NRP and National Union to run joint Jerusalem list

The National Religious Party and the National Union announced Tuesday that they will run on a joint list in November's Jerusalem municipal elections.

The decision by the two major right-wing religious parties to merge in the city council vote follows a similar agreement worked out on the national level, and is meant to buttress their strength on the Jerusalem City Council.

It also comes at a time when the NRP is being challenged on the local level by a new joint secular and modern Orthodox party list, called Yerushalmim (Jerusalemites), which has criticized the NRP as being woefully ineffective over the last five years in helping the modern Orthodox public, at a time when the city is becoming increasingly haredi.

In the last municipal elections five years ago, the NRP garnered four seats in the 31-member city council, and quickly joined the predominantly haredi city council coalition of Mayor Uri Lupolianski.

The National Union did not run in the 2003 municipal elections, while two of its three factions that ran separately - Moledet and Tekuma - did not garner enough votes to enter the city council.

According to the parties' agreement, signed in the Knesset on Tuesday, the NRP will get to select the first four slots on the party list, and the National Union will pick the fifth and sixth seats on the joint list.

"I view this agreement, which was signed in Israel's capital, as an important symbol and first step towards the creation of a new political home on the local level as well," said NRP chairman Zevulun Orlev.

"I am convinced that the [modern Orthodox] public in the city want this unity very much," said Jerusalem city councilman David Hadari (NRP.)

"Specifically because Jerusalem is divided into various sectors, it is important to have a large and strong political body which will know how to fight for the modern Orthodox community, its values and what it holds dear."

The National Religious Party has not publicly endorsed any of the mayoral candidates in the November 11 race, but is negotiating with both Jerusalem opposition Nir Barkat and MK Meir Porush of United Torah Judaism, a party spokesman said.

Barkat, who has been avidly courting the modern Orthodox vote in the city, got a major boost last week with the endorsement of the ailing former chief rabbi and modern Orthodox spiritual leader Rabbi Mordechai Eliahu.

Jerusalem residents get to vote for both mayor and the city council in the municipal elections.