Israeli tourists conquer Palestine’s only cable car

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From the plot of land he owns in the Palestinian city of Jericho, Marwan Sinokrot would take note of the Christian pilgrims, day after day, huffing and puffing their way up the Mount of Temptation. Eventually, an idea occurred to him: Why not build them a cable car?

“Many of these pilgrims were not that young or in the best of shape, and so it was difficult for them to make it up the mountain on foot,” recounts the East Jerusalem businessman. “I said to myself, ‘If you can have a cable car going up to Masada, why not here too?’ We also have spectacular views.”

The multimillion-dollar project, opened to the public in 1999, would eventually enter the Guinness Book of World Records for being “the longest cable car-aerial tramway below sea level” and draw as many as 3,000 visitors a week, most from overseas, to this mellow city of some 25,000 residents.

However, that all came to an end with the coronavirus pandemic, which dealt a devastating blow not only to one of the most ambitious tourism projects ever undertaken in the West Bank, but also to all the restaurants, cafes and souvenir shops built around it to service the busloads of tourists that filled the nearby parking lot nearly every day.

Like many tourist sites around the world, Jericho was ravaged by COVID-19. And while Christian pilgrim groups have started to return in recent months, they are still few and far between. “If there are one or two buses a day in the parking lot, we consider ourselves lucky,” says the entrepreneur’s son Hamze Sinokrot, who currently runs operations at the facility.

In the meantime, he’s heartened by the discovery of a rather unlikely “new market,” as he describes it, that is helping keep the business afloat: Israelis.

“In the past few weeks, we’ve had several busloads of Israelis touring Jericho every weekend, and our cable car is high up on their list of things to do,” Hamze says. “Just like we welcome other tourists, we welcome them too.”

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Perfect stopover

The view from the Jericho cable car.
Emil Salman

Barely a 30-minute drive from Jerusalem, Jericho is located in the Jordan Valley, just west of the Jordan River. Considered by many to be the oldest inhabited city in the world, this oasis also distinguishes itself as the lowest city on Earth, situated 258 meters (846 feet) below sea level. Because of its year-round warm weather, it has long served as a winter retreat for local Palestinians. After Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and before the first intifada erupted some 20 years later, it was a popular destination for Israelis as well.

During those years, the restaurants and shops of Jericho would be full of Israelis, especially on Shabbat. Given its location, smack in the middle of Route 90 – Israel’s longest highway, extending from Metula in the north to Eilat in the south – it was the perfect place to stop on a long road trip. Never known as a hotbed of Palestinian radicalism, Jericho was always considered a safe destination for Israelis interested in exploring the West Bank.

That explains why it was the first West Bank city to be handed over to the Palestinian Authority under the 1993 Oslo Accords, which were meant to pave the way for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. Indeed, a casino built on its outskirts, which would draw crowds of Israelis every weekend, became a symbol of the “new Middle East.” But only a few years after it opened, the second intifada erupted at the start of the 2000s, forcing its closure.

Downtown Jericho.
Emil Salman

Ever since, Israelis have stopped traveling to Jericho. Not so much because they don’t want to, but because they can’t. Jericho is part of Area A in the West Bank, where the PA has more or less full autonomy and, aside from rare cases, the Israeli army does not enter.

At the entrance to Jericho, a big red sign warns drivers of the risks of entering: “The entrance for Israeli citizens is forbidden, endangers your lives and is against Israeli law,” it states.

In recent weeks, however, the Israeli army has started granting special permission for organized groups to visit, subject to strict regulations.

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” says Yoram Szabo, a veteran guide who brought his first group of 50 Israelis to Jericho a few weeks ago and has another two similar-sized tours booked for December.

“Whenever I was guiding groups from overseas, I always took them to Jericho,” says Szabo, who works with foreign groups visiting the Holy Land (mainly from the United States and Brazil) and Israeli groups traveling abroad.

“Once I knew that Jericho had emerged from COVID and was welcoming visitors again, I said to myself, ‘Why not bring Israelis?’ After all, I have no foreigners I can bring these days.”

A cable car ascending to the Mount of Temptation in Jericho.
Emil Salman

The cable car descending from the Mount of Temptation.
Emil Salman

Most Israelis, he adds, “don’t even know that it’s possible to go there.”

Moti Efrati, who has organized several tours of Jericho for Israelis in recent weeks, says that while safety is an issue for many of them, it does not serve as a deterrent. “I have absolutely no problem filling up buses, especially now Israelis are traveling abroad like they used to before COVID,” he says. “And I have tours booked solidly through much of December.”

Someone registering for one of his recent Jericho tours asked whether the group would be accompanied by the Israeli army. “I told him that to do that, I would have to violate the Oslo Accords,” Efrati recounts.

