Israel: Boycott Veolia Environnement

Veolia Environnement is a French multinational whose name may be familiar to people in the UK because of its subsidiaries here. Veolia Transport is a leading partner in the CityPass consortium, contracted to build a light rail tramway system linking west Jerusalem to illegal Jewish settlements such as Pisgat Ze’ev, French Hill, Neve Ya’akov and Gilo in occupied East Jerusalem. The railway links Jewish areas to Jewish settlements, not stopping in Palestinian areas: it is part of the apartheid like deliberate separation of the two communities.

The complete light rail system is due for completion in 2020, with Veolia responsible for the operation. The first line will open in 2010. With its involvement in this project, the company is directly implicated in the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory and is playing a key role in Israel’s attempt to make its annexation of the Palestinian territory of east Jerusalem irreversible.

Campaigners in the Palestine Solidarity and Boycott Israeli Goods campaigns (www.bigcampaign.org) argue that through Veolia Transport’s participation in this, the whole Veolia Group, including its British subsidiaries, are implicated in facilitating Israel’s violation of Articles 49 and 53 of the Fourth Geneva Convention.

In November 2006, ASN, a Dutch bank, broke off financial relations with Veolia on account of the light rail contract. Veolia also runs Luas, Dublin’s light rail system, but has been forced by trade union pressure in Ireland to cancel a proposed deal to train drivers and engineers for the Jerusalem light rail. In 2007 the PLO, in conjunction with AFPS, a French NGO, started court cases in France against Veolia Transport and Alstom, another CityPass partner, to get their contract for the tramway invalidated on the grounds that its aim breached the French Civil Code.

In Britain Veolia Environmental Services runs waste collection and recycling for several local authorities in the UK and provides a local target for action. It is clear from the parent company’s annual reports that the company is one coherent whole and so the misconduct of one division is the misconduct of Veolia as a whole and all divisions and subsidiaries are implicated. Veolia Water and Veolia Transport are also UK subsidiaries.

Palestine Solidarity Branches (PSC) branches and other campaigners in Lambeth, Camden, Portsmouth, Hampshire, and Southampton have been putting pressure on local councils not to contract with Veolia. Portsmouth campaigners have written to John Gummer, former Tory minister and now Chairman of Veolia Water UK. Gummer replied, concluding “Veolia Environnement will continue to look closely at the issues surrounding this matter.”

Campaigners in South Yorkshire are considering a legal challenge to the renewal of the Rotherham bus route contract the company holds. Trade unionists in councils and transport services should raise this issue through their branches, many of which will be affiliated nationally or locally to the PSC.

Mon 13, April 2009 @ 10:57