Jerusalem

The CAF equilibrium set and its light harmony in Jerusalem

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The “great Spanish rail giant.” That is the denomination that is usually used to talk about construction and railway assistant. CAF, as this internationally recognized trains and rail supplier is popularly known. A Spanish company, from Guipozcoa, who is reaping huge contracts outside our borders. And that is also in the international view. CAF. It is one of those companies that sounds to us its logo and its acronym. You know you’ve seen it but you may not be very clear where or in which sector you can place it. It is not so weird, do not worry, although CAF is among the 200 largest Spanish companies. To get an idea of ​​its size, In 2024 he billed 4,200 million euros and generated more than 100 million euros of benefit. In Euskadi it has some 3,000 employees But it has more than 16,000 people hired throughout the world, since the bulk of its business is in Europe (58%) but also has projects in America and Asia-Pacific. Israel. It is precisely one of his projects abroad that is generating great headaches to the company. The company has been working with the Israeli Shapir to build and expand the red and green lines of the Light Jerusalem Rail. The project is not any nonsense. It is valued at 1.8 billion euros of which CAF should pocket 500 million if you deliver its part in a timely manner. In addition, it would manage 50% of exploitation of extension over a period between 15 and 25 years. Settlements. For CAF, being immersed in a project delivered by Israel already should be a problem, taking into account the genocide that is being carried out in the Gaza Strip. But, as if that were not enough, we talk about building 50 stations along 27 kilometers of new roads … in illegal settlements. On this map It is observed how Israel is expanding both lines to unite the illegal settlements of Jerusalem is already built with those of west Jerusalem. The Palestine Liberation Organization (OP) assures That the final intention of this type of infrastructure is to create permanent links between these spaces to hinder the reversal of its entity and its return to Palestine. International pressure. This position is not only defended by the OLP. The Special Rapporteur before the United Nations Human Rights Council published the report From the economy of occupation to the economy of genocide. In it he pointed to CAF as one of the companies that does business with illegal Israeli occupations. Amnesty International also asked To governments that take into account which companies under their umbrella are taking advantage of this situation. And pointed to CAF directly: “The company has only ignored the different resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, the European Union and the International Court of Justice that Israeli settlements consider illegal in occupied Palestinian territory, as well as the fact that the United Nations Human Rights Council itself declared illegal the project of this tram in 2016 and 2017 stating that ‘clearly violates international law and relevant resolutions of UN “ What does Caf say. The last point they point out from Amnesty International has a lot of relevance. The company indicated in its sustainability reports that “the Light Rail project is in territories that are subject to political controversy (…) No violation of human rights derived from the participation of the CAF group has been detected in any project.” In addition, CAF has also published Recently a document in which your role in the project, ensuring the following: “Beyond compliance with the applicable regulatory framework, CAF is firmly committed to business ethics and respect for human rights in all its operations, including the value chain, based on the highest standards of responsibility and transparency. For this, CAF has a series of norms, procedures and systems, adopted to the highest level, which make up a complete compliance system, application to the entire group, as well as the third The purpose of preventing and acting against any behavior that could be contrary to ethics, the law or the internal normative system of CAF. And emphasize that the project was awarded in 2019. 2019. The Spanish company defends itself by ensuring that this project was awarded in 2019 by omitting any reference to a previous date. They point out that the approval was given before Hamas to Israel’s attack and the subsequent invasion of the Gaza Strip. But what is overlooked, as they explain in Amnesty International, is that the project had already declared illegal by the United Nations Human Rights Council in 2016 and 2017. In fact, in fact, in fact, French company Alstom ended up coming out of the same Shortly before the entry of CAF after the pressures received although, yes, at no time were political reasons alleged since the company maintained a project in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv. Too much money? Indicated by entities such as the United Nations Human Rights Council or Amnesty International, CAF is in the spotlight both inside and Out of our borders. In fact, his participation in the Israeli project was one of the alleged reasons to try to prevent the Spanish company from being done with The so -called “Century Contract”which could report up to 3,400 million euros for supplying SNCB trains (the Belgian Renfe). Within our borders, the debate has also reached institutions. From the PNV they ensure that CAF is being pointed out by “responsibilities that do not correspond to it” and that terminating the contract (as they ask from the Elkarrekin we can) “could mean the closure of the company or take it out”, in words collected by The mail. Other companies. As we said, the Israeli project of this lightwail to connect illegal settlements has already caused the exit of Alstom before 2019 but, derived from the genocide that Israel is carrying out in the Gaza Strip, some other Spanish companies have also stopped working for that state. Without leaving Euskadi, The … Read more

The Spanish rail giant had planned to build a lightwail between Jerusalem and the West Bank. Now has a problem

