Israel plans ‘cable car’ for Jerusalem

By Anees Barghouthi

JERUSALEM

Israeli authorities plan to establish a “cable car” in Jerusalem, which will include a stop in East Jerusalem’s neighborhood of Silwan, Israeli daily Haaretz reported Thursday.

According to the plan by the Jerusalem Municipality, the cable car will include four main stops; one in western Jerusalem, the second in Kedem center, which belongs to the right-wing group Elad, the third in Silwan and the fourth near the Al-Jadeed (Lions’) gate.

Mayor of Israel-occupied Jerusalem Nir Barkat said the cable car will serve not just economic and tourism needs, but also ideological goals.

“The cable car will let the riders understand who really owns this city,” Haaretz quoted Barkat as saying.

The Jerusalem Municipality, for its part, said it is still working on the cable car plan and will submit it when it is ready.

The Israeli plan has immediately drawn Palestinian fire.

Sheikh Najeh Bkerat, the head of Al-Aqsa Mosque’s Manuscripts and Heritage Department, warned the Israeli plan aims to consolidate Israel’s grip on the holy city.

“After surrounding Jerusalem with Israeli settlements and conducting excavations underneath the Al-Aqsa mosque, Israel now seeking control of the city’s sky,” he said.

Israel occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank during the 1967 Middle East War. It later annexed the city in 1980, claiming it as the capital of the Jewish state in a move never recognized by the international community.

International law views the West Bank and East Jerusalem as "occupied territories" and considers all Jewish settlement building on the land to be illegal.