The CAF equilibrium set and its light harmony in Jerusalem

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 syndicor will not provide of their product to Israeli companies and The Catalan Comsa has already retired Last year of the consortium that had won the construction of the blue line of the Light Rail of Jerusalem. In addition, the Norwegian sovereign background too He has retired his financial support to ShapirCAF partner in this project.

Photo | Iñaki Lopez de Luzuriaga and Adam Yishay Amorai on Wikimedia

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