Police allegedly holding Jerusalem Light Rail works hostage

Infrastructure work on the Jerusalem Light Rail system has yielded some unusual sights, but what happened this week surprised even industry veterans. Jerusalem District police approached engineers working on the construction of the new line, demanded that they should identify themselves, and detained them for two hours, for no apparent reason. “This is deliberate harassment of the project by the police,” a transport and infrastructure industry source told “Globes”.

For some time, sources in the sector have been talking about the campaign by the police for more job slots and higher salaries as one that has gone beyond the pale. They say that the Light Rail construction projects in Jerusalem, led by the Ministry of Transport, the Jerusalem Municipality, and the Ministry of Finance, and amounting to tens of billions of shekels, have in effect become hostages.

As a result of these pressures, the Ministry of Finance has offered the Jerusalem District Police additional job slots and bonuses amounting to tens of millions of shekels, in the hope that the police will stop delaying the projects, even though a new wage agreement with the police was signed only three months ago. Discussion on the offer have been taking place in the past few days.

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Light Rail continues to make progress, at least on paper. The extensions to the Red Line have started to operate, and the Green Line is due to become operational next year. In addition, financing agreements were signed within the past few weeks for the construction of the Blue Line, after delays because of the war.

Unlike the Light Rail in Gush Dan, in which each line is independent, in Jerusalem a transport network is planned of three lines on joint infrastructure to be completed within five years, which is intended to take Jerusalem from a huge deficit in transport infrastructure to a much higher standard of service.

But by contrast with Tel Aviv, where a dedicated police administration has been set up for the project, in Jerusalem, with all its challenges, there is no equivalent body, and the Jerusalem District demanded staff reinforcements and bonuses, but, as mentioned, an agreement in line with the needs of the police, in which over NIS 1 billion were added to police pay, was signed in February.

Even if gaps remain, and the police are not managing to fulfil all their tasks, industry sources say that “while the police are responsible for enforcing law and order, it is stretching them in order to obtain budgets.” For example, the police delayed preparations for shutting down the Red Line for the purposes of joining it to the Green Line, claiming that this was dangerous, even though there was no alternative – to join two lines, the active line has to be shut down.

Even after the Jerusalem Municipality, as the authority responsible for traffic signs, approved the required works, industry sources say there were threatening messages from the police to the contractors in the field, including hints that they were liable to find themselves in the interrogation room. “It’s a crazy turn of events and mafia-like behavior, even if the police do have a manpower problem,” a government source told “Globes”.

“Millions thrown away”

Furthermore, the police are needed to safeguard the works at the Bar-Ilan junction in the city, given the objections of the haredim in the area, in order to start work on the Blue Line by the end of this year.

At the “Globes” Infrastructure Conference, Deputy Accountant General Oshrat David criticized the fact millions of shekels had been thrown away because the police would not allocate manpower to securing projects. “In the Light Rail works at Bar-Ilan junction, NIS 300 million were thrown away because there were no policemen to form a barrier between workers and demonstrators,” referring to haredi demonstrators at the junction.

“Infrastructure projects in Israel have become a means of extortion,” she said. “The workers are back and want to work here, but the police are causing delays. We are not managing to start the Blue Line of the Jerusalem Light Rail, because the police do not have the manpower to station officers at the crossroads, and so the work is not being carried out, even though there are workers and finance.”

Therefore, in order meet the genuine needs of the police on the one hand, and to free the projects from its strangulating grip on the other, the Ministry of Finance formulated a proposal worth tens of millions of shekels for additional job slots and bonuses for recruitment of more police.

Israel Police stated in response, “The demands of the master plan for transport in Jerusalem were examined in depth by the Jerusalem District Police, in full cooperation with the relevant bodies. Accordingly, and on the basis of the operational needs that arose, 250 police job slots are needed for safeguarding the Light Rail works, both from the transport point of view (traffic control, supervision of works, permits) and from the point of view of public order (Special Patrol Unit forces, patrolling, criminal investigation, and so on).

“The joint supreme aim is of course to enable the works to be carried out without disturbance, while maintaining the safety of the residents of the city. Because of continued manning shortfalls in the Jerusalem District and the difficulties in recruiting new police officers, the Jerusalem District proposed cutting a large portion of the job slots, in exchange for pay rises for some of the officers in the District, in order to preserve existing manpower and future recruitment to the Jerusalem District Police. The proposal was intended to enable work on the Light Rail to proceed, even at the cost of wearing down existing police officers who bear a heavy load because of a series of mass and state events, protests, public order incidents, and so on.

“It is notable that while the Ministry of Finance is prepared to invest hundreds of millions of shekels in covering the cost of delays in execution of the work, arising from failure to transfer planning and operational materials to the Israel Police, it Is not prepared to finance the minimum reinforcement required for the police, a demand that from the outset was reduced by the Jerusalem District Police out of a sense of responsibility and a desire to advance the project. Furthermore, to put the record straight, and contrary to what has been claimed, Israel Police is not delaying progress on the works, and continues to show maximum flexibility in order to allow them to advance.

“At the same time, we should make clear that additional tasks cannot be imposed on Israel Police without providing the appropriate resources. Israel Police will continue to do all it can for the sake of the public and the success of the project, but it cannot ensure an operational response without the appropriate tools and forces.”

No comment was forthcoming from the Ministry of Finance.

Published by Globes, Israel business news – en.globes.co.il – on May 13, 2025.

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