[sustran] MIDEAST: Train Connections Fail to Bridge
Todd Edelman
edelman at greenidea.eu
Thu Feb 24 22:09:57 JST 2011
http://ipsnews.net/newsTVE.asp?idnews=54546
MIDEAST
Train Connections Fail to Bridge
Pierre Klochendler
JERUSALEM, Feb 20 (IPS) - The apex of modern times for one of the
world's oldest cities is when what looks like a silvery car glides by. A
cruise on Jerusalem's first light rail is a dream of perfection
promising to relieve traffic congestion in the city.Scheduled to open to
the public this spring, the train has just started test runs. All buses
serving the Israeli city centre are now diverted to the nearby Mahane
Yehuda market.
Pedestrians manoeuvre their way carefully. "Look at the mess!" says a
disgruntled shopper, "I'll be dead this nightmare won't be over." For
others, the bell announcing the passing of a light train is a national
hymn. "This is Israel's first light train! God willing, Jerusalem will
unify into one city," another man exclaims cheerfully.
Serving both Israeli and Palestinian neighbourhoods, the new public
transportation system would seem to be an auspicious project in a future
drive to advance peace. Yet, in this city of competing political,
historical and religious claims, the train is much more about who takes
the driver's seat.
Officials of the CityPass group that won the tender prefer a more
prosaic outlook. "This service will carry 120,000 passengers a day. The
aim is to develop the city's operational and regulatory setting, to
encourage commercial initiatives," says chief technical officer Alex
Kroskin. "Besides, it's quiet and clean. In all 300 regular buses will
be taken out of service. And, it's safe."
During the Palestinian Intifadah uprising, boarding a bus was a dire
security hazard. Kroskin points out the security personnel posted at
every station, and the 360-degree closed circuit cameras.
Touring Jerusalem aboard the light train might actually be a good way of
getting to realize that, in a city sometimes too holy for its
developers, urban projects are not only paved with good intentions; that
roads, rather than religious sites, are now the be-all and end-all of
authority.
Fasten your seat belt, the smooth ride is about to end up abruptly
against pervasive walls of mistrust.
The controversy over the project starts along the Old City walls, on the
seam between Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem and Israel's West Jerusalem.
From there, the 9-mile (14-km) rail runs along the no-man's-land that
used to divide the city into Jewish and Arab sectors before Israel
captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Nowadays, the old ceasefire
line is a major thoroughfare.
Then, at the end of Road No.1, the train turns further east into
occupied territory. It will serve the large Pisgat Ze'ev settlement.
A billboard announcing the light rail ambiguously dedicates the line
"For the good of the capital city". Yet, 'whose capital city?' is no
small matter when sovereignty over East Jerusalem is a major dead-end on
the road to peace. The line will serve only one Palestinian neighbourhood.
"This train is mostly for the Israelis," bemoans a Palestinian
passer-by, "We're on the sidelines, as always." "I wish they'd invest in
peace what they've invested in the train," another Palestinian chimes in.
The train will stop at nine stations in East Jerusalem. It will serve
only ten stations in the neighbourhoods located in the Israeli part of
town. That's less than half the total number of stops (if one includes
the four stations along the former no-man's-land). Yet, by and large,
Israeli residents will be the ones to benefit from it.
Out of the 23 stations along the unique line, only three will serve
Palestinian residents, albeit they constitute a third of a population of
750,000. That will hardly correct the decades of neglect. "Proper roads,
housing, schools, that's what's most needed here," explains a resident
of Shu'fat, the Palestinian neighbourhood that will enjoy the service.
In Jerusalem, as in the West Bank, roads are a neat way to identify and
demarcate Israeli and Palestinian areas with new borders – of what they
have, and don't have. Changes that have (or have not) taken place here
for the past 40-plus years of Israeli occupation have left insignificant
marks on the daily lives of the Palestinians, sustaining the
inequalities between them and their Israeli neighbours.
After all, facts depend on who defines them and who creates them. No
wonder Palestinians tried to 'derail' the light rail. They fear the
billion dollar project will further entrench Israel's control over the
part of the city they want as their capital.
Ziad Hamouri, head of the Palestinian Jerusalem Centre for
Socio-Economic Rights, says the train is just another facet of Israel's
annexation policy: "Its purpose is to connect West Jerusalem with the
settlements through East Jerusalem. The train is illegal; the
settlements are illegal."
Israelis living in East Jerusalem will be able to connect to the Israeli
city centre within 20 minutes. "The project will make the movement much
easier than it was before, and not only for Muslims, Christians or
Jews," says Nadav Meroz, from the Israeli-run municipality.
Palestinians counter the light rail is just another ploy for Israel to
create more facts on the ground, just as it has with its enclaves in
East Jerusalem that are now home to over 180,000 Israelis. "It won't
unify the two nations – it will unify the two cities," stresses Hamouri.
"It will create more obstacles on the way to a peaceful solution." Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he won't give up any part of Jerusalem.
It's a position supported by most Israelis. Yet, recent media leaks
jointly published by Al-Jazeera and The Guardian suggest that the
Israeli Prime Minister is taking a harder line than his predecessor Ehud
Olmert.
The Palestinian Authority has tried to force two French multinationals,
Veolia, the service operator, and Alstom, the contractor, out of the
venture, urging Arab countries to threaten to cancel contracts with the
two groups.
In November, Veolia pulled out – at least officially. In practice
though, attesting to the group's work ethics that "business is business,
is work accomplished", maintenance teams can still be spotted wearing
the vest bearing the corporation's name.
Both Israelis and Palestinians might still dream of a city without
borders. Yet, their dreams are exclusive and rarely intersect – except
for when they clash.
The light train won't bridge dreams of a universal embrace of the holy
city. Meanwhile, peace will have to remain in suspension, like a train
testing the lyre-shaped suspended bridge of strings designed by the
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava. (END/2011)
--
Todd Edelman
Green Idea Factory,
a member of the OPENbike team
Mobile: ++49(0)162 814 4081
edelman at greenidea.eu
www.greenidea.eu
todd at openbike.se
www.openbike.se
Skype: toddedelman
Urbanstr. 45
10967 Berlin
Germany
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