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.
Connex (who in Ireland now operate under the name Veolia) also run the “Luas”, Dublin’s light-rail system. The Luas has only been running for a few years and it is likely that the tramline currently being built by Connex in occupied East Jerusalem is a near identical system. For this reason, representatives from Israel had been in negotiations with Veolia Ireland to have Israeli engineers and drivers trained on the Dublin Luas, with a view to then operating the illegal tramline in Jerusalem. The training was due to begin next month, and a contract was being finalised.
In the occupied Jordan Valley Veolia has been supporting illegal settlements by taking their refuse at its Tovlan landfill site. Veolia has now compounded its offence by actually selling Tovlan to an illegal settlement, whilst maintaining an advisory role.
Veolia also operates bus services connecting illegal Israeli settlements to Israel. Palestinians were, until recently, forbidden from using the apartheid roads on which the buses travel and Palestinian use of these services is still severely restricted.
Veolia must be made to halt these activities which enable Israel to maintain and tighten its grip on the occupation. Until then, we encourage a boycott of Veolia – a firm complicit in the ongoing occupation and dispossession of the Palestinian people.
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.”

www.bigcampaign.org/veolia/

Dump Veolia Demo - Natural History Museum London

Jerusalem Light Rail