“A cable car above the roofs and narrow lanes of the Old City would make it so much easier to visit Jerusalem,” says Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who has been pushing hard to launch the project. “We want to provide for more people from all over the world to come to Jerusalem, as many as 10 million more tourists, but we need better infrastructure.”
Barkat added that the venture is a way to “join the different peoples of the city—Jews, Christian and Muslims—together in one united Jerusalem.”
Many Palestinians, however, see it as a threat.
“This is not what Muslims want. Leave things as they are,” the head of the Supreme Islamic Council, Sheikh Ikrima Sabri, told the Jerusalem Arabic-language newspaper Al-Quds. “The cable car is just another piece in the Israeli puzzle to ‘Judaize’ Jerusalem. A cable car would endanger the Old City walls and Muslim graves, including those at the entrance to the Golden Gate.”
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