This map illustrates the routes of the Jerusalem Light Rail (JLR) which is an Israeli government project designed to link illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied State of Palestine to West Jerusalem through a light rail system.
During the first stage, the rail system connected the Israeli settlements of Pisgat Ze’ev and French Hill to West Jerusalem. As part of the project’s second stage, scheduled to begin on 21 May, 2025, the Israeli government will dramatically expand this network, connecting Gilo settlement to the French Hill settlement and the Hebrew University in Mount Scopus via the Green Line, and extending the existing Red Line to the Neve Ya’kov settlement.
In the third stage, the Israeli government plans to connect Gilo settlement to Ramot settlement in the north via the Blue Line, all of which are illegal Israeli settlements located in and around East Jerusalem, thereby linking them to West Jerusalem. By creating permanent infrastructural ties between the settlements and West Jerusalem, the JLR will make it more difficult to resolve the status of Jerusalem in the context of a negotiated final status agreement.
