Spanish railway giant CAF has prepared a report to evaluate the controversial light rail project in Israel. A €1,000 million (500 for CAF) project involving stops in illegal Israeli colonies in Palestinian territories. However, the “independent social impact report” paid for by the Spanish multinational and submitted to the Ministry of Industry concludes: “CAF’s activities in East Jerusalem do not suggest a scenario in which it will fail. human rights due diligence systems”. Organizations defending the Palestinians disagree. Amnesty International released a note this Thursday titled: “CAF’s tram in Jerusalem: next stop, apartheid” It ensures that “the construction company becomes a partner – and beneficiary – of the profession”. In 2017, the UN Human Rights Council declared the project illegal for violating many of its resolutions. According to Amnesty International, other international railway companies refused to apply for the project. “CAF has not only decided to continue, but has entered new tenders for two new lines in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”
Israel is occupying and militarily colonizing territory internationally recognized as Palestinian. The tram project was declared illegal by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause (CSCA), for its part, has in particular the routes of the tram lines designed by the Israeli authorities, carried out by demolitions and forced expropriations and train consolidation of an occupation that International Humanitarian Law deems illegal.
Palestine in the West Bank More than 700,000 Israeli settlers live in hundreds of settlements scattered throughout the region, protected by a huge separation wall and a strong military presence. Israel controls most of the Palestinian territory: it closes and isolates Gaza by land, sea and air, and carries out expropriation policies in East Jerusalem, the third region that makes up Palestine.
CAF is a listed multinational corporation headquartered in Beasain (Guipuzcoa) and Billed more than 3,000 million euros in 2022. Celebrating the next June 10 shareholder meeting. The company’s report responds to a request from the Department of Industry, which addressed a complaint from the CSCA. In a memo from the National Contact Point transmitted by this newspaper, the Government has given the company one year (until this month of May) to submit an independent report on the state of the light rail system.
The document submitted by the company to the Ministry and accessed by EL PERIÓDICO DE ESPAÑA from the Prensa Ibérica group, Relevant international law regarding the Israeli military occupation (among others the Geneva Convention, the Vienna Convention on Human Rights or the OECD guidelines for multinational corporations). The consultant author of the report from the Responsible Business company also visited part of CAF’s facilities in Jerusalem for two days and traveled on one of the tram lines already built. He interviewed four employees, including two Palestinians, although he admitted that “hierarchical superiors always stay in the boardroom.”
“From CAF No further evaluation or further details will be given on the subject.The company responded to this newspaper’s request for information and comment, and also pointed to the 2022 Sustainability Report. Contains a general reference to complaints about a project to the Ministry of Industry’s National Contact Point. It “developed in Jerusalem” without specifying that the problem was segments and illegal settlements in East Jerusalem.
Infrastructures that reinforce employment
The text acknowledges that International Humanitarian Law (particularly Article 49 of the Geneva Convention) does not allow “the use of infrastructures for the displacement and resettlement of settlers”. However, he thinks that this is not the case in the case of the tram, because “Almost all settlements are prior to the construction of this infrastructure.“and because it is “close urban transport”, not “a rail infrastructure that connects more or less remote areas and facilitates population transfer”, to change the demographics of the region. The disputed lines actually legally relocate regions of Israel to the United Nations, the United States, and Europe, among others. It connects it to other regions accepted as colonies or settlements by the Union.
Another argument of the report is that the tram provides a necessary public service and can be used by Palestinians, and because both the public address system and the posters are in Hebrew (large), the tram does it without distinction of ethnicity or religion, in Arabic and English. Actually, Getting to East Jerusalem, where part of the tram operates, is very difficult for Palestinians. checkpoints from West Bank towns close to the city. The Israeli occupation gives Palestinians different colored identity cards depending on whether they come from Gaza, the West Bank or East Jerusalem.
The text assures that the impact of the project has been positive for the local community and details a conversation with Palestinians who were confident that the proximity of the tram allowed their small business to flourish.
Partners on the United Nations blacklist
The Solidarity Committee with the Arab Cause, which filed a complaint with the Ministry in 2019, disagrees with both the spirit and letter of the report. CAF’s local partner to upgrade trams Israeli company Shapir, It is on the United Nations Human Rights Council’s list of companies that contribute to and profit from the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people. Amnesty International has asked the United Nations to include CAF in this list precisely because of its involvement in this project.
When CAF won the competition with Shapir in 2019, it defended itself by assuring that the Israeli company was not on this list as of 2020. CSCA assures that CAF has not done any due diligence with its partner in the multi-million dollar project, and Shapir already had quarries and businesses in the Occupied Territories, in addition to building homes and basic infrastructure in the colonies. highlight this CAF Israel continues to strengthen ties with the occupationNO. It uses two banks, Hapoalim and First International Bank of Israel, which are on the United Nations list of companies profiting from the occupation. And the last anniversary party held at Kalia Beach, an illegal Dead Sea settlement. They point out that CAF has a bus division called Solaris, which recently sold 120 buses to the Israeli company. with egg. This company is also on the United Nations list as it is the company that makes inter-colonial voyages.