{"id":434321,"date":"2025-08-26T18:14:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T16:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/08\/26\/la-battaglia-delle-ong-belghe-contro-lappalto-ad-unimpresa-spagnola-che-opera-in-cisgiordania\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T19:06:41","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T17:06:41","slug":"belgian-ngos-battle-against-contract-to-spanish-company-operating-in-west-bank","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/08\/26\/belgian-ngos-battle-against-contract-to-spanish-company-operating-in-west-bank\/","title":{"rendered":"Belgian NGOs battle against contract to Spanish company operating in West Bank"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – Belgian civil society wants to prevent taxpayers’ money from supporting<\/strong> the crimes committed by Israel against the Palestinians, from the ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip to apartheid in the West Bank. In the crosshairs of a number of human rights groups, supported by UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese<\/strong>, is a multibillion-dollar contract<\/strong> awarded by the national public railways<\/strong> to a Spanish company<\/strong> that does business with the Israeli occupation economy. <\/p>\n

At a press briefing, a coalition of non-governmental organisations<\/strong> based in Belgium today (26 August) reiterated its commitment to prevent the SNCB\/NMBS<\/strong>, the group that owns the federal railways, from going ahead with the awarding to the Spanish Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF)<\/strong> of a \u20ac3 billion<\/strong> contract for the purchase of 600 wagons<\/strong>. CAF was first designated as the winner of the tender last February: it was then suspended in April and subsequently reconfirmed in July. <\/p>\n

The appeal launched by Al-Haq Europe, Intal, Vrede vzw and 11.11.11 is simple: public money<\/strong> must not end up in the pockets of a business that with its activities<\/strong> in the occupied Palestinian territories fuels what the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese<\/strong>, calls the Jewish State’s “economy of genocide<\/strong>“, based on ethnic cleansing<\/a>, destruction, land theft, and ultimately the systematic violation of human rights and international law<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"demolizioni<\/a>
Israeli demolitions supervised by the IDF in Judeira, in the occupied West Bank (photo: Zain Jaafar\/AFP)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

Being involved in the construction and maintenance of a tram line connecting occupied East Jerusalem<\/strong> with illegal settlements<\/strong> in the West Bank since 2019, the NGOs argue, the Basque company should be excluded from the tender. “You cannot sign a contract with a company that is deeply involved in occupation politics,” notes Willem Staes<\/strong> of 11.11.11. <\/p>\n

Staes and his collaborators explain that Belgium, as an EU member state, supports the two-state solution<\/strong>, but that Brussels’ economic links with the illegal Israeli colonies<\/a> constitute, de facto, a violation of the country’s legal obligations<\/strong>. SNCB, according to their complaint, did not incorporate any analysis of CAF’s respect for human rights and international law<\/strong> into the tender process. A failure that could constitute “grave professional negligence”<\/strong> for the federal railways under Belgian law. <\/p>\n

The four civil society organisations have initiated a legal action against SNCB<\/strong> before the Council of State<\/strong>, Belgium’s highest administrative court, which is expected to discuss the matter next week and issue a ruling within three weeks<\/strong>. They justify this non-ritual procedure with the need to create “a crucial precedent for holding public institutions accountable<\/strong> for their economic links with companies involved in serious human rights violations<\/strong>,” <\/strong>as jointly stated by the associations. <\/p>\n

Also Albanese reiterated the centrality of the concept of responsibility<\/strong>, applying it on two distinct but related levels. On the one hand, the public responsibility<\/strong>, for which it is necessary to hold political decision-makers and institutions<\/strong> accountable for their links with entities that are guilty of such heinous crimes.<\/p>\n

“The duties of states<\/strong> and the responsibilities of companies<\/strong> are two sides of the same coin,” argues the lawyer. CAF itself, she recalls, is already present in the UN database<\/strong> where companies whose business fuels Israeli violations<\/strong>, including segregation and forced displacement, are recorded. The Basque company, it claims, “is a key actor” in the efforts for the “permanent annexation of Palestinian land<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

\"Francesca<\/a>
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese (photo: Saverio De Giglio via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Albanese denounces as “shocking” the immobility of world governments<\/strong>, unable to field “a robust political response” to Israel. Starting with those of the Twenty-Seven, which, after more than 22 months of quasi-scientific extermination (coupled with an artificially orchestrated famine<\/strong>, as certified by the UN<\/a>), remain divided even over a mild measure<\/a> such as the partial suspension of Horizon+ funds<\/strong> for Tel Aviv. <\/p>\n

Initiatives such as that of the Global Sumud Flotilla<\/strong>\u2014<\/em>perhaps the largest transnational mobilisation ever<\/a>, to break the siege of Gaza<\/strong> and get humanitarian aid into the Strip\u2014are important, she says, “but it is the responsibility of states” to react in a structural manner. “The EU and its member states cannot interact with Israel as if nothing were wrong<\/strong>,” she urges, pointing out how the Jewish state “went much further” than South Africa<\/strong> in the apartheid era, which rightly ended up in the crosshairs of international sanctions and boycotts<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, the UN rapporteur renewed the call for <\/span>individual citizen responsibility <\/strong>at a time in history when remaining silent is now an act of complicity. And it suggests three levels of action<\/strong> that each person can take autonomously: informing oneself about Palestine<\/strong>, with a historical perspective and without stopping at the current situation; putting pressure on one’s own government<\/strong> through protests and demonstrations; and finally, putting pressure on companies and businesses<\/strong> through boycotts and ethically conscious buying and consumption habits.<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four civil society organisations have petitioned the Federal State Council to prevent the SNCB\/NMBS railway group from cutting a multi-billion cheque for the Basque company CAF, which is involved in illegal Israeli settlement projects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":434313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25890,25794,31944,25801,31945,27520,26309,31946,25795,26774],"class_list":["post-434321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-apartheid-en","tag-belgian-cat-en","tag-caf-en","tag-francesca-albaneseon","tag-genocide-at","tag-sncb-en","tag-stripe-di-gaza-en","tag-westbank-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434322,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434321\/revisions\/434322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}