J'lem mukhtar becomes first Palestinian to run for city council

In a first for Jerusalem politics, the mukhtar of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Sur Bahir announced Tuesday that he is running in the upcoming Jerusalem municipal elections.

Arabs vote in east Jerusalem.
Photo: Channel 1 [file]

Slideshow: Pictures of the week

The decision by the mukhtar (village leader) Zohair Hamdan to run for city council in the November 11 elections flies in the face of the traditional Arab boycott of the city elections. Palestinians do not recognize Israeli sovereignty over the city.

"The city does not do anything for the [Arab] residents of east Jerusalem," Hamdan said. "Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski only knows [Arab] neighborhoods of east Jerusalem by the maps in his office."

Hamdan, 60, who dropped out of the last city council elections five years ago, said that he is running as an independent and was not affiliated with any politicians. He pledged to work for Muslims, Christians and Jews.

The mukhtar, who maintains close ties with Israel, was seriously wounded seven years ago in an attempted assassination by Palestinians after voicing stinging criticism of late PLO leader Yasser Arafat and his Palestinian Authority.

In the previous municipal elections, an Israeli-Arab entrepreneur ran in the municipal race, but due to the near-complete Arab boycott of the elections failed to win enough votes to enter the city council.

A quarter million Arabs live in Jerusalem, comprising one in three city residents. The capital's Arab population has repeatedly boycotted the Jerusalem elections since the city was reunified in 1967.

Previous Arab voter turnout for the municipal race has hovered around 1 percent.

Four decades after the unification of Jerusalem, infrastructure and city services in Arabs neighborhoods of east Jerusalem still lag far behind that of Jewish neighborhoods of the city, due in part to the uncertain political future of east Jerusalem.

Lupolianski spokesman Gidi Schmerling said Tuesday that the mayor makes "weekly" visits to [Arab neighborhoods of] east Jerusalem, and that funding and planning for these areas had increased during his tenure.