April 26, 2013

(JTA) – A French court ruled that Israel did not violate international law by building the Light Rail in eastern Jerusalem.

The ruling on March 22 by the Versailles Court of Appeals was on a lawsuit filed in 2007 by the Palestine Liberation Organization and the France-Palestine Solaridite association against three firms that participated in the construction of the Light Rail. 

The plaintiffs claimed the firms were responsible for human rights and international law violations. 

In the 32-page ruling, published earlier this month on the French news site Dreuz.info, the judges wrote that international treaties applied to Israel’s occupation of lands captured in 1967 and that those conventions — including the Hague Convention of 1907 — state that “the occupying power can and even must establish normal, public activity in the occupied territory.”

The judges ordered the plaintiffs pay a total of $117,000 in legal costs to the three firms: Veolia Transport, Alstom and Alstom Transport.

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