Train station planned at Western Wall

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 President Donald Trump.

Yisrael Katz’s plan, currently in the initial stages, involves constructing two underground stations and excavating over 2 miles of tunnel beneath downtown Jerusalem and under the politically sensitive Old City. The project would extend Jerusalem’s soon-toopen high-speed 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 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 epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — have sparked violent Palestinian protests.

Because of those sensitivities, the proposal will likely meet with heavy resistance from the Palestinians, neighboring 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.