ROPES Ropeway Engineering has declined a proposed consultancy on Jerusalem’s planned cable car, the Guardian reported, becoming the fifth foreign firm to step away from a project that could affect Palestinian homes.
The Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA) named ROPES as its intended outside consultant in a Sept. 14 notice seeking an exemption from a public tender. It invited other qualified Israeli providers to respond by Sept. 30. The notice did not announce a signed contract.
ROPES chief executive Stephan Obexer told the Guardian that a separate commitment in India prevented the Italian firm from accepting the work.
The planned 1.4-kilometer line would run from the First Station area in West Jerusalem via Mount Zion to the proposed Kedem visitors center at Silwan’s entrance in East Jerusalem, according to Israeli heritage group Emek Shaveh. The group describes the 16,000-square-meter center as an Elad Foundation project.
The Guardian reported that rights groups consider about 54 Palestinian homes in Wadi Hilweh directly threatened by expropriation of land or air rights. Sari Kronish, an architect and director of Israeli planning group Bimkom’s East Jerusalem department, estimated that roughly 450 people live in buildings beneath the proposed route. The Guardian reported that Israeli authorities had issued 17 expropriation notices along the proposed route.
The Guardian put the project’s estimated cost at about half a billion shekels. The JDA says the cable car would ease congestion and improve access to the Old City. Emek Shaveh argues that the route would direct visitors toward the Elad-backed site and away from established paths through the Muslim and Christian quarters, strengthening settler control.
The government approved the plan in 2019, and Israel’s High Court allowed it to proceed in 2022, the Guardian reported. A JDA spokesperson told Haaretz the project remained on schedule and that a tender was expected in the coming months, according to the Guardian.
