Mikkel Linnet, who has not answered repeated calls.

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Maersk has gone into hiding from both court inquiries in Spain and from journalists—despite continuing to position themselves as an open, global company that claims to ‘follow international guidelines.’

Censorship: Maersk Deletes Comments and Shuts Down Threads

Maersk has also repeatedly deleted, censored, and blocked criticism on their official digital platforms.

During the broadcast of their Annual General Meeting on March 18, 2025, on Maersk's official YouTube channel, I posted significant left out facts about the AGM and Maersk in general from Kollektivist’s YouTube account.

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Within seconds, the comments were deleted. I reposted them. Deleted again. Then Maersk shut down the entire comment section.

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This is one of the world’s largest shipping companies, shutting down a public forum and censoring factual statements from a journalistic media on its official Annual General Meeting broadcast.

After I posted screenshots of the deleted comments on social media, Maersk reopened the comment section, prompting users to write things like “Deleting comments, Maersk?” and “Nothing screams guilty like deleting comments.”

I reposted the factual statements and they have since remained visible.

This reveals a frantic on/off censorship practice inside Maersk—one that shows how strategic and intentional their actions are, no matter how clumsy and obvious they appear, and how they’re used to immunity from accountability, 

But most importantly: It proves that they are fully aware of the criticism, monitoring it closely and responding promptly by shutting it down—meaning they cannot claim innocent ignorance as they frequently attempt to do when they make public statements, like this one from the same day as their AGM:

“Maersk upholds a strict policy of not shipping weapons or ammunition to active conflict zones, ensuring compliance with international regulations.”

A statement that is demonstrably false. Investigative reporting by both Kollektivist, The Palestinian Youth Movement, the Mask Off Maersk campaign, Information, Danwatch and Solidaritet has clearly and without a shadow of doubt documented that Maersk has repeatedly shipped weapons components—including Danish-made parts from Terma—from Lockheed Martin in Texas to Israel’s port in Haifa and to their Nevatim Air Base.

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Maersk Silencing the People's Voice

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Maersk has also disabled comments on many of its official Instagram posts.

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On the few posts where comments are allowed, nearly all of them look like this:

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Another sign of Maersk’s internal PR crisis - on one hand trying to maintain the appearance of openness and reap the benefits of such branding—while refusing to be confronted with reality, whether in court, in interviews, by regular social media users or by mass pressure from global activist movements.

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Positive PR Externally – Crisis Management Internally

Ekstra Bladet documented how Maersk employees in Morocco refused to handle weapons cargo (LINK).
In response, Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc reportedly made a “panic visit” to Tangier to scold the local workers and pressure them to resume the work—regardless of legality (LINK).

And now Kollektivist has obtained an internal intranet message from Maersk leadership, sent to all employees in March 2025 on the company’s internal platform.

The message contains clear misinformation in what appears as indirect instructions on how Maersk employees should communicate about the situation externally:
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All Maersk employees have access to this intranet. In Maersk HQ alone, there are 2,600 employees.
Globally, Maersk employs around 100,000 people, according to their own figures (LINK).

It has been directly and indisputably documented that Maersk has delivered multiple shipments of weapons components, including F-35 parts and other military equipment, directly to Israel for use in its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian civilian population.

When Maersk tell their employees that “Maersk does not transport weapons to Israel,” it is demonstrably false.

Maersk’s leadership is both lying to thousands of employees, thereby coercing many into unknowingly participating in a genocide of mainly children and indirectly instructing and threatening the ones who are aware of the truth to fall in line with the management’s cover-up communication of their crimes.

And they’re doing this while deleting fact-based criticism from official platforms, dodging questions from journalists and skipping court hearings.

All of this combined paints a clear picture: The persistent pressure from international movements insisting on upholding international law has breached the polished surface and reached Maersk’s leadership, who are in a far greater state of panic and internal crisis than they publicly admit.

A leadership that, despite all their efforts to continuously get away with their weapons shipments and protect their profits, must now be held accountable for their active and deliberate role in Israel’s ongoing genocide of children, civilians, and journalists in Palestine.

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