A fifth foreign firm has politely excused itself from a controversial cable car project linking West to East Jerusalem - a scheme that threatens to seize land and property rights from dozens of Palestinian families - while local authorities insist everything is proceeding exactly as planned, presumably with the same confidence as someone who's just been told their house is being demolished.
The project had been 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 public tender to ROPES, a cable car engineering consultancy based in South Tyrol, Italy. Because nothing says "transparent governance" like skipping the tender process right before an election.
However, Stephan Obexer, chief executive of ROPES, told the Guardian his company declined the consultancy work because of another commitment in India. Which is certainly a reason. It's definitely a reason.
The 1.4km cable car route, approved by the Israeli government in 2019 and upheld by the high court in 2022, would connect West Jerusalem to a planned 16,000 sq metres tourist complex promoted by Elad, a settler organisation seeking to consolidate Israeli control over Palestinian areas of occupied East Jerusalem. Nothing suspicious there - just a scenic cable car ride to a tourist complex run by an organisation with a well-documented interest in demographic engineering.
The Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began in 1967, and the Old City and the rest of the eastern half of Jerusalem were fully annexed in 1980, though they're still considered occupied under international law. The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel's continued presence unlawful, which is the legal equivalent of a sternly worded note that everyone politely ignores.
According to Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO, the JDA had recently accelerated plans for the long-delayed cable car through occupied East Jerusalem, in a project once described by former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat as a way for visitors to "understand who is truly the landlord of the city." Because nothing clarifies property rights like a cable car passing four metres above people's rooftops.
"This project threatens the Palestinian communities and the timeless landscape of Jerusalem's historic core," said Emek Shaveh in a recent statement. "It is clear that the project's central motivation is to consolidate the settlers' hold in those areas as part of an effort to displace Palestinians from the Historic Basin and reshape Jerusalem's cultural landscape." The plan comes amid escalating settler violence and efforts to seize Palestinian land across the occupied territories - because why have one crisis when you can have several simultaneously?
At least four foreign companies - three French and one Swiss - have expressed interest in the project, but several have withdrawn over its political sensitivity, according to Haaretz. In 2015, the French government urged one company not to participate. Another French company, CNA, pulled out less than a year ago, followed more recently by Switzerland's Histec Engineering. ROPES did not respond to a request for a written statement or questions about whether legal concerns over the project's location in occupied East Jerusalem had influenced its decision. The JDA did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment either, but a spokesperson told Haaretz: "Following the high court of justice's dismissal of petitions against the project about a year and a half ago, the cable car continues to proceed according to plan and in accordance with the timetables set. Steps to promote the project are subject to the mandatory tenders law, and the tender is expected to be ready for publication in the coming months once its formulation is completed." So that's cleared up.
The move has sparked protests from Israeli heritage and environmental groups and Palestinians in Silwan, an East Jerusalem neighbourhood at the foot of the Old City, who warn that the project threatens Palestinian heritage in territory they seek for a future state and would see cable cars passing just metres above their homes. "The cable car stands in complete contradiction to the historic principle that no large buildings or infrastructure should be built around the Old City," says Alon Arad, an archaeologist and the executive director of Emek Shaveh. "It is particularly troubling that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority, the body responsible for upholding this principle, is cooperating with the project."
"To understand the political context, one must look at the route: it begins in West Jerusalem and ends at a compound run by the far-right settler organisation Elad Foundation, which stands to benefit from a project costing the state around half a billion shekels. Elad is notorious for using state resources to advance its political agenda in East Jerusalem, taking over Palestinian properties, evicting families and settling Jewish residents in their place." The Elad Foundation, which does not appear to be formally involved in the project, did not respond to the Guardian's request for comment. Make of that what you will.
According to rights groups, the cable car project directly threatens about 54 Palestinian homes along its route in the Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood in Silwan, with the expropriation of either land or air rights, and indirectly threatens many others in the vicinity. Israeli authorities have issued 17 expropriation notices covering about 8.7 dunams (2.15 acres) of land along the proposed route, where pylons supporting the cable car would be erected. "These buildings, home to roughly 450 residents, lie directly beneath the proposed route," said Sari Kronish, an architect and director of the East Jerusalem department at Bimkom, an Israeli planning rights organisation. "Cable cars would pass as close as four metres above rooftops and near residential windows, violating residents' privacy and restricting future development. Expropriations of land and homes for support pillars have already been set in motion, leaving residents in a constant state of uncertainty." The Israel Nature and Parks Authority, reached by the Guardian, said: "Our involvement was limited to providing feedback on the proposed alternatives." Which is one way to describe cooperating with a project you're supposed to be regulating.
Across occupied East Jerusalem, Israeli settlers are increasingly taking over Palestinian properties, while authorities have stepped up demolitions of homes lacking building permits, displacing families. The Mount of Olives, home to some of Christianity's holiest sites, has also become a target of settler expansion, raising concerns among churches that own land there. The campaign has intensified since the war in Gaza started in October 2023 amid accelerating land seizures and settlement expansion across the occupied West Bank, where more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers. Settler violence has surged during the annual olive harvest. On 16 October, settlers attacked Palestinian villages, burning cars and trees and injuring a Washington Post photographer. The following day, settlers attacked European diplomats, a French mayor and Palestinian olive pickers, injuring three people and damaging a diplomatic vehicle. Because nothing says "harvest season" like torching cars and assaulting diplomats.