It is nothing new for transnational companies to violate human, environmental and labour rights. But there is increasing social demand to control transnational corporations and enforce these rights. For this reason, companies have defined strategies to clear their negative image, using superficially the struggles and concerns of society.

Greenwashing, purplewashing, pinkwashing, rainbow washing, vegan washing, … and why not, euskalwashing.

The Basque railway company CAF must clean up its image since the launch in 2020 of the campaign to denounce the participation of various social groups in the Basque Country in the construction and maintenance of the Jerusalem tramway.

Last week the CAF – Elhuyar Awards have been given to research and dissemination, journalism and socialization in Basque of scientific and technological issues. And in this case, CAF uses Euskera and science in Palestine to justify its complicity with Israeli apartheid.

The Israeli regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid against the Palestinian people can only be maintained by international complicity, in which companies play a fundamental role.

In August 2019, a consortium of Israeli company Shapir and CAF won a contract for the deployment of the railway network linking the illegal colonies in the occupied Palestinian territory, known as the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR). JLR East Jerusalem and the West Bank are part of the Zionist plan for accession to the State of Israel.

The project will involve the confiscation of Palestinian lands for their construction, another physical obstacle to the free movement of the Palestinian population. In addition, the tram connects the illegal colonies of Israel in the occupied territory of Palestine and in the city of Jerusalem, facilitating the movement of the population of the occupying power (colon) to the occupied territory.

CAF's complicity with Israeli apartheid, as well as being morally reproachable, can cause difficulties for subsidiaries such as CAF and Solaris to win new contracts. Because there is an international campaign for cities and governments in different countries to be able to cancel all contracts they have with CAF until international law is complied with.

The French company Veolia had to abandon the same illegal JLR project in 2015, after losing billions of dollars in international business, as a result of a permanent BDS campaign in Europe, the US and different Arab countries.

In this sense, it is paradoxical that CAF supports a series of awards for scientific dissemination and innovation in Euskera, while helping to consolidate the Israeli colonial project in Palestine. Since 1948, Israel has tried to deflate Palestine, particularly in the territories of 48 (now the State of Israel), where Israeli Arabs do not have the same rights as Israelis. Since 1967, it has maintained military occupation in the West Bank and Gaza, which has driven the construction of a wall over 700 kilometres long, as well as military controls, killings, attacks, detentions and other human rights violations, and it continues to ignore the right to return of Palestinian refugees, which currently exceed 5 million.

However, it seems that CAF does not care much about scientific development and innovation in Palestine (very difficult in the context of colonial occupation), as, despite the pressures of the workers, trade unions and social groups in the Basque Country and the demands of civil society and the Palestinian National Authority, in East Jerusalem it has continued to build an illegal tramway.

That is why we believe it is necessary to carry out an internal reflection in Elhuyar and in Basque production, in this case to justify the human rights violations that a Basque company carries out in Palestine, and we invite Elhuyar to review the participation of CAF in the awards of the 2024 edition.

We also insist that CAF should terminate the contract for the supply and maintenance of the East Jerusalem tram.

Alaitz Amundarain, Richard Wendling and Eneko Calle

BDS groups from Araba, Navarra and Bizkaia