Israelis vote for municipal councils in test of public mood

AFP | Jerusalem                                                   

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Israelis voted Tuesday in twice postponed municipal elections that could offer a gauge of the public mood nearly five months into the war against Hamas in Gaza.

Soldiers had already cast their ballots over the past week at special polling stations set up in army encampments in Gaza as fighting rages.

Polls were due to close at 10:00 pm (2000 GMT).

More than seven million people are eligible to vote in the elections for local councils across most of Israel, in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in Jerusalem and in parts of the annexed Golan Heights.

The vote, first scheduled for October 31, has been pushed back to November 2024 in towns and villages bordering the besieged Gaza Strip or Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel almost daily since the start of the Gaza war.

Nearly 150,000 Israelis have been displaced by hostilities in those areas.

Amit Peretz, 32, a Jerusalem city council candidate, said Jerusalem's diverse make-up demands that "all voices are heard in the city in order to make everything work, because it's very complex".

Gita Koppel, an 87-year-old resident of Jerusalem, said she turned out because voting was "the only way you can have your voice heard".

"I hope the right people come in and do the right thing for Jerusalem," she said.

The elections were delayed after Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack.

Israel's retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 29,878 people in Gaza, most of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry.

In Jerusalem and other major cities, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish candidates aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political allies are running against government critics and more moderate candidates.

Netanyahu has faced increasing public pressure over the fate of hostages still held in Gaza, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.

- National springboard -

Tel Aviv's mayor of 25 years, Ron Huldai, is seeking re-election in a race against former economy minister Orna Barbivai and lawyer Amir Badran, who hopes to become the Israeli commercial hub's first Arab mayor but faces long odds.

If elected, Barbivai would be the first woman in the job.

In Jerusalem, an Arab candidate, Sondos Alhoot, was running at the head of a joint Jewish-Arab party. If elected, she would be the first Arab woman on the city council since 1967.

The elections for municipal and regional councils are largely seen as local affairs, though some races can become springboards for politicians with national ambitions.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who had a brief stint as prime minister before Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, said Tuesday's vote shows "there is no problem" holding elections even during the war.

In a post on social media platform X, Lapid called for a snap parliamentary election "as soon as possible" to replace Netanyahu.

Voter turnout in the last local elections, in 2018, stood at 59.5 percent, lower than any of Israel's five parliamentary elections since 2019.

Most Palestinians in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in 1967 and later annexed, have the right to vote in municipal elections but not for parliament.

Palestinian residents make up around 40 percent of the city's population, but many of them have boycotted past elections.

The first results are expected later Tuesday. Second round run-offs will be held where necessary on March 10.