Deutsche Bahn withdraws from railway project crossing Palestinian lands

[ 05/05/2011 - 10:37 AM ]

BERLIN, (PIC)-- German lawmaker Heike Hansel hailed the national railway company, Deutsche Bahn, for withdrawing from Israel's rail project intended to connect occupied Jerusalem with Tel Aviv because the route will pass through occupied Palestinian territory.

In a press statement to Al-Jazeera Net, Hansel said Deutsche Bahn backed off from this project because of pressures from German and Palestinian politicians as well as peace and human rights activists on the German government and its council of coordination with Israel.

Deusche Bahan, for its part, said it would no longer be part of Israel's rail project because the route under international law is problematic.

Heike along with her fellow lawmakers Inge Hoger and Michael Grosse-Brömer submitted a letter to the German foreign ministry stating that this Israeli railway will isolate occupied Palestinian areas from each other when passing through the villages of Beit Aksa and Beit Surik.

Heike noted that the German foreign ministry made it clear in its reply to their letter that it demanded Israel to respect human rights in the Palestinian lands under its occupation and to observe the Hague convention of 1907 and the Geneva convention of 1949 before deciding to do such project.

In a separate context, the German government said it would not recognize the Palestinian state without Israel's consent, its spokesman Steffen Seibert said Wednesday ahead of Mahmoud Abbas's visit to Berlin.

Seibert told a news conference that the German government's policy in this regard did not change and is still as stated by chancellor Angela Merkel after her meeting with the Israeli premier last April.

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