Five foreign engineering firms have now withdrawn from a planned 1.4km cable car connecting West Jerusalem to a settler-run tourist complex in occupied East Jerusalem. The latest, South Tyrolean consultancy ROPES, declined a no-tender contract from the Jerusalem Development Authority, citing a prior commitment in India. The company did not address whether the project's location in occupied territory influenced its decision. The cable car, approved by the Israeli government in 2019 and upheld by the high court in 2022, would terminate at a 16,000 sq metre tourist complex operated by Elad, a far-right settler organization that has systematically displaced Palestinian families and installed Jewish residents in East Jerusalem properties. Former Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat once described the project as a way for visitors to "understand who is truly the landlord of the city" — a remarkably explicit statement of the project's political function. The route cuts directly over the Wadi Hilweh neighbourhood in Silwan, threatening approximately 54 Palestinian homes. Cable cars would pass as close as four metres above rooftops. Israeli authorities have already issued 17 expropriation notices covering 8.7 dunams (2.15 acres) for pylons. Roughly 450 residents live beneath the proposed route, facing loss of privacy, restricted future development, and the constant uncertainty of dispossession proceedings. The cost to the Israeli state: approximately half a billion shekels (roughly $135 million). The beneficiary: Elad Foundation, which Emek Shaveh — an Israeli archaeological NGO — describes as "notorious for using state resources to advance its political agenda in East Jerusalem." The JDA's acceleration of the project came in late September 2025, weeks before Israel's 27 October elections, after four years of apparent stall. The timing raises obvious questions about whether the project serves infrastructure needs or electoral positioning. International resistance has been consistent. Three French firms and one Swiss company previously expressed interest and withdrew. The French government actively urged one company not to participate in 2015. CNA pulled out less than a year ago; Switzerland's Histec Engineering followed more recently. The pattern suggests a de facto international boycott driven by legal and reputational risk rather than any formal sanctions regime. The broader context is accelerating dispossession across occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The International Court of Justice has ruled Israel's continued presence in the territories unlawful. Since October 2023, more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank. Settler violence has surged during the 2025 olive harvest, with attacks on Palestinian villages, European diplomats, a French mayor, and a Washington Post photographer in October alone. The JDA insists the project "continues to proceed according to plan" and that a public tender is expected "in the coming months." The gap between that claim and five consecutive foreign withdrawals tells its own story. The project's viability now depends on finding a firm willing to accept the legal, reputational, and political risk that five predecessors have declined — or on Israeli firms stepping in without international engineering expertise.
