WSP’s involvement in the decade-long Jerusalem Light Rail project along with its ongoing involvement should finally result in its addition to the UN database.
On 15 September 2022, an initial submission was made to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) by Al-Haq and Just Peace Advocates on the Canadian company WSP Global Inc. (WSP, formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff International Inc.). WSP is an integral part of the extension of the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR),[1] an Israeli public tramway system that contributes to the maintenance of the illegal Israeli settlements in occupied East Jerusalem,[2] annexed by Israel in violation of international law, and subjugated under a discriminatory settler colonial apartheid regime.
During the June 2024 call by the UN/OHCHR for submissions to update the database, Al Haq and Just Peace Advocates provided additional information to OHCHR in regard to WSP Global.
WSP Global Commercial Interests in Settlement Infrastructure
Considering WSP’s involvement in serious violations of international law, particularly in occupied and annexed East Jerusalem, Al-Haq and Just Peace Advocates, along with over 100 organisations and many individuals, including three former UN Special Rapporteurs on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967 (Michael Lynk, John Dugard and Richard Falk) and linguistics professor emeritus Noam Chomsky, called on the OHCHR in September 2022 to list WSP in the 2023 update of the UN database of business enterprises engaged in certain Israeli settlement activity in the OPT (the UN database).
This submission was made on the grounds that WSP Global’s involvement in the JLR constitutes “provision of services and utilities supporting the maintenance and existence of settlements, including transport”, one of the business activities that raise particular human rights concerns and that, for that reason, should be included in the UN database.
WSP Global was hired by Israel as the monitoring company for the JLR project and plays a wide role, including reviewing the designs, monitoring quality and progress on behalf of the State, and ensuring the project is completed to specification. On 20 February 2024, Civil and Structural Engineer Media reported that WSP Global, was part of a public private partnership to extend the existing red line of the Jerusalem Light Rail. WSP posted that “WSP’s systems engineering and integration team provided the systems architecture for the Red Line. This will introduce an integrated advanced mass transit system in central Israel, which will fuel economic, social, and urban growth.” Notably the existing red line has stops in six illegal settlements neighbourhoods in occupied East Jerusalem. WSP Global has long term plans to be involved in the creation of a new line on the JLR.
[1] The JLR, which services the illegal settlements, also provides services to the A1 train line project between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, which crosses the Green Line into the Occupied Palestinian territory (OPT).
[2] Israeli settlements in the OPT were declared contrary to international law by the International Court of Justice in 2004. UN Security Council resolution 2334 (2016) reaffirmed that the establishment by Israel of these settlements has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law. In 2021, Michael Lynk, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the OPT, concluded they also constitute a war crime. In 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued a report stating that: “The establishment and continuing expansion of settlements in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the occupied Syrian Golan amount to the transfer by Israel of its own civilian population into the territories that it occupies, which is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law, as consistently confirmed by the competent United Nations organs, including the International Court of Justice. Such transfers amount to a war crime that may engage the individual criminal responsibility of those involved.”
Updated information was provided to the UN/OHCHR on June 12, 2024
This included that according to an article published in February 2024, WSP was hired as the monitoring company by the state, to monitor the progress and quality of the “J-Net” project for the extension of the JLR red line. Details on the J-Net project are contained in a November 2022 Who Profits report. According to a similar article, “WSP is an integral part of the operation, with a wide role that includes reviewing the designs, monitoring quality and progress on behalf of the State, and ensuring the project is completed to specification. They are on hand to consult on special cases or challenges using their wide experience and expert knowledge”.
Who Profits has update information
Who Profits Research Center an independent research center dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of Israeli and international corporations in the ongoing Israeli occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land and population in June 2024, updated it’s information regarding WSP Global.
The updated Who Profits information includes:
The Jerusalem Light Rail
WSP is the manager of the monitoring project of the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) lines.
The company provides consulting and control services for the Jerusalem Transportation Master Plan team, which is responsible for the planning and development of the JLR.
The Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) network is a large-scale Israeli transport infrastructure project connecting large settlement blocks in occupied East Jerusalem to the center of the city and its western side, creating territorial continuity and easing settler movement on both sides of the Green Line.
WSP is the monitoring company to monitor the progress and quality of the construction of the “J-Net” project for the extension of the Red Line and the development of the Green Line of the Jerusalem Light Rail. WSP provides integral services such as examination and approval of designs, monitoring quality and progress on behalf of the State, and ensuring the project is completed to specification.
In May 2024, the company published a job ad for a quality engineer for the JLR project. According to the ad, the position includes provision of quality management, engineering design control, quality checks, reporting, preparation of procedures, following up on quality management plans, and other services.
In 2023 and 2022, the company provided engineering services, controllers team management, design control, inspection, quality engineering and schedules management for the JLR project.
For more on the Jerusalem Light Rail see: Developments in the expansion of the JLR network: The J-Net project.
The Tel Aviv Jerusalem Fast Train (A1)
WSP provided services for the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Fast Train (A1) electrification as part of Israel Railway’s electrification project. The A1 train route crosses the Green Line into the occupied West Bank in two areas, using occupied Palestinian land, some of it privately owned, for an Israeli transportation project aimed exclusively at Israelis.
In 2018, WSP performed measurements for the A1 project and participated in a test drive of the measurements wagon.
In 2014, WSP Global completed the acquisition of Parsons Brinckerhoff, which provided technical advisory for the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Fast Train (A1) project on electrification, comparison of different route options, tunneling and grades. Since 2016, WSP-Parsons Brinckerhoff’s Israeli team has been responsible for the electrification of the A1 project, after it was selected in 2015 to manage Israel Railway’s electrification project, a NIS 12 billion project for the electrification of 420 km of track, 13 passenger lines, and construction of 14 railway stations, including for the A1 train. The project included the construction of an overhead transmission system, implementation of a Command and Control system and conversion of the railway garages and complexes operation for electricity.
For more on the A1 train, see Who Profits’ report Crossing the Line: The Tel Aviv Jerusalem Fast Train (A1).
WSP Global was sent this letter in Feb. 2020
