Veolia/Connex abandons Jerusalem rail project due to boycott Israel campaign

Saturday, June 13, 2009 - 10:00

Veolia is the French corporation that owns Connex, which runs Melbourne's train system. It has been the target around the world, including in Melbourne, of protests by the Palestinian solidarity campaign as part of the growing "boycott, divestment and sanctions" (BDS) campaign targeting Israel in protest against its apartheid policies towards Palestinians.

Omar Barghouti is a Palestinian activist and founding member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. Below, he reports on the BDS campaign victory in relation to Veolia/Connex. The article is abridged from MRZine.

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In the first smashing and convincing victory of the global BDS movement in the field of corporate responsibility and ethical compliance, Veolia is reportedly abandoning the Jerusalem Light Rail project, an illegal project that aims at connecting Israeli colonies built on occupied Palestinian territory to the city of Jerusalem.

As the June 8 Haaretz admits, the BDS campaign's success in costing Veolia some US$7 billion worth of contracts is the key behind this decision by the troubled company to pull out of the project.

This great victory came as a result of years of hard work by French solidarity groups, which was instrumental in making Veolia lose a huge contract in Bordeaux; by Dutch activists who convinced a Dutch bank to divest from Veolia and pressured other banks to follow suit; by Swedish activists who cost Veolia the heaviest, a $4.5 billion contract in running the Stockholm metro; by British activists who contributed to excluding Veolia from a lucrative contract in the West Midlands.

And by the Palestinian BDS National Committee, which partnered with all the above in the Derail Veolia and Alstom campaign to pressure the company to abandon this illegal project.

Now is the time to pressure Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Iran, among others, to kick French corporation Alstom out due to its complicity in this illegal project.