Architectural masterpiece

Even though the cable car opened more than 20 years ago, most Israelis had already stopped traveling to Jericho by then. Which means that, as far as they are concerned, it still qualifies as something new to do.

The cafe overlooking Jericho in the West Bank.
Emil Salman

Most of the Israeli tours begin with a seven-minute ride on the cable car up to the Mount of Temptation, where, according to Christian belief, Jesus was tempted by the Devil while fasting for 40 days. As they approach the summit, the cars pass over gorgeous palm orchards and incredibly lush vegetation. After exiting the station at the top, they stop to take in the stunning views of the Jordan Valley and Dead Sea. They then climb another 150 steps to reach the Greek Orthodox monastery that is carved into the side of the cliff and is considered an architectural masterpiece, its balconies seemingly floating in the air.

Szabo says the Israeli group he brought to Jericho recently stopped on the way back for lunch at the restaurant atop the mountain where, on a clear day, it is possible to see the outlines of the tallest towers in Amman. The group had requested in advance an order of maqluba, the popular Arabic dish of chicken, fried vegetables and rice. “It’s quite amazing when you think about it,” he remarks. “We were a Jewish group at a Christian site dining on Muslim food in an area under the jurisdiction of the PA.”

For most of the Israelis visiting these days, there is an even more exciting attraction than the cable car: The recently unveiled floor mosaic at the eighth-century Hisham Palace – one of the largest of its kind in the world. The carpet-like mosaic, which contains more than 5 million stones, covers 835 square meters.

It was officially opened to visitors late last month following a $12 million, Japanese-funded restoration project that took five years and included the construction of a walkway suspended above the mosaic and a large dome to protect it.

A mosaic at Hisham’s Palace, Khirbat al-Mafjar, just north of Jericho in the West Bank.
Emil Salman

A mosaic detail at Hisham’s Palace in Khirbat al-Mafjar, just north of Jericho in the West Bank.
Emil Salman

“I’ve taken groups around the world and seen a lot in my time, but this is something unbelievable,” Szabo enthuses. “The Israelis I brought went nuts over it, and we were lucky that it had just opened when we came.”

Save for an Anglican group from London, the restaurants once popular with tourists in Jericho were largely empty on a visit earlier this week. “We’re waiting with open arms for the Israelis to come back,” says Ali Abu Sabich, the chef at Fairouz – a recently opened Middle Eastern restaurant located on one of the city’s main thoroughfares.

“We need to overcome politics and start living,” he adds.

Abu Sabich speaks perfect Hebrew and apprenticed at several Tel Aviv restaurants before assuming his current position. He says he can easily spot the Israeli tourists who have descended on Jericho in recent weeks – even though, as he notes, “they seem to be afraid to speak their language when they’re here.”

Obtaining permission to bring in Israeli groups can be complicated, Efrat admits. “I need to let the army know the names and ID numbers of every member of my group, what time we will arrive and what time we plan to leave,” he says. “Then they all need to sign a declaration saying they understand that if something bad happens while they’re in Jericho, the Israeli army won’t be able to help them. I also need to make sure to get them out before dark, which doesn’t leave us that much time for touring during the winter months.”

Downtown Jericho.
Emil Salman

The Palestinian city of Jericho in the West Bank.
Emil Salman

Next stop, Bethlehem

Perhaps the biggest challenge in organizing these tours, says Efrati, is that he only knows the day before whether he has a green light from the army. “That’s because they need to see that everything is calm as close as possible to the time we go in,” he explains.

He has brought five groups – each featuring about 50 to 60 Israelis – on day trips to Jericho in recent weeks. Given the high level of interest in such tours, Efrati says he is now considering adding another West Bank city to his itinerary: Bethlehem.

“That’s the plan. I’ve already started talking to the army about it and we’re going to try to make this happen,” he says.

Next week, Efrati will be guiding a special tour for Israeli tour guides who are interested in bringing their own groups to Jericho. “Given the way things have been going, I would say there’s more than enough business to go around,” he says.

The King Solomon Gallery, a souvenir shop located near the cable car base, specializes in Palestinian handicrafts and Dead Sea skincare products. Proprietor Ashraf Gheith says he’s thrilled to see Israelis starting to return to Jericho, and would love to see even more. “It’s time to start thinking about peace again and how we can connect to one another,” he says.

A resident of East Jerusalem, Gheith says he has quite a few Israeli friends and knows that one of the things deterring them from visiting Jericho is the red warning sign at the entrance to the city. “I can’t tell you how many Israelis I know who see that sign and immediately make a U-turn. It really scares them away.”

He asks if he can share a personal request with the Israeli government. “Please knock down that sign and open the border again,” he says.

Downtown Jericho.
Emil Salman