• Greece bids for role in Israeli settler railway
    Adri Nieuwhof | 18 April 2019 | The Electronic Intifada
    https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/greece-bids-role-israeli-settler-railway

    The government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is attempting to solve Greece’s chronic economic and debt problems at the expense of Palestinian rights. Yonatan Sindel Xinhua

    Encouraged by the Greek government, state-owned public transport firm STASY is bidding for a role in the Jerusalem light rail, which links Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.

    This would make the firms – and the Greek state – complicit in Israel’s illegal colonization.

    Greek and Israeli transport ministers signed an agreement to cooperate in transport sectors in 2017.

    This came after a summit between the leaders of Israel, Greece and Cyprus aimed at drawing the countries closer together.

    Lawmakers in Greece’s nominally left-wing ruling party Syriza are demanding to know why the government is supporting a Greek role in Israel’s colonial expansion.

    Metro workers union SELMA has also denounced STASY for its plan to bid for a role in the construction, operation and maintenance of the Israeli project.

    The light rail’s Green Line, which the Greek firm wants to be involved in, begins and ends in the occupied West Bank, SELMA stated last month. “This means that the Greek companies are directly engaged in supporting illegal Israeli settlements.”

    The union added that it is “completely against the participation in any illegal business activity of STASY, especially when it is about the violation of human rights and the just struggle of a people about its national existence and independence.”

    The union noted that the companies participating in the project face being included in the database mandated by the UN Human Rights Council of firms doing business in or with Israeli settlements in occupied territory.

    This could have “legal and judicial consequences,” the union warned. (...)