A controversial cable car project linking West and East Jerusalem has faced another setback after a fifth foreign company withdrew, raising concerns over land seizures and displacement of Palestinian families along its proposed 1.4-kilometer route. The scheme, which would terminate near a compound operated by a far-right settler group, had stalled for years before local authorities revived plans in late September, bypassing a public tender process. Rights organizations warn the project could alter the cultural landscape while displacing dozens of Palestinian households. Despite the withdrawals, Jerusalem’s development authority insists construction will proceed as scheduled.
Rights groups say the planned 1.4km route, which ends at compound run by far-right settler group Elad, will displace Palestinians and reshape the cultural landscapeA fifth foreign company has pulled out of a plan to build a cable car from West to East Jerusalem that threatens to involve the seizure of land and property rights from dozens of Palestinian families along its route, but local authorities insist the scheme is proceeding as planned.The project appeared to have stalled for four years until late September, just weeks before Israel’s 27 October elections, when the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) issued a notice of intent to award a contract without a public tender to ROPES, a cable car engineering consultancy based in South Tyrol, Italy. Continue reading...
