Barring significant delays, in two years Jerusalem will roll out a new cable car able to transport 3,000 people an hour from the new city straight to the Old City’s Holy Basin, home to the world’s holiest Jewish, Christian and Muslim sites. The government approved the 200 million Israeli shekel ($55 million) project last May, on the annual celebration of Jerusalem Day marking unification of its eastern and western parts, and plans have been submitted to national planning authorities. The planned 1.4-kilometer (0.9-mile) route will begin at the complex that once housed Jerusalem’s first train station, floating at a speed of 21 kph (13 mph) over the biblical Hinnom Valley and stopping at Mount Zion. From there, it will glide to the controversial, planned Kedem compound adjacent to the Old City’s Dung Gate. The cable car will initially have three stops and eventually be extended to additional sites in East Jerusalem, such as the Pool of Siloam, Mount of Olives and Gethsemane. 

The plan has generated criticism from many quarters. Last September, Haaretz reported that prominent architects were warning the project would be a blight on the unique skyline of the walled Old City. A month later, the newspaper published a petition signed by dozens of writers, artists and archaeologists under the slogan “Jerusalem is not Disneyland.” The signatories wrote that the plan “would completely alter the skyline, the scenery and the character of the historic and holy space around the Old City. The cable car will be completely out of place in the Old City and seriously damage the Hinnom Valley.”

Left-wing organizations argue that the project is politically motivated, specifically to strengthen Israel’s hold on the Old City and benefit Elad, a Jewish nongovernmental organization (NGO) instrumental in many controversial Jerusalem initiatives. Elad is building an ambitious City of David Visitors Center at an archaeological site known as the Kedem compound, on the roof of which the cable car will have its final stop, for now. “The City of David welcomes all initiatives designed to develop the Old City and make it more accessible to millions of visitors of all religions and backgrounds,” a representative of Elad told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Meanwhile, the initiative is drawing fire from unexpected directions. The small Jewish Karaite sect has also announced its opposition because the cable car route takes it over the community’s ancient burial grounds and risks desecrating the dead. “We have a problem with cable cars flying over the ancient cemetery,” Shlomo Gever, leader of the world Karaite community, told Al-Monitor. Gever is convinced that the Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA), the project’s main sponsor, is deliberately targeting the small group because it lacks political backing. “They had plans to run the cable car over the Protestant and Catholic Sambuski Cemetery, but they decided to pick on us instead. We don’t have a political lobby and we are an easy target for abuse.”