Under pressure from a looming referendum on a boycott of Israel, the Amsterdam City Council recently declared that its procurement process cannot involve direct or indirect complicity in human rights violations. The factions of PRO Amsterdam, Denk, D66, and Bij1 are already testing that principle.
GVB, the city’s public transport operator, has started a tender process for the purchase and maintenance of 75 new trams, the parties wrote in written questions to the Transport Region (Vervoerregio) Amsterdam. The City of Amsterdam and the Transport Region together own the GVB.
The parties want to ensure that GVB does not choose the Spanish train and mobility company CAF. They point out that CAF worked on the expansion of the Jerusalem Light Rail. “This light rail connects West Jerusalem with settlements in occupied East Jerusalem, thereby helping to facilitate human rights violations,” the politicians write. “UN human rights office OHCHR states that CAF is indeed involved in certain activities surrounding the settlements in occupied Palestinian territory.”
The ‘left’ party PRO did not allow a referendum on the municipality boycotting Israeli goods and services. They claim it would delay actual meaningful steps to be taken immediately, like boycotting Microsoft for example, and replacing the current cloud hosting services among other things. The thing is, yes, a referendum will take more time, but it would Come with a very strong mandate (since Amsterdam is overwhelmingly pro Palestine. I know. I live here). It would also, though not formally, bind the city council and leadership to its results. And it will be a great venue to allow campaigns like BDS to take center stage to share their message of boycotting products, divesting and sanctioning Israel. All in all, it shows how PRO being half Social Democrats, half Greens, has lost touch with the leftist street movements and organizers decades ago and how they have completely institutionalized.
Who is to say they will even boycott anything when they keep coming up with mealy-mouthed excuses at every turn? How do we trust them with this?
Isn’t this tram boycott against Israel though? Or is it just a facade?