The public company that is building a high-speed rail link across England has the right to exclude a Spanish firm that is helping Israel colonize Palestinian land in violation of international law.

That’s the conclusion of a new brief from the European Legal Support Center and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights.

HS2 Ltd., which is building the high-speed line linking London, Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds, is already seeking bids for tenders.

The HS2 company is wholly funded by the British government and is under supervision of the UK’s Department of Transport.

Spanish train maker CAF is among the firms hoping to provide rolling stock for HS2.

It is among five firms shortlisted by HS2 as potential providers of locomotives and carriages.

But CAF is currently leading the extension of the Jerusalem light rail, an Israeli tramway linking Israel’s settlements in the occupied West Bank with Jerusalem.

CAF’s complicity in Israel’s ongoing breaches of international law justifies its exclusion from public tenders in the UK, the two legal groups say.

They note that “every illegal Israeli settlement, built on land stolen from the Palestinian people, is considered a war crime under the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

As recently as 2019, the British government reaffirmed its position that Israel’s settlements “are illegal under international law.”

Campaigners have been pressuring the government to put its money where its mouth is.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign mobilized its supporters to email transport minister Andrew Stephenson urging him to exclude CAF from any HS2 tenders.

Some 2,000 people participated in the action, prompting Stephenson to reply that it would “be inappropriate for the department to intervene.”

But the two legal groups reject this. They assert that HS2 is “legally entitled to and should take all necessary steps” to bar CAF from bidding.

Public bodies like HS2 are bound by international legal obligations “to respect, protect and fulfill human rights“ and to avoid economic relations with companies involved in violations of international law, the rights groups argue.

UK law allows public authorities to exclude from contracts any companies involved in “grave professional misconduct.”

The rights groups argue that such misconduct includes involvement in ongoing breaches of international law – such as Israel’s occupation and colonization of Palestinian land...