JERUSALEM: An Israeli plan to build a cable car to Jerusalem's historic Old City has united architects and Palestinian activists in opposition to a project they say is both an eyesore and a ploy to entrench Israeli control over the city's contested eastern sector.

Developers say the proposed project is meant to relieve snarling traffic and will ferry some 3,000 tourists an hour from the western sector directly to the Old City, in east Jerusalem. It follows a series of Israeli projects in the combustible city that have enraged the Palestinians.

The project is associated with the Elad Foundation, a group that has settled Jewish nationalists in the heart of Jerusalem's Arab neighborhoods. The final cable car station will be integrated into a future tourist center run by the organization.