Global Campaign

CAF get off Israel's apartheid train

Overview

Also available in Basque and Spanish.

In August 2019, a consortium  led by the Basque company CAF and the Israeli infrastructure company Shapir was selected by Israel’s finance ministry to lead the expansion of the  railway network serving Israel’s illegal colonial settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory, known as the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR).

Israel’s settlement enterprise is considered a war crime under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

In addition, Shapir, which is in consortium with CAF to expand the JLR, is listed in the UN database of companies that are complicit in Israel’s illegal settlement enterprise.

The JLR project contravenes international law since it solidifies Israel’s grip on occupied Palestinian land, including East Jerusalem. By participating in it, CAF is contributing to Israel’s serious violations of international law and Palestinian human rights.

CAF and Saphir won the $1.8 billion contract to extend the railway to more illegal Israeli settlements, particularly in East Jerusalem, and to strengthen transportation links between those settlements and West Jerusalem.

BDS

CAF get off Israel's apartheid train

Why?

Israel is only able to maintain its regime of occupation, colonisation and apartheid over the Palestinian people because of international complicity. Corporations play a key role in this.

The Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) project is so blatantly illegal that other multinationals which had participated in the initial stages of bidding for the project, including Alstom, Siemens, Systra, Bombardier and Macquarie withdrew from the call for tenders, leaving just two consortiums bidding.

The French company Veolia was forced to pull out of the same illegal Israeli JLR project in 2015 after losing billions of dollars in international tenders due to sustained BDS campaigning in Europe, the US and several Arab countries.

The Israeli business publication Globes claimed, expectedly, that the other firms did not “officially withdraw from the process for political reasons” but admitted that “for most of the international transportation and infrastructure companies, Jerusalem is ‘outside the pale.’

By carrying out this project, CAF is also violating its own code of conduct, where it says that "any action by CAF and its members will keep scrupulous respect for laws, human rights and public liberties." The Basque Autonomous Community government owns shares of CAF, which should ensure that no public money supports Israel’s illegal occupation of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Corporate involvement in the crimes of Israel’s regime of occupation and apartheid is not only morally reprehensible and a legal liability. It can hurt business, too.

Find out more

The Palestinian East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Issawiya sits at the edge of Israel’s illegal settlement of Giv’at Shapira, the first stop of the line CAF will build.

To build the settlement of Giv’at Shapira, and part of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel confiscated land from residents of Issawiya and other villages, demolished their homes and expelled its families.

Israel runs a campaign of repression against Issawiya, besieging the neighbourhood by closing off its entrances, heavily restricting freedom of movement.

The Israeli army regularly raids Issawiya, invades the homes of Palestinians, arrests people without charge and demolishes family homes, against international law.

CAF will contribute to the intensification of Israel’s repression of Palestinians in occupied East Jerusalem villages, including Issawiya like Alstrom and Veolia have contributed to Israel’s repression of the Palestinian neighbourghood Shu’afat.

At the other end of the line slated to be built by CAF is Israel’s illegal settlement of Gilo. The settlement was built on land stolen from the Palestinian neighbourhoods of Beit Safafa, Sharafat, and al-Walaja as well as the Palestinian city of Bethlehem and neighboring Beit Jala.

Israel built the settlement of Gilo to separate Palestinians of Bethlehem from their city, Jerusalem, and to illegally annex the land as part of the Israeli-defined Jerusalem Municipality.

The apartheid wall Israel built to annex Gilo ghettoised Bethelehem and al-Walaja and economically squeezed these areas that once were connected - economic, culturally, socially and politicall - to Palestinian Jerusalem.

CAF is building the Jerusalem Light Rail on land stolen from Palestinians and privileging freedom of movement for illegal Israeli settlers at the expense of Palestinian human rights and basic freedom.

Take Action

CAF relies on its image and its contracts with public organisations and private businesses. Effective grassroots campaigning can pressure CAF to end its complicity in violations of Palestinian human rights.

  • Ask CAF to end its role in the Jerusalem Light Rail to avoid complicity in human rights violations and significant harm to its reputation and international business!

  • Get your organization or union to join the international campaign.

  • Campaign against CAF contracts and send us information on CAF contracts or tenders it is participating in.

For more information contact: Fiona Ben Chekroun, BNC Europe Coordinator: fiona@bdsmovement.net