New zip line over East Jerusalem offers end-of-summer adrenaline rush
The country’s longest such attraction is the latest in a string of projects created by the right-wing City of David Foundation — all over the Green Line
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Significant to all three of the world’s major monotheistic religions, Jerusalem is said to have a heavenly and an earthly dimension. That would put its newest attraction, a 731-meter (2,400-foot) zip line, somewhere in the middle.
According to its creators at the City of David Foundation, it’s the longest zip line in Israel. And with rides costing about NIS 2 ($0.54) per second, it doesn’t come cheap.
This reporter took the plunge earlier this week as families queued up for a last adrenaline rush before the start of the school year on September 1.
The zip line starts at the “David Lookout,” an attractive little complex that will soon also house a visitors’ center on the Jerusalem Promenade close to the UN headquarters at Government House.
The queue included a secular family from the central city of Gedera (“It’s a great attraction for the kids”), a young Russian-speaking couple from Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv; two religious men sporting long sidelocks from the southern city of Arad; and a group of Haredi men in full black and white garb, minus their coats.
It was well over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit).
Not being a stickler for the small print, I turned up in sandals, which are not allowed because of the landing on the other side. (The instructions also specify a minimum weight of 45 kilograms, or seven stone, which was fine.) Fortunately, my son had left a pair of shoes in the car, size 45.
So, looking like something out of “Donald Duck Hits the Holy Land,” I waddled to the cashier, handed over NIS 135 (nearly $37), signed my life away on a form with 17 clauses, and made for the steps leading up to the launching-off platform.
One young man kitted me out with the requisite harness. Up the steps, another hooked me onto the line and told me to hold onto the blue rope.
Suddenly, I had terrifying flashbacks of standing on a high diving board at the swimming pool, aged around 11, doing what my mother called a St. Vitus dance to avoid jumping off.
But before I could chicken out, I was off, speeding downward and twisting around into a position that unfortunately put me with my back to the Old City view.
Still, it was fast and fun, and then it was over. I was told the descent takes 70 seconds.
The route takes you above the trees, past homes in the Palestinian neighborhood of Jabel Mukaber. It finishes with an unexpected jolt at the so-called Peace Forest below the Jewish part of the Abu Tor neighborhood.
“How was it?” asked the man hauling me in. “Fun!” I replied. “Praise the Lord,” he responded.
The zip line is one of a growing number of tourist attractions being built by the City of David Foundation, with the full involvement of the Jerusalem Municipality and the government.
In mainly Palestinian East Jerusalem, in areas hugging the Old City and Hinnom Valley that the Palestinians see as part of a future state, is the City of David National Park with its extensive archaeological excavations, a beautifully appointed and landscaped campsite (full when this reporter visited, mainly with national religious families), a rope bridge linking Palestinian Abu Tor and Mount Zion, a farm specializing in ancient crafts, and an events facility.
The attractions are controversial because the foundation (known in Hebrew as Elad, or Ir David) has a clear right-wing, religious orientation: It funds archaeological excavations to strengthen the Jewish claim to Jerusalem and acquires properties from Palestinians in the ancient village of Silwan, just below the Old City walls, to settle Jews there.
A spokesperson for Emek Shaveh, a left-wing not-for-profit organization that tries to ensure that ancient sites are open to people of all faiths and communities, said, “The zipline, the rope bridge, and the other developments that the state funds for the extreme right-wing association are not intended to promote tourism but to change the historic multicultural space of the city into an exclusively Jewish one. It’s wrong. It’s devastating. And it has to stop.”
In a statement, the City of David said it was a privilege to pioneer tourist facilities in Israel and to make Jerusalem accessible to tourists from Israel and overseas. The new zip line would make a “wonderful home” for the many fans of extreme sport, the statement added.
The Jerusalem Municipality said that it was “working and will continue to work for the development of tourism in the city of Jerusalem.”
