How Jerusalemites vote

On a cold, rainy day last week, my colleague, photographer Marc Israel Sellem and I traversed the rain-slicked Jerusalem streets in search of diverse opinionated Israelis. With winter coats buttoned tight, we headed toward the famous Mahaneh Yehuda market where the inclement weather that blustery Sunday afternoon made for thin crowds.

We encountered and approached many of the shuk regulars. A woman collecting spare change for charity declined to go on camera but with a smile said that she would advocate voting for God, as only God is in control of the world. A man who sells small products on the street said he doesn’t vote and never talks politics, but wished us luck finding people willing to share their views. The three questions we asked were:

• Who are you voting for?

• Who did you vote for last time?

• Who do you think is best suited to deal with the situation in the South? (Just days before, Israeli communities near Gaza were bombarded by rockets

and incendiary balloons and kites.)

The majority of people we spoke with declined to be interviewed – including a group of Americans who were employed by the US government and stated they were not allowed to comment on political matters. A group of newly inducted IDF soldiers from abroad also declined, citing regulations.

INTERVIEWING PEOPLE in downtown Jerusalem is a fun exercise but not necessarily indicative of the average Israeli voter. Statistics show that Jerusalem traditionally votes for the Likud and religious parties in much greater proportions that Israel’s two other largest cities, Tel Aviv and Haifa, where in Israel’s previous election, the Zionist Union Party of Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog was more popular. Still, it is worth noting that the Likud carried eight of the 10 largest cities in the country in 2015.

Our interview excursion was also an exercise in Jerusalem demographics, as Sellem, ever the keeneyed professional, expertly predicted which passersby would be English speakers, which were tourists, Russian, French speakers and which would be unwilling to speak to a journalist. He also pointed out that although we aimed for a mix of men and women, some religious women would be hesitant to go on camera.

One individual with a long black coat and long beard declined to be interviewed, but stated he was voting for “Gimmel,” the ballot letter assigned to the United Torah Judaism Party. In the 2015 elections, UTJ gained the support of 21.11% of the Jerusalem electorate, second only to the Likud, while in the country as a whole, UTJ was chosen by just under 5% of the voters.

AND NOW for the results of our survey. The two leading answers we received from our unofficial man-on-thechilly-street poll two weeks before the election were:

1) In first place was support for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, often referred to by his nickname Bibi.

2) In second place were the undecideds, those that either didn’t know or vowed not to vote at all.

Perhaps some who are unwilling to express a view are reluctant to get into heated political arguments and alienate friends and family members with different opinions.

Diverging opinions need not be divisive, however. At a restaurant recently, a group of seven or eight friends discussing the election discovered that every person at the table was voting for a different party. Then they all sat down to enjoy their meal together.