Palestinians debate value of Jerusalem vote boycott

JERUSALEM: As Jerusalem voters go to the polls Tuesday for municipal elections, Palestinians are debating not which candidate to back -- but whether to cast their ballots at all.

The vast majority of the disputed city's roughly 300,000 Palestinians are expected to boycott the polls again, despite calls by a minority to use the elections to seize influence in a city under full Israeli control for decades.

Rami Nasrallah, director general of East Jerusalem's International Peace and Cooperation Center think-tank, sees

little to gain from voting. "I'm not willing to recognise the political rules of the game and to recognise or legitimise the Israeli occupation," he said.

Israel captured the city's east and the surrounding West Bank in the 1967 Six Day War,

later annexing East Jerusalem in a move never recognised by the international community.

Palestinians claim it as the capital of their future state.

Palestinian voter turnout was less than one percent in the

last local vote in 2013, according to the Palestinian Academic Society for International affairs.

Municipalities and local councils across Israel will hold polls on Tuesday.

In Jerusalem a small number of Palestinian candidates are running for the council, but others have dropped out after criticism, intimidation and

legal issues.

One of those who withdrew was Aziz Abu Sarah, who had even announced his intention to run for mayor.

He said it was time for Palestinians to “rethink” their boycott, pointing out that over 50 years Israel had moved around 200,000 settlers into east Jerusalem.