JERUSALEM: Israelis voted Tuesday in twice postponed municipal elections that could offer a gauge of the public mood nearly five months into the war against Hamas in Gaza.
Soldiers had already cast their ballots over the past week at special polling stations set up in army encampments in Gaza as fighting raged.
Polls opened at 7:00 am (0500 GMT) and closed at 10:00 p.m. (2000 GMT) on Tuesday, at which point turnout stood at around 49 percent, according to election authorities.
That was down from 59.5 percent in 2018.
Turnout in Jerusalem was 30.8 percent and in Tel Aviv it was 40 percent, the authorities said.
More than seven million people were eligible to vote in the elections for local councils across most of Israel, in Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, in Jerusalem and in parts of the annexed Golan Heights.
No major incidents were reported.
The vote, first scheduled for October 31, has been pushed back to November 2024 in towns and villages bordering the besieged Gaza Strip or Lebanon, where Hamas ally Hezbollah has fired rockets at Israel almost daily since the start of the Gaza war.
Nearly 150,000 Israelis have been displaced by hostilities in those areas.
Amit Peretz, 32, a Jerusalem city council candidate, said Jerusalem’s diverse make-up demands that “all voices are heard in the city in order to make everything work, because it’s very complex.”
Gita Koppel, an 87-year-old resident of Jerusalem, said she turned out because voting was “the only way you can have your voice heard.”
“I hope the right people come in and do the right thing for Jerusalem,” she said.
The elections were delayed after Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel resulted in the deaths of at least 1,160 people, most of them civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive against Hamas has killed at least 29,878 people in Gaza, most of them women and minors, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.
Two candidates for council chief in Gaza border areas were killed in the October 7 attack: Ofir Libstein in Kfar Aza and Tamar Kedem Siman Tov, who was shot dead at her home in Nir Oz with her husband and three young children.
In Jerusalem and other major cities, far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish candidates aligned with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political allies were running against government critics and more moderate candidates.
Netanyahu has faced increasing public pressure over the fate of hostages still held in Gaza, and from a resurgent anti-government protest movement.
Tel Aviv’s mayor of 25 years, Ron Huldai, is seeking re-election in a race against former economy minister Orna Barbivai, who could become the first woman in the job.
Lawyer Amir Badran, an Arab candidate who had initially announced he would run for Tel Aviv mayor, quit the race before election day but was still vying for a city council seat.
In Jerusalem, another Arab candidate, Sondos Alhoot, was running at the head of a joint Jewish-Arab party. If elected, she would be the first Arab woman on the city council since 1967.
The elections for municipal and regional councils are largely seen as local affairs, though some races can become springboards for politicians with national ambitions.
Opposition leader Yair Lapid, who had a brief stint as prime minister before Netanyahu returned to power in late 2022, said Tuesday’s vote shows “there is no problem” holding elections even during the war.
In a post on social media platform X, Lapid called for a snap parliamentary election “as soon as possible” to replace Netanyahu.
Most Palestinians in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in 1967 and later annexed, have the right to vote in municipal elections but not for parliament.
Palestinian residents make up around 40 percent of the city’s population, but many of them have boycotted past elections.
Second round run-offs will be held where necessary on March 10.
Israelis vote for municipal councils in test of public mood
https://arab.news/g5rzg
Israelis vote for municipal councils in test of public mood
- Most Palestinians in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in 1967 and later annexed, have the right to vote in municipal elections but not for parliament
Family confirms death of Israeli-American hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin
The family issued a statement early Sunday, hours after the Israeli army said it had located bodies in Gaza.
“With broken hearts, the Goldberg-Polin family is devastated to announce the death of their beloved son and brother, Hersh,” it said. “The family thanks you all for your love and support and asks for privacy at this time.”
There was no immediate comment from the army, or details about the other bodies found.
The 23-year-old Goldberg-Polin was among the hostages seized by militants at a music festival in southern Israel on Oct. 7. He lost part of an arm in the attack.
