The New Jerusalem Light Rail Train as a Performance Space

Abstract

The Jerusalem rakevet kalah (Light Rail Train, henceforth “LRT” or “train”), a relatively new phenomenon in Jerusalem daily life, raised a variety of social, political, urban, and cultural issues.1 Its inauguration in 2011 opened an unfamiliar, new space in a unique city characterized by religious and national contestation on a local and global scale. The challengers for the city’s “ownership” assert their claims via the construction of monuments and museums and in performative acts, transforming the urban space of the city into a constantly evolving stage. Daily social performances become performance art and, in accordance with the laws of theater, they bring the conflicting parties closer, both emphasizing and reconciling conflicts. In this essay, I shall explore the blurring of boundaries between life and theater in relation to the new complex reality created by the Jerusalem light rail. Plans called for the train to begin operating in 2006. The five-year delay in its inauguration drew official criticism by the state comptroller2 and generated a wide range of city folklore, jokes, and prophecies. As a resident of the city, I recall numerous taxi conversations, in which drivers mainly cursed this innovation, predicting the disasters that the LRT would cause. These included traffic disruptions because the main traffic artery in the city center would be closed for all transport except the train. People also predicted that passengers would experience difficulties because of the cancellation of a number of bus lines in the city center. Finally, some critics envisioned that the train would exacerbate the intercultural and political problems endemic to the socio-cultural reality of Jerusalem. The train route is particularly important with regard to this last point. The existing LRT line (more lines are planned for the future) is T-shaped. Its first half crosses the city from north to south; the second one, from east to west. The first half of the train route organically links the northeastern sections of the city, in which most residents are Palestinians, to the Old City and the predominantly West Jerusalem downtown. This route evoked undisguised anxiety among large parts of the Jewish population and undisguised resentment among the Palestinian population toward these Jewish fears. Jewish taxi drivers talked about the risk of terrorist attacks, stone throwing, and possible damage to stations and train cars when the train crosses the Palestinian neighbourhoods. Palestinian taxi drivers emphasized to me that the Arab population of Jerusalem was entitled to the same right to enjoy the various benefits