Exercising the right to vote

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I was happy to vote today!
Israel had municipal elections and it was a yom shabbaton, a day off from work and school.
Two of our town's schools had polling places for the roughly 6,500 residents old enough to vote. 
It was a festive atmosphere in Meitar, with folks walking in, stopping to chat, and smiling at one another. 
And music and booths just outside the schools' gates. 
It happens every five years.
Democracy in action. 
May the best man win! 
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Democracy in action

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Joining millions of fellow Israelis I cast my ballot today in our national elections.

Secretly each voter chooses one little slip of paper to put in the envelope. 

 We have all these many lists to choose from.
The name and letter symbols for each party (sometimes even a party of one) were written in Hebrew, Arabic, and Russian.

 Three officials checked my identity card, found my name on the official voter record, and handed me an envelope.
At the end one man was nice enough to take a picture for me, too.

Only one voter is allowed at a time inside his assigned polling station.
So long lines waited outside each of the five rooms inside the school.

At the gate of the school,  representatives of the bigger parties had booths with pamphlets and a few giveaways.
There seemed to be a festive atmosphere in town--most people did not have to work, neighbors greeted one another, and every citizen was proud to cast his vote and to live in a democracy where elections go smoothly.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday.)

Posters and politics

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P is for posters and politics.
Last Tuesday  Israel had municipal elections.
Remember my post with the mirror on the billboard?  The message there was that "Kehila is actually YOU."
Well,  in my town  Avner Ben Gera, leading the Kehila list (~party),  will continue as head of Meitar Local Council for another five years.
The poster (shot through the bus window)  says that the good work will go on  because Meitar is in good hands.
The fence adds some strange stripes to Avner,  but obviously the majority of  residents of Meitar think he has earned his stripes and they voted accordingly.
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday  where the introduction today is about protective vests for police dogs. Very interesting.)
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Ballot box, blue and white

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 B is for ballot box in my village's polling station.
My ballot joins millions of others that were or will be dropped into these simple blue cardboard boxes today.
They will determine the future direction of Israel and maybe even--but hopefully NOT!--the fate of the world.

As if we could forget, Google doodle gave us a reminder this morning:  "Election Day--don't forget to vote!"
Over 30 lists are running for the Knesset; I wonder which little slip of paper the letters G and L in the doodle chose.
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(An egg-filled crazy way of getting voters engaged: see my previous post.)
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(Linking to ABC Wednesday B-day.)
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Egg toss at Bibi and Shelly

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A crowd was forming as I came out of  Shuk Mahane Yehuda market this afternoon.

Most of the onlookers were religious yeshiva boys.

 Some had long twirled side-curls and some had short tucked-behind-the-ear peot.
Nevertheless, I worked my way closer to the center to see what was going on.

 Two young seculars were wearing goggles and T shirts bearing pictures of two of the major candidates in tomorrow's national elections; the one above had Bibi (Netanyahu) in the crosshairs.

 This one, wearing Shelly (Yacimovich, Labor), was trying hard to explain that the people were invited to throw an egg at the candidate they disliked the most.
They had trays with 60 eggs ready on the pavement.

OK, the boy takes aim, the victim guards his betsim (eggs) . . .

 . . . and splat!  egg yellow on his chest, broken shell on his hand!

Strewn on a black cloth under the eggs were voting slips (yes, we still vote with a paper petek placed inside a paper envelope), and they were all of the Shas party (religious Sephardic Jews).
There was even a glossy picture of their head rabbi on the ground. Oi.

Then the Israeli crowd dynamic came into play.
A woman walking by yelled "Why do you make our sidewalk filthy with all those Shas papers?!  Disgusting!!"
Some young men in black shouted back "So you will have another reason to hate us."

Then an older man saw the egg-throwing in the crowded place (already spilling over onto the tram tracks) and said he was calling the police (as he took pictures with his cell phone).
Then the mood changed.
The previously-amused religious young men started chanting "Smolanim hachutsa, smolanim hachutsa" --meaning "Out with the left-wingers!"

The two in white packed up their eggs and got out of there.
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There has been plenty of mud-slinging in this election campaign, but I have never heard of egg-slinging, till today.
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For a nice piece about how the candidates always visit "Jerusalem's iconic fruit market" and how the sellers see them, read in The Times of Israel.
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(Post links to Our World Tuesday.)

The joys of citizenship and democracy

Google Israel has this cute logo today for our election day.

This morning I was in a voting "booth" in Bet Ha'am in my moshav (village). Actually you just go behind a cardboard screen, select one of 33 little ballots (for the 33 parties running in this national election), put it in the envelope, come out and push it into the slot of a locked cardboard box. The four officials sitting at a long table then return your identity card, which they had checked against the list of registered voters.