Goldberg-Polin’s parents became perhaps the most high-profile relatives of hostages on the international stage. They met with President Joe Biden, Pope Francis and others and addressed the United Nations. On Aug. 21, they addressed a hushed hall at the Democratic National Convention, where the crowd chanted: “Bring them home.”
A Hamas-issued video in April showing Goldberg-Polin clearly speaking under duress sparked new protests in Israel urging the government to do more to secure his and others’ freedom.
The announcement is certain to put pressure on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to reach a deal to bring home remaining hostages. The Israeli leader has said military pressure is needed to win their release as ceasefire efforts falter.
Before Israel’s announcement, Israel said it believed 108 hostages were still held in Gaza and about one-third of them were dead.
Iraq seeks US investment in gas as new projects target energy independence
- Abdel-Ghani also said Iraq will launch a new gas investment project by the end of the year at the Al-Faihaa oil field in southern Iraq
BAGHDAD: Iraq plans to offer 10 gas exploration blocks to US companies during an upcoming visit by Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani to the United States, he announced on Saturday.
The move is part of Baghdad’s efforts to attract US investment into its energy sector, following previous licensing rounds where Chinese firms secured the majority of available fields.
The 10 gas blocks, left unclaimed following six licensing, rounds, will be presented in a new bidding process, Iraqi state media said, and comes as Iraq seeks to bolster its domestic gas production.
Abdel-Ghani also said Iraq will launch a new gas investment project by the end of the year at the Al-Faihaa oil field in southern Iraq. The project, with a capacity of 125 million standard cubic feet (mscf), is a key component of Iraq’s strategy to enhance its energy infrastructure.
The latest initiative follows recent agreements to develop 13 oil and gas blocks, aimed at increasing Iraq’s crude and gas output to supply power plants, which currently rely heavily on Iranian gas imports.
Israeli army announces death of soldier during West Bank operation
- The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began
JENIN, Palestinian Territories: Israel’s army on Saturday announced the first death of a soldier during its ongoing raid in the occupied West Bank that began four days ago.
An army statement said 20-year-old Elkana Navon “fell during operational activity” on Saturday and that another soldier was “severely injured” in the same incident, without providing details.
Since Wednesday at least 22 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, most of them militants, in simultaneous raids in several cities in the northern West Bank.
Since Friday, soldiers have concentrated their operations on the city of Jenin and its refugee camp, long a bastion of Palestinian armed groups fighting against Israel.
Violence has surged in the West Bank since Hamas’s unprecedented October 7 attack on southern Israel triggered the war in the Gaza Strip.
The United Nations said on Wednesday that at least 637 Palestinians had been killed in the territory by Israeli troops or settlers since the Gaza war began.
Twenty Israelis, including soldiers, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or during army operations over the same period, according to Israeli official figures.
During a visit to Jenin on Saturday, Israeli army chief of staff Herzi Halevi said Israeli forces “have no intention of letting terrorism (in the West Bank) raise its head” to threaten Israel.
“Therefore the initiative is to go from city to city, refugee camp to refugee camp, with excellent intelligence, with very good operational capabilities, with a very strong air intelligence envelope... We will protect the citizens of Israel just like that.”
Of the 22 Palestinians reported dead since Wednesday, Hamas and its ally Islamic Jihad have said at least 14 were members of their armed wings.
Earlier on Saturday, Hamas issued a statement saying one of its fighters carried out an “ambush” using “a highly explosive device” in the Jenin refugee camp “which led to the deaths and injuries of members of the advancing (Israeli) force.”
Iran’s president says his country needs more than $100 billion in foreign investment
- Pezeshkian said Iran needs up to $250 billion to reach its goal but more than half is available from domestic resources
TEHRAN, Iran: Iran’s president said Saturday his country needs some $100 billion in foreign investment to achieve an annual target of 8 percent economic growth up from the current rate of 4 percent.
The remarks by Masoud Pezeshkian, who was elected in July, came in his first live televised interview by state TV.
Pezeshkian said Iran needs up to $250 billion to reach its goal but more than half is available from domestic resources. Experts say growth in GDP of 8 percent would reduce double-digit inflation and unemployment rates.
