Update

CAF challenged for its complicity in Israeli apartheid

December 14, 2020

Ahead of the UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29th protests against CAF’s involvement in the illegal Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) were held all over Europe

Groups from Norway to France mobilised on the ground and online calling on Basque company CAF to drop the JLR contract and end its complicity with Israeli apartheid.  Almost 5,000 people sent emails to CAF’s CEO and the hashtag #CafGetOffIsraelsApartheidTrain reached over 1 million impressions.

Well known legal experts David Bondia, Juan Hernández Zubizarreta and Ferran Izquierdo joined in an article explaining why and how Spanish institutions can and should exclude CAF from public contracts. Interviews were featured in Spanish National Radio and in Basque radios 97Irratia and UHIntifada.

On November 28th activists held protests all over the Basque Country. In spite of the difficult circumstances caused by the pandemic hundreds of people took the streets in Bilbao, Gipuzkoa, Gasteiz and Nafarroa. In Bilbao the secretary of the Basque section of CCOO, the largest trade union in the Spanish state, as well as members of the political parties Elkarrekin Podemos and EH Bildu joined the protests. Social movements such as Ongi Etorri (a refugee rights group) and Mujeres contra la Guerra (Women against War) were prominent in supporting organising. Members of all trade unions inside of CAF were also present at the mobilisation and had been calling for the protests for weeks.

CAF challenged for its complicity in Israeli apartheid

CAF challenged for its complicity in Israeli apartheid

CAF challenged for its complicity in Israeli apartheid

Well-known personalities, such as the bertsolari (traditional Basque poet) Iñaki Viñaspre, feminist and journalist Irantzu Varela, runners Javi Dominguez and Oihana Azkoerbebeitia, artist Tasio, the journalists Amparo Lasheras and Juan de la Vega, music bands Huntza, Herdoil, Boot Boys, Brigade Loco, Afu, Ibil Bedi and Hutsun Txalaparta, DJ Bull, as well as Alava, an organise group of retired women  in Álava,  also called for mobilisation in the Basque Country on November 28th.

Earlier in November, groups in the Basque Country had also mobilised against CAFin the framework of the World Without Walls campaign.

December 14, 2020
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