The Arab rioting Wednesday in northern and eastern parts of Jerusalem is likely to have a long-term negative economic impact on the communities where the rioters themselves live. During the course of the rioting, Arabs severely damaged three stations of the light rail system – and officials say it will likely take months to repair them. As of Wednesday, service on the light rail was suspended beyond Ammunition Hill, so the stations serving areas like Beit Hanina and Shuafat – which thousands of residents depend on to reach jobs in other parts of the city – will now remain closed. The Jerusalem municipality and the City P ass group, which manages the light rail, did not state when repairs would begin, but that they would take several months, at least. Shuttle buses will be provided for passengers from the Ammunition Hill station to the next stop at French Hill (Givat Hamivtar). There will be no service to the stations beyond – Al-Sahel, Shuafat, and Beit Hanina. After those stations comes Pisgat Ze'ev, which has bus service to the center of the city – unlike the Arab neighborhoods. Among the damage caused by rioters at the stations was the destruction of ticket machines, the destruction of rubber tracks by rioters who set fire to them, demolishing of the traffic lights at intersections of the road and the tracks, vandalism of the electricity and communication infrastructure, and the ransacking of at least one electricity control center. A full catalog of the damage will not be available until inspectors can get to the scene to assess the damage. On Thursday, police prevented the inspectors from approaching the stations, out of fear that Arabs would begin rioting again.
The chief negotiator for the PA said that it will not resume any kind of peace negotiations with Israel until the United States walks back its recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. “The Palestinian leadership will not accept any offers for negotiations unless the American decision on Jerusalem is annulled,” Saeb Erekat said Tuesday in an interview with the official Voice of Palestine radio, the official Palestinian Authority WAFA news website reported. Erekat said the decision “removed Jerusalem from any negotiations.” He also said the PA leadership does not want to clash with the Trump administration, but that President Donald Trump is the one who created the conflict, stressing that “our peace will not be at any price.” Referring to the Trump administration’s threat to cut its aid to the UNRWA, or United Nations Relief and Works Agency for "Palestinian refugees," until the PA returns to the negotiation table, Erekat charged that the United States wants to “liquidate the Palestinian cause by demanding the dismantling of UNRWA, cutting aid, starving refugees and closing schools.” In a tweet Jan. 2, Trump wrote: “It’s not only Pakistan that we pay billions of dollars to for nothing, but also many other countries, and others. As an example, we pay the Palestinians HUNDRED OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect. “They don’t even want to negotiate a long overdue peace treaty with Israel. We have taken Jerusalem, the toughest part of the negotiation, off the table, but Israel, for that, would have had to pay more. But with the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has also said since the Jerusalem announcement that he is not willing to return to talks as long as the United States is the sole mediator. Erekat said the PLO Central Council meeting scheduled for Sunday in Ramallah would discuss defining the Palestinian relationship with Israel in all areas, as well as how to confront and annul the U.S. decision on Jerusalem.