The Jerusalem Light Rail - a Jerusalemite story

The Jerusalem Light Rail (in Hebrew: "Harakevet hakalla") is still quite new in town: although construction works began in 2002, it was completed only by 2010 and began to be actually in use in August 2011. The construction process was lengthy and very painful for all Jerusalemites concerned: more than one shopkeeper had to file bankruptcy in central western Jerusalem as access to the shops was as good as barred due to the endless construction site.


Then came the archaeological findings in course of the digging - a very typical "plague" of Jerusalem: indeed, all building owners in this historical city know only too well that digging under one's one floor may have dire consequences: you incur the risk of ending up with a whole team of archaeologists from the Israeli Antiquity Authorities digging for several months on your own backyard and at your expenses ... and on the other end, if the authorities find out that you made archaeological findings without reporting them, you may be sued and heavily fined.

Once the archaeological diggings were sorted out and done with, a new controversy raised around the Jerusalem Chords Bridge by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava: the idea and initiative came from then Jerusalem mayor Ehud Olmert, who wished to leave a grandiose signature on the city's landscape. The bridge stands as monumental and audaciously elegant construction taken out of a futuristic designers catalog, placed in a dull and somewhat sterile setting.



The bridge was ready by 2008 and stood empty and desolate for 3 years. The costs: almost twice its original estimation - and Jerusalem city is one of the poorer municipalities in the country. New issues rose: the external pedestrian path was designed with a transparent glass bottom - little did the designer know about one of the most eminent citizens of that area of Jerusalem: it was absolutely unthinkable for them to have women walk on a glass bottom - as they were convinced that this would deprave the young men in the Orthodox society! So the municipality had to seek a compromise solution and eventually permission was granted to cover the glass bottom to make sure that no one would be able to see anything from underneath.

Another issue was a highly political one: a legal insurrection began in 2007 against three French firms that took part in the construction, claiming the whole project to be racist and to make illegal use of "occupied territory". In March 2013, a French court ruled out all the claims.

Today the Jerusalem Light Train is perhaps the first and utmost tool of genuine social integration. The way it works is very simple: Its path goes from East to West (South West-North East). Everybody can use it - provided he or she has a valid ticket (not such an obvious thing in Jerusalem, one of the poorest municipalities in the country). It has stops at a distance of 1-2 km each. From the Damascus Gate stop further north, its path corresponds to the "Partition Line" drawn by Israel and Jordan in 1949 as part of the armistice agreement.

It now creates a physical link between very different neighborhoods - either Jewish or Arab. Its most important cultural asset is perhaps the message coming out of the speakers - in 3 languages: in Hebrew, in English and in Arabic. At each time, it gently reminds people not to forget anything in the train and announces the name of the station - an absolutely new urban phenomenon. For the first time in decades, one can see standing or sitting next to each other: Muslim, Jewish Orthodox or secular Israeli mothers with their children, talking in Hebrew, Arabic, Yiddish, French or English, next to Israeli soldiers, Jewish Yeshiva students next to Palestinian laborers, all mixed with tourists and visitors - all polite and even helping each other. Living next to each other is not only possible, it actually is happening right now, no matter how many open and unresolved issues remain to be tackled.