Fifth foreign firm pulls out of controversial Israeli cable car project to East Jerusalem

AI Summary

A fifth foreign company has withdrawn from a proposed cable car project linking western and eastern Jerusalem, amid concerns over land rights and displacement of Palestinian families. Jerusalem authorities say the project is proceeding and have indicated an intention to award a contract to Italian consultancy ROPES without a public tender.

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 landscape A 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...