Fifth Foreign Firm Pulls Out of Planned Jerusalem Cable Car
A fifth foreign company has pulled out of a planned cable car project that would link West Jerusalem with East Jerusalem, according to the Guardian. The firm, ROPES, is a cable car engineering consultancy based in South Tyrol, Italy.
The Jerusalem Development Authority (JDA), the body behind the project, issued a notice of intent in late September 2026 to award ROPES a contract without public tender, meaning without an open bidding process. That notice came weeks before Israel's elections on 27 October. ROPES chief executive Stephan Obexer told the Guardian that the company declined the consultancy work because of another commitment in India.
The route is 1.4 kilometres long. It would connect West Jerusalem to a planned 16,000 square metre tourist complex promoted by Elad, a settler organisation. Israel's high court upheld the route in 2022, the Guardian reported.
Haaretz, as reported by the Guardian, said at least four foreign companies, three French and one Swiss, expressed interest in the project, and several later withdrew over its political sensitivity. The French firm CNA withdrew less than a year before October 2026, and the Swiss firm Histec Engineering withdrew more recently. The Guardian also recalled that in 2015 the French government urged one company not to take part.
Opposition to the route has come from several directions. Palestinians have said the project would erase their heritage in areas they seek for a future state, and that the planned route would place cable cars over their communities, Reuters reported in 2022. The NGO Emek Shaveh said the JDA had recently accelerated plans for the cable car through occupied East Jerusalem. The same group describes ROPES as a provider of line calculation and static and safety analysis for ropeway projects.
Earlier coverage placed the project within a wider dispute over the city. A 2018 Guardian report noted an EU report that said Israel was using tourism to legitimise settlements, and mentioned a cable car approved by the Israeli cabinet that would connect West Jerusalem with the Old City.
