Veolia&Alstom in Palestine

BNC

The campaign has reached an important milestone, but pressure must be increased to ensure that these companies truly end their involvement in the JLR and in all other Israeli projects that violate international law. Veolia has agreed to sell its shares over a five year period.9 Not only will it receive €9m for its shares, but Veolia will continue to operate a system designed to dispossess Palestinians throughout this period and it is easily conceivable that the deal will break down during the sale process. There is yet to be a pubic confirmation that Alstom will sell its CityPass shares. More importantly, selling their respective shares in the project does not absolve Veolia and Alstom of their legal, moral and political responsibility for providing reparations to the Palestinian victims of the JLR or of their ongoing complicity in other Israeli projects that contravene international law. The carriages that Alstom have supplied will continue to transport Israeli settlers to their illegal colonies; the illegal JLR system will continue to operate and expand using the logistical arrangements provided by Veolia. The pressure on Veolia and Alstom must increase and be maintained in order that they be forced to admit responsibility for their actions and be held accountable, accordingly. In the case of Veolia, the campaign must continue against it at least until it ends its other forms of complicity with violations of international law, including the landfill it operates in the occupied Jordan Valley, using captured Palestinian natural and land resources for the needs of Israeli settlements10 and the racist settler-only bus services it runs inside Occupied Palestinian Territory.11