op-ed: Municipal elections in Israel

In light of the continuous partisan political, judicial and legal protests among large segments of Israeli society, against the backdrop of legislative amendments aimed at seizing the judicial authority and reducing the powers of the Supreme Court in favor of the right-wing and religious coalition parties, which have a parliamentary majority and form the government and control over its decisions and directions, the elections of the authorities will be held. Local-Municipalities, by the end of October 2023, next.

The elections and their dues will include the three municipalities of the first occupation zones in 1948:

1- Municipalities of the Hebrew Israeli Jewish community.

2- Municipalities of the Palestinian Arab community.

3- Municipalities of mixed cities.

The municipalities of the Israeli Hebrew community, especially in the main cities: West Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba, will witness severe grinding between the two sides of the dispute and conflict, within the Israelis, between the parties and supporters of the government coalition: 1- The parties of the extreme political right and the ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious parties, 2 - In the face of the parties of the moderate right and the center and the remnants of the weak left.

In the areas of the Palestinian Arab municipalities: Nazareth, Kafr Qassem, Sakhnin, Umm al-Fahm, Rahat and others with more than fifty Arab villages, in which competition is taking place in two directions:

The first is to reject the candidates of the Zionist parties of all kinds, and work to isolate them and their lack of influence on the structure, culture, and awareness of the Palestinians in the 48 areas, against the background of the national, national, and religious discrimination and oppression they face.

The second is the competition between Arab parties with multiple political tendencies: left, Islamist, nationalist, and local, despite family choices usually dominating local council elections.

As for the mixed cities with an Israeli Hebrew majority and a Palestinian Arab minority, the Palestinian interest is focused on achieving a state of presence in their local councils, and strengthening the Palestinian Arab representation for two reasons: the first is in search of improving the services they need in the Arab neighborhoods, and the second is their patriotic and nationalist motives, confirming that they are the people of the country. The indigenous people, in order to achieve equality for themselves as citizens, must be represented in their municipal councils, even if the majority are Israelis, as Palestinian candidates are looking to achieve alliances with Israeli centrist and moderate tendencies, i.e. the least bad in the face of hostile isolationist racist tendencies.

The municipal elections may not be an accurate reflection of the battle of protests ravaging Israeli society, but they will undoubtedly be a form of their results, in any case.