Israeli minister wants to name train station after Trump

JERUSALEM— Israel’s transportation minister is pushing ahead with a plan to dig a railway tunnel under Jerusalem’s Old City, passing near sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims — and ending at the Western Wall with a station named after U.S. President Donald Trump.

Yisrael Katz’s plan, currently in the initial stages, involves constructing two underground stations and exca- vating over three kilometres of tunnel beneath downtown Jerusalem and under the politically sensitive Old City. The project would extend Jerusalem’s soon-to-open highspeed rail line from Tel Aviv to the Western Wall, the holiest site where Jews can pray.

The route will run close to — but not directly under — the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where tradition holds that Jesus was crucified and buried, and a contested holy site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Previous excavations by Israel near the holy site — the spiritual epicentre of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — have sparked Palestinian protests. Due to those sensitivities, the proposal will probably meet with heavy resistance from the Palestinians, neighbouring Arab countries and the international community.

Katz, a senior cabinet official who also serves as Israel’s intelligence minister, is a close ally of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and is seen by many as his likely eventual successor as head of the Likud party.

A transportation ministry spokesperson said the project is estimated to cost more than $700 million (U.S.) and, if approved, would take four years to complete. Katz’s office said the minister advanced the plan in a recent meeting with Israel Railways executives, and has fast-tracked it in the planning committees.