[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

***

OPENbike - Share the Perfect Fit!



More information about the Sustran-discuss mailing list