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At press time, one factor was certain even earlier than all of the poll containers within the metropolis had been counted: Moshe Lion is on the helm for one more 5 years. At half previous midnight, he declared to his followers and supporters, gathered on the ICC, that earlier than the rest, he prays for the secure return of the hostages, for the troopers nonetheless on the entrance, and for the bereaved households.
“I’m excited. I used to be privileged to be mayor for 5 years, and I began the revolution along with my associates. This revolution will get stronger and stronger, like a form of booster. Jerusalem is greater than any particular person and any occasion, and we are going to make it extra beloved, extra attention-grabbing, extra dynamic – and calmer. It’ll bloom.
“Will probably be not solely the Holy Metropolis or simply the capital metropolis, not solely the capital of the Jewish individuals. Jerusalem will even be Israel’s subsequent factor. I would like my coalition, with One Jerusalem at its middle, to have many companions from all components of town, from all components of the communities of town.”
In accordance with the preliminary poll counting, the 2 largest lists on the brand new council might be Shas and Degel Hatorah. Lion hasn’t managed to interrupt by means of, ending up with solely two seats on the council.
With the fickle climate (cooling down and a little bit of rain after every week of sunshine), the warfare, the rate of interest that doesn’t go down, and the final gloomy environment, it appeared on Tuesday this week that the whole lot was drained right into a lackluster and disappointing Election Day when it comes to the participation figures.
Properly, it was certainly so. On the time of this writing, about 4 hours earlier than the closing of the polls, the official knowledge point out a drastic lower within the variety of contributors – about 10% lower than within the 2018 elections.
The turnout was so unhealthy that President Isaac Herzog appealed to the residents: “Go vote and make an impression. The native authorities impacts our lives in a really dramatic means. If we actually wish to affect the course of our lives, it’s best to exit and vote within the elections for the native authorities.
“It has been confirmed on a number of events that in a warfare, in a state of emergency, we see the municipality and the native authority and council dealing with and going through a mess of challenges, and nothing is extra essential than that.”
Sadly, a minimum of by 6 p.m., Herzog’s message didn’t encourage too many Jerusalemites, who remained detached and much from the ballots.
Since 3 p.m., in an virtually determined try and encourage the general public to exit and vote, the speed of recorded messages on the networks and telephones of tens of hundreds of residents, primarily from Lion but additionally from different candidates, elevated significantly.
“Go vote” was the central motif in these calls. “For the sake of our metropolis, for the way forward for our youngsters, and for the sanctity of Jerusalem” had been the messages that got here from the multitude of ultra-Orthodox and non secular factions.
The marketing campaign in Jerusalem is being waged this time across the future composition of town council. However indifference among the many basic public and the excessive voting percentages among the many ultra-Orthodox public could forestall the achievement of the want of many Jerusalemites, together with the incumbent mayor, to achieve a extra balanced metropolis council when it comes to the illustration of the assorted sectors.
The day of elections
Within the well-heeled Baka neighborhood at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, the whole lot is as regular; that’s, there isn’t a hint of the environment of Election Day. The cafés are filling up, and the delis and greengrocers are displaying their wares with none indication of a special occasion.
Within the metropolis middle, site visitors is comparatively mild; a visit from Hebron Highway to KKL Road takes just some minutes, and there’s no hint of the infamous site visitors jams. At 10:10, close to the well-known steps of the Hebrew gymnasium, a number of photographers and journalists are gathering, ready for Lion, accompanied by his spouse, Stavit, to vote.
“Sure, after all, I voted for Moshe Lion,” the mayor tells us with an enormous smile, including, “The elections are an excellent pleasure. The east of town deserves a much bigger finances for infrastructure and training; town is clear; and Jerusalem is at the moment the most secure metropolis within the nation. Might it proceed like this.”
Lion, wearing certainly one of his extra elegant fits, matching the colour of his spouse’s luxurious apparel, provides that we’re all nonetheless within the trauma of Oct. 7, and he hopes that the whole lot will return to regular. In response to a reporter’s query about what Non secular Zionism means to him, the identical motion that reached the height of division in these elections, Lion merely solutions, “I’m a part of it.”
Lion might permit himself the freedom of joking round a bit, on condition that the polls point out help for him, in addition to for his checklist, which can seemingly keep away from the shame of 2018, when he was elected with none illustration on the council.
It’s already 11:30 a.m. within the Bayit Vagan neighborhood, on Yosef Hachami Road. At a big polling station within the coronary heart of a contemporary ultra-Orthodox space, younger males in white shirts and tzizit are standing exterior, providing flyers for the Noam Jerusalem checklist, led by Eldad Rabinowitz, a Silwan resident.
They appear significantly enthusiastic, turning with a smile to the ladies with child carriages coming to the polls and inspiring me to go inside and vote for the sanctity of Jewish Jerusalem. A couple of meters away, overlaying the fence that hides a development website on the identical road, an enormous signal features a very giant image of essentially the most intriguing candidate in these elections, Avishai Cohen.
