Towards the end of 1948 Uriel
Jefetz (also pronounced
Chefetz) an engineering
officer, suggested to hook up
the blockaded Jewish quarter
of Jerusalem with the rest of
the city using a cable car.
Before the declaration of the
State of Israel, Mount Zion
had been conquered in an
attempt to break the blockade
and yet access was
more

Towards the end of 1948 Uriel
Jefetz (also pronounced
Chefetz) an engineering
officer, suggested to hook up
the blockaded Jewish quarter
of Jerusalem with the rest of
the city using a cable car.
Before the declaration of the
State of Israel, Mount Zion
had been conquered in an
attempt to break the blockade
and yet access was limited due
to Jordanian fire from the Old
City walls. The cable car
linked the Israeli positions
on Mount Zion, with the St.
John's Hospital, today's Mount
Zion Hotel, and spanned 200
meters, suspended 50 meters
above the valley. It was only
used at night and during the
day was lowered into the
valley so that the Jordanians
could not detect it. The
single carriage could carry up
to 200 kilos of supplies and
the trip took only 2 minutes.
The whole mechanism was kept
in working order until the
city was reunited in 1967 but
kept a miliary secret until
1972 when it was first
revealed. For more information
visit
http://www.israelnationalradio
.com.

Category News & Politics

Tags Jerusalem, cable, car, Uriel, Jefetz, jewish, history, moment, israel, national, radio, arutz, sheva, jew, judaism, zion, zionist, zionism, torah, rabbi, jerusalem, israeli, 1948, war, independence, jordan, jordanian