Israel Votes

Bibi's coalition is holding together so we're talking about municipal elections today. Israelis vote in municipal elections every five years.

In 2008, the somnolent secular voters of Jerusalem woke up and decided that municipal politics do matter to daily life. Actually, they probably figured that out the morning after the 2003 vote, when the failure to show up at the polls resulted in an ultra orthodox mayor in office. After five years of Haredi leadership, many secular Jerusalemites had moved west to Tel Aviv. In casual conversation people will tell you that the city lost its cultural vitality and became more divided after 2003.

Not surprisingly, voter turnout shot up in 2008. "Zionist" (*more on this below) Nir Barkat (of Yerushaliyim Tatzliah) was elected mayor with 53% of the vote. Just to give you a window on how much a vote can matter, the second place finisher, representing United Torah Judaism (Haredi), had 42% of the vote. At the time of the vote, 2008, the Haredi population was about 32% (about 250,000 people - not all of them voting age) of the city! The Zionist population was around 300,000 people, likely with more of them of voting age.  (Of course, all Canadians remember May 2011 as a good lesson in demographics and voting power, some of us more bitterly than others.)

Voting day in Jerusalem gave a festive mood to the streets as nearly every school or community centre I walked by seemed to be a voting station with folks outside encouraging citizens to vote. Over the last week, parties have been campaigning hard. On several days I was offered pamphlets on candidates or canvassed for my likely vote. It was fun to be an observer because I gather from several folks it was rather a nose-plugging vote this year.

outside a polling station

outside a polling station

campaigning on the day

Nir Barkat - who, by the way, is a high-tech millionaire, the new standard for Israeli politicians (see Naftali Bennett) - has been re-elected, winning by what appears to be about 55% of the vote. Yesterday I read his English election platform. *He talks about the three sectors of the city as Haredi, Arab, and Zionist. The first two are self-explanatory. The third struck me as odd. I thought maybe it was a translation issue, as in maybe the concept in English wasn't quite there. But, no, it turns out that is the term used for the basket of Jewish Israeli Jerusalemites who are not ultra-Orthodox. Basically, they are the tax-paying, engaged citizens of the city. The language gets so tricky here because every group in engaged in their own way, but the two other groups have much more specific agendas and live in more isolated communities.

The divided nature of Jerusalem cannot be escaped. It is perhaps both most veiled and most obvious in municipal elections. Again in 2013, it appears that Arab Jerusalem abstained from voting for the mayor. A NYT article on Monday reported that in 2008 only "2,744 East Jerusalem Arabs voted, a participation rate of 1.8 percent, compared with 60 percent in the city’s Jewish neighborhoods." This tradition of not voting is part of the Palestinian leadership's "anti-normalization" campaign that chooses to not engage with Israeli politics.

From the article:

“The whole thing is not really rational,” said Sari Nusseibeh, president of Al Quds University, whose family has 1,300-year roots in Jerusalem. “It’s not by reason that people are guided; it’s by sentiments and feelings and fears and histories.” 

There are some 360,000 Arab Jerusalemites and probably more than a third of them could vote. If they voted like the Haredim, in a block, they could have a serious impact on the city's politics. But, again quoting from the NYT article:

Alaa Obeid, 23, a student who briefly flirted with running for City Council this year on a new slate promoting the environment and women’s empowerment, said she and most other Palestinian residents rarely thought about why they did not vote. It is just not part of the culture, she said.

“In our society, it’s very important what the public thinks,” Ms. Obeid said, explaining why she decided against running. “If all these years, people have boycotted the elections, I might be in a place where there’s a risk to my future. I’ll be an outcast.”

 So, Arab Jerusalemites are once again (still) in limbo with no foreseeable improvement in city services such as garbage collection and public parks. And, no increased political leverage against settlements in East Jerusalem. Meanwhile, if the rapid transit plans of Barkat are built, the united-divided city of Jerusalem will be ever more connected by rail.

Nir Barkat's Transit Plan

The 2008 Israeli census pages I can access don't divide Jewish citizens into Zionists and Haredim. I can tell you that in 2008 about 68% of the city was Jewish and 30% Muslim, with a sprinkling of Christians.