‘Jerusalem Arabs voting in PA elections revokes US approval as Israel’s capital’
The participation of Jerusalem Arabs in the upcoming Palestinian elections means that former US president Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is null and void, a senior Palestinian official said Monday.
The Palestinians have received assurances from the European Union and other international parties that the Arab residents of Jerusalem, who hold Israeli-issued ID cards, will be allowed to vote and run in the parliamentary and presidential elections slated for May 22 and July 31, respectively, the official told The Jerusalem Post.
On December 6, 2017, Trump announced the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the relocation of the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians condemned the announcement, saying it destroys the peace process and disqualifies the US from peace talks with Israel.
“The Israeli government apparently does not want to announce its decision to allow the Palestinians in Jerusalem to participate in the Palestinian elections for political reasons,” the official told the Post. “We understand that [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu does not want to make such an announcement on the eve of the elections in Israel.”
The Palestinians welcome the purported decision to allow the Arabs in Jerusalem to participate in the Palestinian elections, the official said, adding: “The participation of the Palestinians in Jerusalem in our elections actually revokes Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and affirms that east Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the State of Palestine.”
On Sunday, a senior Israeli official told the Post the government had not made a decision regarding the participation of Jerusalem Arabs in the Palestinian elections.
The majority of the Arabs in Jerusalem are not Israeli citizens and hold Israeli-issued ID cards in their capacity as permanent residents of Israel.
Two other senior Palestinian officials, Mutasem Tayem and Nabil Sha’ath, on
Sunday said Jerusalem Arabs would cast their ballots in Israeli post offices in east Jerusalem neighborhoods located within the boundaries of the Jerusalem Municipality.
Jerusalem Arabs would also be allowed to present their candidacy in the Palestinian Authority’s parliamentary and presidential elections, they said.
“Jerusalem is an occupied city and the capital of the future Palestinian state,” PA presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rudaineh said. He was responding to Kosovo’s decision to open an embassy in Jerusalem. The move was in violation of international resolutions and would have “repercussions in the near future,” he said.
The PA was in contact with the new US administration, which supports the twostate solution and opposes Israeli unilateral steps, Abu Rudaineh said.
“Israel knows that real peace requires the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital,” he said. “There will be no settlements within the borders of the Palestinian state.”
Could a method used to help oust former US president Donald Trump in America impact the election in Israel?
In last November’s American election, the pro-Democrat organization Vote Tripling hired people to stand outside polling stations in ten decisive cities and ask voters to call or text three friends and encourage them to vote.
A similar project to raise turnout in next Tuesday’s election was launched Monday by the Darkenu movement, which bills itself as the largest non-partisan civil society movement in Israel, but whose fore-runners led efforts to defeat Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Darkenu (Our Way), led by former Labor Knesset candidate Yaya Fink, launched the “Democrator” app, which can be downloaded for free on Apple and Android. The app is secured, offers no possibility of personal data leaks and is different than the Elector App utilized by Likud and others.
Darkenu is recruiting and training thousands of volunteers to be dispatched on Election Day to stand outside of polling stations all over the country. They will approach citizens who have already voted and ask them to send voting-encouragement messages to a few people, friends or family and get them to vote.
Fink said Darkenu is not against Netanyahu and will send volunteers to polling stations in Likud strongholds like Kiryat Shmona and those of the its satellite parties like Bnei Brak. “If people don’t vote and don’t believe in the system and the democratic institutions, it’s a very short path to not being a democracy,” Fink said.