occupied East Jerusalem – Israel's local elections this week saw significant gains for far-right and ultra-Orthodox Zionist parties, raising concerns among secular Israelis and Palestinians in the country.
Analysts say liberal freedoms could be threatened in some cities and discrimination against Palestinians, already intensified following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, could escalate further. thinking.
The Israeli far right achieved its biggest victory in Jerusalem, winning a majority of municipal seats. Centrist Mayor Moshe Leon won a landslide victory and remained in office.
However, Mr. Leon will be at the mercy of far-right groups in the city, potentially causing serious tensions with the city's approximately 362,000 Palestinian residents.
“The city's results are very important in revealing ongoing trends,” said Daniel Seidman, an Israeli lawyer specializing in legal and public affairs in Jerusalem. “Sure, the ultra-Orthodox or far-right won a majority, but they mostly ran things. [in Jerusalem] already. “
The majority of Jerusalem's Palestinian residents live in the eastern part of the city. The international community has considered occupied East Jerusalem ever since Israel annexed it after occupying Arab lands in 1967. Since then, Palestinians in East Jerusalem have been allowed to participate in local elections, but not national votes.
However, most Palestinians in East Jerusalem boycotted the municipal elections to protest the occupation, as they have traditionally done.
liberal stronghold
In Tel Aviv, residents re-elected Ron Huldai as mayor. Israeli commentator and journalist Oren Ziv said Hulday had been the city's chief executive for more than 20 years and had shown that most voters wanted him to protect liberal norms and spaces. It is said that there is.
In December 2022, Huldai was one of several mayors who opposed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to give far-right politician Avi Maoz control over Israel's school curriculum. At the time, Huldai vowed to keep homophobia out of school curricula and warned that Israel was becoming a fascist theocracy.
Ziv told Al Jazeera that Tel Aviv residents have previously accused Huldai of gentrifying the city and making housing unaffordable for many. However, many people supported him in this election as well to prevent the advancement of right-wing candidates.
“Many feel that the Israeli government or regime could influence Tel Aviv, and that the only person who will stand up to them and Netanyahu is Huldai. I am concerned about the impact it will have on the issue,” Ziv told Al Jazeera. The far right is pushing for more conservative schools.
In the northern city of Haifa, where Palestinian-Israeli relations are considered better than in other mixed cities, residents are waiting to see who will become the new mayor.
A runoff election between two relatively centrist candidates, former Mayor Jonah Yahav and David Etzioni, is underway.
But the results in Tel Aviv and Haifa appear to be an exception to the widespread gains enjoyed by right-wing candidates across Israel.
Ziv said many secular, left-wing Israelis did not vote because of the Palestinian organization Hamas's deadly attack on the Israeli community in the ongoing war in Gaza that has killed more than 30,000 people. Distracted said the majority of them were Palestinian. Military outpost on October 7th.
Hamas attacked communal villages in southern Israel, where many leftist Israelis live. Ziv said the results reflect how right-wing Israelis are trying to advance their policy agenda and rally supporters in the weeks after the attacks, while larger left-wing movements are still in shock. He said that it reflects that.
“The results reflect who went to vote and who did not vote,” Zib told Al Jazeera.
boiling point?
Far-right Israeli mayor Yair Rebibo has been elected mayor of the mixed Palestinian-Israeli city of Lido (Rod in Hebrew).
Palestinian citizens in Lido claim that Rebibo intentionally destroys Palestinian homes and oversees the immigration of far-right Jewish Israelis, including settlers from the West Bank.
Rebibo also worked with Israel's far-right Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir to arm Israeli civilians in Lido with M16 rifles after the October 7 Hamas attack, saying the weapons were needed to protect them. He claimed that.
“The mayor has no support for the Arabs in the city. He only supports the extreme Israeli settlers,” said Khaled Zabarka, a Palestinian lawyer and human rights activist who lives in Lido.
Mr. Zabarka said that the Palestinians were forced to take action against Palestinian and Israeli residents in order to pressure Palestinians to leave the city, even though the majority were too poor to settle elsewhere. He added that he was afraid of intentionally increasing tensions between the two countries.
Seidman also believes that Jerusalem is a powder keg that could explode at any time. He said the election results suggest León will be unable to stop far-right officials from destroying homes, provocatively marching through Jerusalem's Palestinian neighborhoods and inciting hate crimes. said.
“The mayor may turn a blind eye and go along with something that is absolutely condemnable,” Seidman told Al Jazeera. “It's not because he's bad. It's because he's political.
“There's no benefit to him going out of his way to stop them.”