The polls close in two hours from now, at 10 p.m. The votes will be counted by hand (!) and eventually we will know who are new leaders are, for better or for worse. Despite the cold and stormy weather over 50% have come out to vote so far.

Election Day is a national holiday. Schools were closed and most people did not have to work. Stores were open and did a thriving business.

Fortunately I returned from Australia just in time. Israel is one of the few Western countries that does not allow absentee ballots. In fact, one out of eight eligible voters is currently either residing abroad (or studying or traveling) and will therefore not be voting. About 650,000 Israelis live outside the country.

I myself have been elsewhere for the last several elections. So today it was a special privilege for

me to feel part of the democratic process again, to be home.

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D is for democracy. To see what other bloggers have chosen for D-day, please visit ABC Wednesday.

And the winner is . . .

Jerusalem's new mayor will be Nir Barkat. He received 51% of yesterday's votes. Rabbi Meir Porush got 42% of the ballots. The secular candidate was victorious over the ultra-Orthodox one.

AP photo from today's Jerusalem Post

Only about 35% of registered voters bothered to vote. The national average for the municipal elections across the country was 40%.

Jerusalem's population of 750,000 is divided into roughly one third to one half haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews), one third not-as-religious Jews and seculars, and one third Palestinians.

The Palestinians are mostly Muslims living in East Jerusalem, the neighborhoods annexed by Israel following the 1967 Six Day War, the areas they want as the capital of a future state.

Only a brave 2% of East Jerusalem Arabs voted.

Most heeded warnings from Palestinian leaders in Ramallah who said that voting in municipal elections is tantamount to recognizing Israel's "illegal" claim on East Jerusalem.

Although the Palestinian Authority has previously urged Jerusalem Arabs to boycott the municipal election, this is the first time the PA's chief Islamic judge, Sheikh Tayseer Tamimi, has issued a fatwa banning Arab residents from voting.

So you see it is complicated. Nothing in Jerusalem or Israel or the Middle East is simple or easy.

Let's hope Mayor Barkat will make it better for all of us.

Quo vadis, Jerusalem?

Quo vadis, Jerusalem?
("Whither goest thou?" is how the King James Version translates the Latin Vulgate verse John 16:5.)
Quo vadis, where are you headed, Jerusalem? Just a few minutes ago the polls closed. Only 35% of Jerusalemites voted and their votes will determine who the new mayor will be. BTW, for the first time 17-year-olds were given the right to vote (formerly the age was 18).
Who will occupy City Hall for at least the next five years? The Jerusalem Municipality building in Safra Square (shown below) looks like a nice place to work.
Uri Lupolianski, a religious Jew, has been in office since 2003.
Either hareidi (ultra-Orthodox) Meir Porush or secular Nir Barkat will be declared winner in the coming hours. Either way, we are in for some big changes.

The lion is the symbol of Jerusalem.

My village is just a few minutes' drive outside the Jerusalem city limits, so I have no right to vote for the mayor. But I feel I am a Jerusalemite at heart.

Quo vadis, Jerusalem? God only knows.

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To see what Q words other bloggers have chosen today, please visit ABC Wednesday.

God bless America

I just woke up to a bright new day. Opened my computer and Israel TV was broadcasting live the inspiring victory speech of Barack Obama. Our commentators then interspersed clips of Martin Luther King proclaiming, "I have a dream." Enough to bring tears to the eyes!

AP PHOTO

In July Obama wrote a note and put it into the Western Wall, "God's mailbox." Today his request has been granted. Today there is a feeling of new hope in the air.

Congratulations America! May our world have some leadership toward peace, soon and in our days.

Politics, posters, and political parties

Americans are at the polls today. A week from today Jerusalemites will be voting too, for a new mayor.
Arcadi Gaydamak is a Russian tycoon, a billionaire. Hebrew is not his strong point. His campaign slogan is "Lo medaber, oseh," meaning, he doesn't talk, he acts.

This poster says "Hatikva--the hope. Nir Barkat, mayor." I've heard that he plans to make Jerusalem a slick, high-tech city.

Barkat and Gaydamak are secular Jews running against ultra-Orthodox Meir Porush.

No offense, Mr. Porush. Really!

I simply didn't get a picture of his poster on the side of the moving bus. Actually I felt bad, standing and watching the buses on Herzl Blvd. run over his picture, which, as Jerusalemite Blog quipped, looks like a South Park-style Santa Claus.

The problem is that when election campaign pictures are illegally pasted on not-paid-for advertising spaces, the municipal supervisors come and tear them down, often leaving a mess.

But even worse is when the papers or the rolls of plastic banners are tied onto the fences with these azikonim (disposable handcuffs). They are made of tough ribbed plastic and are super hard to cut. I have a bad feeling that they will be left on the city's fences for a long time.

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ABC Wednesday today and our letter is P. Please visit the other bloggers to see what they post.