Tuesday, June 9, 2009

French company to walk out of controversial Jerusalem rail project


"The French company Veolia was supposed to operate the rail project that will connect the city center of Jerusalem with illegal settlements in the West Bank, but now wants to withdraw from the project that is deemed illegal under international law. Observers claim this is the achievement of the Global Boycot Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Campaign that has been mounted on Israel.

Veolia not only wants out of running the train project; it's also trying to sell its 5% stake in Citypass, the light rail consortium.

The BDS Campaign against Israel has welcomed the move of Veolia and reports it as a victory for its campaign. According to Omar Barghouti of the BDS movement the withdrawal is the result of years of hard work, causing Veolia to lose around 7 billion US dollars in contracts in Europe. The biggest loss came in Sweden where peace groups and church organizations successfully prevented Veolia to operate the Stockholm metro, a deal which involved 4.5 billion dollars.

Veolia also had to deal with a French lawsuit, filed by a pro-Palestinian group that demanded that the court annulled the business agreement as it violated international law."

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