Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles S.A. (CAF) has been shortlisted to provide ScotRail’s new suburban train fleet. CAF is listed in the United Nations database of complicit businesses due to its involvement in the so-called Jerusalem Light Rail project.

CAF is operating and extending the “Red Line” and is building the new “Green Line.” Both lines connect illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory with West Jerusalem. The JLR network is contingent on the expropriation of Palestinian land and the further territorial fragmentation of the city’s Palestinian neighbourhoods.

ScotRail is a state-owned train operating company managed within the public sector by ScotRail Trains Limited, a subsidiary of Scottish Rail Holdings Limited (SRH), which is wholly owned by the Scottish Government. The decision to shortlist CAF stands in stark contrast to the Scottish Government's rhetoric and the Scottish Parliament's position. MSPs have twice voted overwhelmingly to support a policy of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). This clearly breaches the boycott policy the Scottish Parliament voted for.

Civil society is on the move; the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (SPSC) welcomes the intervention by the train drivers’ union ASLEF and the Scottish Trades Union Congress over the shortlisting of CAF. ASLEF has made its position unmistakably clear: if CAF is awarded the contract, then members will not drive these trains.

This is a powerful example of workers putting solidarity with Palestine into practice and using their collective voice to challenge corporate complicity.

The Scottish Government must now listen to the Scottish civil society and trade union movement and remove CAF from the ScotRail procurement process.

Public money should not reward companies involved in Israeli land theft. And workers should not be expected to facilitate that complicity.

Make sure your voice is heard!

Write to Stephen Flynn, Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Tourism and Transport, and Joanne Maguire, Managing Director of Scotrail. You can personalise and amend the letter before sending.