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The Basque CAF It is found In the international view for its participation in the Jerusalem Railway Project, which connects Israeli settlements considered illegal by the United Nations. The pressure on the company has intensified after appearing cited in An official report of the UN on companies that benefit from the occupation. A dispute project. CAF has been part of a consortium with the Israeli Shapir since 2019 to build and expand the red and green lines of the Light Jerusalem Rail. The project, valued at 1.8 billion euros, includes 27 kilometers of new roads and 50 stations that connect settlements in the West Jerusalem. The Basque company would take more than 500 million euros for construction and equipment, in addition to its participation in management for 15 to 25 years. Why is it problematic. The UN Special Rapporteur, Francesca Albanese, has included to CAF in its report “of the economy of occupation to the economy of the genocide”, presented before the Human Rights Council. According to the document, these infrastructure “contribute to the maintenance and consolidation of illegal settlements” and connect the colonies with Israel “while excluding and segregating the Palestinians.” The Human Rights Council itself declared the project illegal in 2016 and 2017. The pressure intensifies. Amnesty International has been asking CA for years to leave the project. “CAF cannot continue looking the other way and not meet international recommendations,” affirms Esteban Beltrán, director of the NGO in Spain. The organization also claims the Spanish government and the Basque Government, a shareholder of the company, to evaluate the CAF links with “the illegal behavior of Israel.” Others are retiring. The case It is not isolated. In 2024, the Catalan Comsa withdrew from the consortium that had won the construction of the blue line of the Jerusalem tram. The Basque Acerera Sidenor also announced that it will stop serving steel to Israeli companies. International funds such as the Norwegian sovereign have retired their participations from Shapir, a partner of CAF, and the manager Storeband excluded CAF from his portfolio for his participation in the project. CAF’s response. The company maintains in its sustainability reports that “no violation of human rights has been detected” derived from their participation and describes the territories as “object of political controversy.” However, for international organizations, CAF is obviating the resolutions of the UN Security Council, the European Union and the International Court of Justice on the illegality of settlements. Between the lines. The project places CAF at a crossroads between commercial interests and international pressure. Your shareholders include to the Basque Government, Kutxabank, the Matrix of the Mayoral Textile and the workers themselves with 25% of the shares. Meanwhile, the geopolitical context has hardened after the attacks of October 7 and the Israeli response in Gaza, increasing international scrutiny over any company linked to occupied territories. Cover image | Alexander Berezhnoy In Xataka | Ryanair’s escape in small airports has taken Andalusia to a radical idea: his own independent “aena”

In Jerusalem they have just discovered a 2,000 -year -old garden that coincides with a description of the Bible: the tomb of Jesus

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If we stick to the literature of that best-seller In religious code which was (and is) the Bible, the Evangelical story of the Gospel of John on the burial of Jesus had resonated with a singular symbolic force for centuries. Namely: the death of the “Messiah” occurred in a “Calaveras Place” and the funeral in “A new, fertile garden, without prior use”, almost like an echo of Eden. Ironies of life, a reform in Jerusalem has found an extremely similar place. The garden under stone. Although literaryly powerful, that passage has always lacked the same as many other passages: topographic precision. However, recent excavations in the Church of the Holy Sepulcherled by a team of archaeologists from La Sapienza University of Rome, have unearthed indications that could confer that fragment biblical an unexpected empirical support. Taking advantage of some renovations initiated in 2019 after decades of disputes between the religious communities that administer the temple (the orthodox, the Franciscans and the Armenians), the team of Professor Francesca Romana Stasolla began, in 2022, a meticulous work under the nineteenth -century panel of the sanctuary. There, under slabs and centuries of liturgy, they discovered the vestiges of An old quarry Of the Iron Age that, in Jesus, already served as a place of burials excavated in the rock. From the Empire to faith. This space, although it was not the only one of its kind in the Jerusalem of the time, was the one that the first Christians identified as the place of the crucifixion and the grave of the Nazarene, conviction that led the Emperor Constantine (after his conversion to Christianity) to order the construction of the first temple on that soil loaded with memory. The current church, rebuilt by the crusaders in the twelfth century, is the last incarnation of that ancient veneration. The revealing of the current finding is that, in the period between the exploitation of the quarry and the erection of the temple, the area was transformed into An agricultural space. The finding. Archaeologists identified low stone walls and stuffed land for cultivation, as well as evidence of olive trees and vines 2,000 years ago. For Stasolla and his team, these discoveries offer a possible material correspondence with the mention of the garden that appears in the Gospel of John, which suggests that whoever wrote, or compiled that story, possessed a intimate knowledge of the geography and territorial organization of the city at that time. Faith culture. Beyond the symbolic force of the garden and its potential link with the story of the burial of Christ, the findings also include Ceramic coins and fragments of the fourth century, which suggests continuous use of the place even before its formal Christianization. Although Stasolla herself speaks cautiously with respect to proclaiming any definitive confirmation of the place of Jesus’ burial, the researcher does underline that the true value of the discovery lies in showing how entire generations They have projected their faith On that site. The history of Holy Sepulcherhe insists, it is not only the story of a character or a religion, but an integral part of the history of Jerusalem. The continuity of the cult, the transformations of the environment and the weight of tradition have conferred that space A living identity which transcends archaeological certainties. Seen thus, between fragments of agricultural walls, millenary roots and sacred land, the recent finding not only excava in history, but also in the religious conscience of the West. Image | Gerd Eichmann In Xataka | The miracle of bread and fish is one of the great magic tricks of the Bible. Now we know “how it was done” In Xataka | The Bible and its 463 contradictions, in addition to violence and misogyny, gathered in an interactive graphic

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