In a report (in French)*published in June 2018, three French trade union organizations, the CGT, CFDT, and the SUD called on Alstom, Egis-Rail and Systra** to halt their participation in the Jerusalem tramway construction project. These three French companies would be participating in the construction of tramway lines extending between the Israeli side of Jerusalem and the Palestinian territory in east Jerusalem, as well as extending a currently existing city link line. This marks the third time that French trade unions have worked together on pressure campaigns aimed at companies operating in Israeli occupied zones. The UN is working on building a database of companies concerned but its end-of-August publication date has been postponed.
This tramway situation has seen the CGT, the CFDT, and the SUD, allied with five other associations (the Human Rights League, the International Federation of Human Rights, the Franco-Palestinian Solidarity Association, the French NGO Platform for Palestine, and Al-Haq), making the argument that ‘the construction of a tramway network was undertaken (…) with the ultimate goal of linking west-Jerusalem with Israeli colonies settled in the Palestinian land of east-Jerusalem, and as such will eliminate the Green Line frontier between the Israeli and Palestinian parts of the city, thereby prompting the development of these types of illegal colony settlements.’
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