Israel plans to extend train line to Al Buraq Wall

Ramallah: Israel plans to extend its train line to reach the Al Buraq Wall, which Jews regard as a religious site—adjacent to the Muslim holy site of Al Haram Al Sharif in a move that will surely exacerbate ongoing tensions.

The line currently connects several Israeli colonies surrounding occupied Jerusalem. The new line, according to the Israeli transportation minister Yisrael Katz, will bypass the Old City but end very near to Al Buraq Wall, to make it easier for Jews in 1948 areas and surrounding colonies to reach the site.

Israel has severely limited Palestinian access to their own holy site and, in violation of a status quo agreement, allowed Jews to enter Al Haram Al Sharif and perform religious rituals there.

Al Murabiteen, the defenders of Al Haram Al Sharif, have largely been prevented from entering the site, due to Israeli restrictions and punitive measures.

In the past, they had been effective in disrupting Jewish prayers by shouting at them.

The train line extension will add fuel to the fire.

“It will undermine the territorial continuity of the West Bank and transform it into disconnected cantons, making it impossible for Palestinians to continue to live there,” the Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

It said the plan is proof that Israel “plans to annex Israeli colonies in the West Bank and link them to Jerusalem”.

“It is a direct message to the Palestinians to forget about their dreams to have occupied East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state,” Khalil Tafakji, a political activist, told Gulf News.

He added that the line is just part of an ongoing Israeli plan to create “Greater Jerusalem” which will make up 10 per cent of the total size of the West Bank.

Israeli colonies currently take up 1.2 per cent of the total size of the occupied West Bank.

Palestinians say Israel is working to Judaise occupied Jerusalem, change the facts on the ground and erase any trace of Palestinian and Muslim identity.

“Israel is making sure the demography ends up in their favour, and connecting Jews in 1948 areas to [occupied] Jerusalem will only boost their numbers,” Tafakji said.

Israeli Central Bureau statistics in 2014 showed Jews made up around 63 per cent of the population in occupied Jerusalem—Palestinians made up around 37 per cent.

There are no exact figures for 2016, but experts believe the number of Palestinians could have dwin-dled due to punitive Israeli measures.

Occupied Jerusalem’s one current light rail line, launched in 2011, runs through occupied East Jerusalem.

According to the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics, Jerusalem population at the end of 2015 stood at 870,000 people, accounting for 10 per cent of Israel’s population, making it the largest city in Israel. The findings of the Bureau also revealed that at the end of 2014, there were 534,000 Jewish people making up 63 per cent of Jerusalem’s population while the Palestinian population stood at 316,000 or 37 per cent of the city’s residents.