European Parliament Committee on Petitions approves petition calling for companies operating in the Occupied Territories not to be contracted by the EU and its member states

 

Spanish Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause (CSCA), 29/6/2021 

Translated by Fausto Giudice

The European Parliament  Committee on Petitions, at the proposal of the CSCA, approves the petition and refers it to the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committees of the same Parliament for discussion.

The European Parliament is asked to ensure that companies operating in the Occupied Territories are not contracted by the EU and its Member States.

The Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause presented last February a petition to the European Parliament to sanction companies operating in the Occupied Territories of Palestine and Western Sahara and to consider them ineligible for public tenders and other possible aid to the European Union and member states.

The petition, an established channel for European citizens to participate and propose normative changes in the European Parliament, presented by the Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause, included the need for political coherence from the Parliament in the face of war crimes and crimes against humanity and the violation of the IVth Geneva Convention committed by the occupying powers. The transfer of the population of the occupying power to occupied territory, the expropriation and plundering of the occupied population, etc., were given as examples. To this end, it mentioned the list of companies that the United Nations Human Rights Council has evaluated for benefiting and profiting from the occupation of Palestine and the new rules of individualised sanctions that the EU has given itself in December.

The Committee for Solidarity with the Arab Cause, together with other organisations such as Amnesty International Spain, have asked the Human Rights Council to include the Spanish company CAF in this list of companies operating in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, as is its partner company Shapir, for building and extending tram lines between Jerusalem and nearby settlements.

The petition specifically stated the following: 

“According to the Geneva Conventions, the occupying power must not transfer its population into the occupied territory, nor carry out expropriations, expulsions, etc. Companies which, in the service of the occupying power, profit from the occupation, against the occupied population, participate in crimes against humanity. These would be the cases of Palestine and the Sahara. In the first case, the UN Human Rights Council has identified 112 companies that participate in and profit from the occupation (A/HRC/43/71, 12 February 2020, OHCHR 20200212). In addition, the EU has given itself the decision (2020/1999) and Regulation (2020/1998) of 7 December on restrictive measures against human rights violations and abuses. It is appropriate that these companies should not be allowed to tender for contracts, participate in EU research programmes, or sell in the EU area.

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