Jerusalem’s light rail line has become the focus of Arab terror in recent months. All residents of Jerusalem, Israelis and Arabs, are affected.
Deadly rock-throwing at Jews by Palestinian Arabs. (Photo: Nati Shohat/Flash90)
Jerusalem’s light rail train has been forced to scale back it services as a result of repetitive rock-throwing attacks by Arab terrorists.
Announcing the setback on Sunday, a spokesman for CityPass, the company entrusted with operating the line, said that the Jerusalem rail service has 23 trains at its disposal, but damage caused by Arab terrorists hurling rocks has cut back the available trains to only 16.
“The ramifications of this are that there are fewer trains than required and less-frequent trains along the line,” the spokesman said. “Recently, the attacks have increased to several a day, and therefore the repairing of the damaged trains takes longer.”
Trains are Focus of Terror in Jerusalem
The train line, which runs through Israeli and Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem and serves all of Jerusalem’s residents, has become the focus of Arab terror in recent months, especially after the murder of teenager Muhammad Abu Khdeir from the Arab neighborhood of Shuafat by three Israelis. The line is perceived as a symbol of Israeli sovereignty in Arab neighborhoods and is therefore repetitively targeted.
The riots following the murder left segments of the track completely unusable, and the 45,000 Israeli residents of Pisgat Zeev in northern Jerusalem were left with almost no public transportation.
The train line required extensive repairs at the cost of millions of shekels.
“We must remember that at the end of the day, the people that suffer from this situation are the residents who use this train to get to the center of town, and now they cannot,” said a CityPass spokesman. “We need to understand that the light rail is a microcosm of Jerusalem. The train goes through Arab and Jewish neighborhoods and they all use it. That’s the beauty of Jerusalem and we need to be careful with this delicate reality.”
Author: Aryeh Savir
Staff Writer, United with Israel