Veolia and Alstom drop out of the Jerusalem light rail project
Nova
09-12-2010
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Send to friendIn a significant victory for the global Palestinian-led boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, French companies Veolia and Alstom have dropped out of the Jerusalem light rail project due to sustained pressure from Palestine solidarity groups. The companies were contracted by the Israeli government to construct and manage the tramway linking Jerusalem to several illegal Israeli settlement colonies in the occupied West Bank. The Jerusalem light rail project was designed to accommodate 200,000 Israeli settlers travelling between West Jerusalem and colonies in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, such as Pisgat Zeev, Neve Yaakov and Ramot.
Speaking at the recent London session of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, The Electronic Intifada contributor Adri Nieuwhof testified against Veolia for its involvement in profiting from the illegal settlement industry. Nieuwhof is a human rights advocate, whose writing focuses on corporate complicity in violations of international law, including Veolia's role in the project. The jury subsequently included Veolia in a list of seven corporations it identified with "corporate complicity in Israeli violations of international law."
According to a statement by the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) on 25 November, campaigners are marking this move by Veolia and Alstom as an important activism milestone. The BNC also emphasized that "pressure must be increased to ensure that these companies truly end their involvement in the Jerusalem light rail and in all other Israeli projects that violate international law".
The BNC added "Veolia has agreed to sell its shares over a five year period. According to the BNC, campaigners across the globe "successfully secured the exclusion of Veolia from an impressive array of public sector contracts and pension funds." The BNC cited several instances of Veolia's loss of billions of dollars worth of public contracts in several countries in Europe, and in Australia and Iran, following effective campaigns by human rights activists.
