Israeli and Palestinian opponents of an Israeli plan to run a cable car over Jerusalem to the walls of the Old City lost their Supreme Court case on Sunday against a project they argued would alter its ancient landscape.
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A unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel disseminated by the Justice Ministry showed the court had decided against intervening to reverse the government's 2019 approval of the plan, saying proper planning procedures had been followed.
The proposed cable car would shuttle some 3,000 tourists and worshippers per hour from the western part of Jerusalem to an area near the Dung Gate entrance to the eastern Old City in a four-minute ride.
Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, environmentalists, urban planners, archaeologists and a small community from the Jewish Karaite sect had all lodged protests with the court in recent years. They said the project would harm the holy city's historic character, desecrate a Karaite cemetery, and impact the lives and businesses of local residents.
The proposed cable car is being advanced by the Tourism Ministry and the Jerusalem municipality as a transportation solution to the city's traffic-snarled streets and poor accessibility to the ancient walled Old City. Critics have pointed out that a cable car is not a suitable transit solution and the massive steel towers supporting the cables will mar the historic landscape.
The route would start near the "First Station," a renovated old railway station that's now a popular pedestrian mall, and span the biblical Valley of Hinnom to Mount Zion and terminate, as stated, at the Dung Gate, the entrance to the Old City closest to the Western Wall, 2 kilometers (1 mile) away.
It is further complicated by the fact that it will be constructed in predominantly Arab east Jerusalem.
In its decision, the court said any decision to relieve congestion around the Old City "even if it was decided not to do anything, would harm someone one way or another. There is no 'perfect' solution."
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion wrote on Facebook that the cable car would get underway following the court ruling.
In a policy paper, a coalition of groups against the project said the cable car "will deal a fateful blow" to historical vistas and reroute tourist traffic, hurting Palestinian merchants in the Old City.
"What's left now is the public struggle to stop this insane project," Hagit Ofran, of Israel's Peace Now group, which opposes the plan, tweeted after the court's decision.
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