Article
French court decision on Jerusalem light rail must be challenged
[T]he High Court of Nanterre dismissed a petition by the France-Palestine Solidarity Association...to nullify under French law contracts signed by…Veolia and Alstom for building a light rail system in Jerusalem…AFPS asserted that the…project will connect West Jerusalem with Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, normalizing the illegal situation on the ground…[T]he line has been explicitly designed to avoid servicing parts of Jerusalem with a Palestinian majority…AFPS claims that Veolia violated its own code of ethics, which refers to the principles in the UN Global Compact…Veolia…claim[ed] that “the code of ethics is not a contract and…has no legal effect.”…The court found that Veolia had only expressed its intention to comply with the obligations contained in the code of ethics, instead of committing itself to respecting these obligations…