Article | Cable Cars Over Jerusalem? Some See ʻDisneyficationʼ of Holy City

New York Times

As a citizen of Israel and an architect who has designed within the region, Moshe Safdie discusses his concern about the planned cable-car network with Michael Kimmelman. Kimmelman illustrates the overwhelming backlash from the community:

"Trumpeted by right-wing Israeli leaders as a green solution to the challenges of increased tourism and traffic in and around the Old City, the plan has provoked howls of protest from horrified Israeli preservationists, environmentalists, planners, architects and others who picture an ancient global heritage site turned into a Jewish-themed Epcot, with thousands of passengers an hour crammed into huge gondolas lofting across the sky."

“A total outrage against a fragile city,” the Israeli-born architect Moshe Safdie says. “An aesthetic and architectural affront.”

The Western Wall is “a ruin, humble, an ancient site of sadness and loss,” he says. “It is the true heart of Judaism. The cable car is the opposite, flashy, vulgar and aggressive.”

Full article at The New York Times and available as download below.


"The cable car route starts in Western Jerusalem (A), stops at Mount Zion (C), and terminates atop a planned City of David center (D), in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan."
Credit: Rosenfeld Arens Architects



Published in Media on September 13, 2019

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