The Flying Train Project… Why does Israel insist on implementing it and what is its danger to the city of Jerusalem?

In a new step to boost Israel’s “settlement and Judaization” operations in the holy city, Israeli officials expected Tel Aviv to implement the cable car project in Jerusalem soon.
The decision comes after the Israeli Supreme Court approved the project, yesterday, Sunday, after rejecting 4 petitions submitted by left-wing Israeli organizations against it, which means removing all obstacles that prevent its implementation.
The previous Israeli government had approved the plan to build the cable car in January 2019, which will link the Mount of Olives in western Jerusalem to Al-Buraq Square / the Western Wall in East Jerusalem, where the cost of the first phase is expected to reach 200 million shekels (one dollar equals 3.41 shekels).
According to the plan, the train track will be 1.4 kilometers, with a capacity of up to three thousand people at rush hour.
Palestinian condemnation
The Palestinian Authority’s Minister of Jerusalem Affairs, Fadi al-Hadmi, said that the approval of the project amounts to a “dangerous escalation of settlements in East Jerusalem and deepens Israel’s efforts to Judaize the city.”
In a statement, he stressed that the project has serious repercussions on East Jerusalem and its residents, noting that its implementation will be at the expense of demolishing real estate and seizing Palestinian lands in an attempt to distort the general Arab and Palestinian scene in the occupied city and change its original features.
He added that the project flouts all international resolutions related to East Jerusalem, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), calling on the international community to pressure the Israeli government to prevent the implementation of the project.
The Palestinian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement, yesterday, Sunday, that the train line is an integral part of the campaigns to Judaize Jerusalem and its old city and distort its cultural Palestinian identity, according to the official Palestinian News Agency.
The Ministry also considered this project as part of the campaigns to change the historical, legal and demographic reality in Jerusalem.
She stressed that the Israeli court’s decision is further evidence that the judicial system and courts in Israel “are part of the occupation system itself and are working to serve its Judaizing colonial schemes.”

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs held the Israeli government fully and directly responsible for the establishment of “these Judaizing colonial projects” and considered that their approval and implementation represented a dangerous Israeli escalation that threatens the conflict arena with major explosions that are difficult to control.
The ministry called on the international community and the United States to move quickly and put pressure on Israel to stop the implementation of this project immediately. It also called on the competent international organizations, foremost of which is UNESCO, to assume its responsibilities in providing protection for Jerusalem and its holy sites.
Israeli government support
The political analyst and leader of the Fatah movement, Zaid Al-Ayoubi, considered that the insistence of the Israeli government on the cable car project in East Jerusalem and the attempt to legitimize this matter through an Israeli judicial decision indicate that the Bennett government is immature for the idea of ​​peace based on international legitimacy resolutions.
The Israeli government, through this project and other projects related to the construction of thousands of settlement housing units, is pushing the situation towards a field escalation for electoral purposes linked to an attempt to form an internal Israeli public opinion in support of the Israeli government coalition.
Al-Ayoubi noted that the Israeli authorities are seeking to exploit the Russian-Ukrainian war and the world’s preoccupation with it to perpetuate the occupation with the aim of undermining any opportunity to establish a Palestinian state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, according to the vision of the two-state solution.
He stressed that the Palestinian people will not stand idly by in the face of these Israeli settlement crimes and will confront these projects by all means permitted by international law, especially in light of the start of the Palestinian leadership political and diplomatic action to mobilize the international community to pressure the Israeli government to force it to retreat from its settlement projects in Jerusalem.

He continued, “The Palestinian people feel betrayed by the attitudes of the major countries towards the Palestinian issue, especially since these countries have double standards, as they move with their force in places in the world and turn a blind eye to what is happening in Jerusalem of occupation crimes, with the exception of Moscow’s position represented by the position of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who frankly rejected He called on the Israeli government clearly and firmly to stop its settlement practices in Jerusalem and the West Bank, which had a great and great impact on the hearts of all Palestinians.
Judaization and deliberate distortion
In turn, Misbah Abu Karsh, the Palestinian writer and political analyst, considered that the approval of the Israeli Supreme Court to establish a cable car line in the Old City of occupied Jerusalem will not be attempted in the near future, as this decision will be added to a set of previous decisions that reveal the truth of Israeli intentions. Colonialism, which aims primarily to Judaize Jerusalem and distort its historical Islamic and Christian cultural landmarks.
According to his interview with “Sputnik”, there is hope that such decisions will have an impact on the political orientation of the Palestinian Authority, to return to the practical alignment, alongside the will of the Palestinian people revolting against Israel.
Abu Karsh believes that the Palestinian resistance factions have clearly declared that the attempts to harm Jerusalem by Israel will mean the Palestinian resistance response to these crimes through all the resistance fronts in ways and methods that transcend all lines and considerations, adding: “We do not exaggerate when we say that these threats made many Israeli decisions. Ink on paper… Never mind that today it is directed by the entire Jerusalem axis.”
And he considered that the timing of this decision was not a coincidence, because the government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett is trying to win some points against the opposition parties in Israel in light of the state of dissatisfaction with their performance. The inalienable Palestinian right.
The main holy sites of Christianity, Islam and Judaism are located in East Jerusalem, and the Old City forms the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Israel seized East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war, in a move not recognized by the international community.