Cohen, who has already damaged an enormous taboo by inserting an ultra-Orthodox girl subsequent to him on the checklist, is, in actual fact, an enormous headache for the ultra-Orthodox lists. A energetic and energetic man, surrounded by a gaggle of ultra-Orthodox youths who look as much as him with no small quantity of admiration, he radiates restrained self-confidence.
“I do know there are lots of ultra-Orthodox, primarily Lithuanians and even Shasnikim (supporters of the ultra-Orthodox Shas get together), who inform me quietly, in secret, that they are going to vote for me on the poll field. I do know that I symbolize the brand new course of hundreds of younger ultra-Orthodox who need the change I symbolize.”
Whereas speaking to us, his assistants erected two extra big indicators on the balcony of one of many residences on the road – one with Cohen’s image and the opposite with that of Malka Greenblatt, his associate on this endeavor.
And so, on a dismal Election Day that includes a slightly detached public, on a road in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood (Bayit Vagan), an image of a lady with a wig and modest clothes is brilliantly emblazoned, and there may be little probability that some ultra-Orthodox shababnik (younger haredi insurgent) would dare to tear down the signal. So it may possibly’t be stated that nothing attention-grabbing was occurring on this ultra-Orthodox road in Jerusalem in these elections.
“I arrived to vote right here in Bayit Vagan, the place I reside. Individuals acknowledged me, smiled at me, and instructed me that they’re completely satisfied about my course and that they help the revolution I’m selling, with God’s assist,” Cohen saiy.
What’s amusing is that each side within the competitors are loudly taking part in the identical music, “We’re believers, sons of believers,” a extremely popular tune among the many conventional, non secular public and even amongst among the ultra-Orthodox.
Across the metropolis
From there, Jerusalem Submit photographer Marc Israel Sellem and I am going to Herzl Boulevard, to the Ziv faculties, the place double candidate Yossi Havilio, who’s working for mayor, in addition to on the head of the Jerusalem Union checklist, is encouraging residents to vote for him.
The Beit Hakerem neighborhood is without doubt one of the strongholds of the secular public within the metropolis, and right here there is a little more of an environment of a special occasion. Each the aged and younger adults arrive to vote. Havilio is considerably of a hero right here. Individuals strategy him, are pleasant to him, and remind him that they anticipate him to do lots on town council.
Havilio says he has a very good feeling. “In all of the secular neighborhoods, I’ve obtained superb suggestions, however I’m fearful by the low variety of individuals voting. We should discover a strategy to get the individuals out to vote; that is a very powerful difficulty now.
“I inform everybody that this can be a battle for the picture of Jerusalem: Will Jerusalem be liberal, open, and egalitarian? Right this moment, the ultra-Orthodox are the bulk on the council, though they’re a 3rd of the Jewish public; that isn’t proper… I’m not in opposition to the ultra-orthodox, but when we don’t hold these younger individuals in Jerusalem, we are going to lose town we love.”
At Mahaneh Yehuda – normally the stronghold of politicians, largely from the Proper wing – it looks like a standard weekday. There are virtually no marketing campaign indicators and only a few individuals – nothing to point that it’s Election Day.
On the entrance to the market, a gaggle of younger males greets us with flyers from Noam’s checklist. Rabinowitz, with a rifle slung over his shoulder and a smile, solutions the apparent query: Why does Jerusalem want two lists of ultra-Orthodox nationalists, and what does he deliver that his competitor, Arieh King, additionally a resident of a Jewish neighborhood within the japanese a part of town, doesn’t?
Rabinowitz elegantly sidesteps the query and elaborates that you will need to keep the sanctity and Jewishness of Jerusalem and that it’s for this sacred mission that he’s right here.
Adir Schwartz, surrounded by many younger volunteers carrying the yellow T-shirt of the Hitorerut motion, voted early within the morning within the Arnona neighborhood, the place he lives, and continued from there to the polling stations. Though the presence of the motion’s volunteers was extra sparse than throughout earlier instances, they confirmed up in all of the secular and combined neighborhoods.
In Mea She’arim and Geula, a extra attribute characteristic of the ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods is obvious. Automobiles with loudspeakers urging residents to vote drive by means of the streets filled with customers, though right here it’s a pretty routine sight. In Mea She’arim, there are, after all, pashkevilim, giant posters which can be widespread in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods, forbidding participation within the elections, however the initiative lacks the fervor of earlier years.
The morning’s tour ends on the steps of Damascus Gate within the Outdated Metropolis. The elections don’t significantly curiosity the residents and, except for one aged man, none of them is able to reply the query of whether or not she or he will vote. “Al Baladiyah, let or not it’s good for us,” he says in a combination of Hebrew and Arabic earlier than persevering with on his means.
By 4 p.m., the participation price within the elections within the japanese a part of town was simply over 1%. That is regardless of the Arab-Jewish checklist headed by Sundus El-Khot, head of the All of Its Residents get together.■
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