Hundreds of entities and people in Iran — from the central bank and government officials to drone producers and money exchangers — are already under international sanctions, many of them accused of materially supporting Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and foreign militant groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis.
Pezeshkian in his interview complained about the sanctions and said his administration plans to reduce inflation, which is running at more than 40 percent annually, “if we solve our problems with neighbors and the world.” He did not elaborate.
Pezeshkian confirmed that his first visit abroad will be to neighboring Iraq and he would then fly to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly meeting on Sept. 22-23. He said while he was in New York he would meet with Iranian expatriates to invite them to invest in Iran. Out of more than 8 million Iranian expatriates, some 1.5 million Iranian live in the United States.
Pezeshkian, who is viewed as a reformist, was sworn in last month and parliament approved his cabinet earlier in August, promising a softer tone both inside and outside the country. His predecessor, Ebrahim Raisi, a hard-line protege of Iran’s supreme leader who led the country as it enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels, died in a helicopter crash in May, along with seven other people.
Iran’s economy has struggled since 2018 after then-President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the deal to constrain Tehran’s nuclear program and imposed more sanctions. Pezeshkian said during his presidential campaign that he would try to revive the nuclear deal.
Decades after independence, France-Algeria ties still tense
- Several historians believe that recognizing French colonization as a “crime against humanity” would be more appropriate
- During the historians’ debate, Algeria asked France to return the skulls of resistance fighters and historical and symbolic artifacts from 19th-century Algeria, including items that belonged to Algerian anti-colonial figure Emir Abdelkader
ALGIERS: The fraught relations between France and its former colony Algeria had eased a little in recent years, but a new rift over Paris backing Morocco’s autonomy plan for disputed Western Sahara has sent rapprochement efforts into a tailspin.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who is seeking a second term in presidential elections on September 7, was set to travel to France for a state visit, but this has been rescheduled twice and it is now doubtful in will happen at all.
Last month, Algiers withdrew its ambassador to Paris after French President Emmanuel Macron said Morocco’s autonomy plan was the only solution for the territory.
Algeria, which backs the territory’s pro-independence Polisario Front, denounced this as a “step that no other French government had taken before.”
France colonized Algeria in 1830 and the North African country only gained independence in 1962, after a war that authorities say killed more than 1.5 million Algerians.
French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during the war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian.
While France has made several attempts over the years to heal the wounds, it refuses to “apologize or repent” for the 132 years of often brutal rule that ended in the devastating eight-year war.
Experts now accuse both countries of exploiting the war for present-day political ends.
“The national narrative about the Algerian war is still dominant and during a campaign like the presidential election, Algerians are sensitive to these issues in their internal policy choices,” Hasni Abidi of the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Center told AFP.
Abidi said Tebboune now needed to “readjust his electoral speeches to protect himself from criticism on foreign policy” after the “complete fiasco” of failed attempts to restore relations with Macron.
Last week, Algeria marked its Moudjahid National Day commemorating war combattants with a speech by Tebboune, in which he said France wrongly “believed it could stifle the people’s revolution with iron and fire.”
In 2022, the two countries set up a joint commission of historians in an attempt to mend historical differences and appease tensions.
But, according to Abidi, the commission didn’t work fast enough and “did not succeed in freeing itself from political supervision.”
The expert said France’s latest move backing Morocco’s plan in Western Sahara “will deal another blow to the issue of memory” at the risk of “reopening old wounds and stigma from the colonial past.”
What followed France’s conquest of then Ottoman ruled Algiers was the destruction of its socio-economic structures, mass displacement, and the bloody repression of numerous revolts before the war erupted in 1954.
This chapter in the two countries’ history has been “exploited according to their issues and interests of the moment,” historian Hosni Kitouni told AFP.
During the historians’ debate, Algeria asked France to return the skulls of resistance fighters and historical and symbolic artifacts from 19th-century Algeria, including items that belonged to Algerian anti-colonial figure Emir Abdelkader.
“These items are in museums in France, where, from a legal standpoint, their presence is illegal,” Amira Zatir, an adviser at the Emir Abdelkader Foundation, told AFP.
She said many of these items were stolen when French forces looted the emir’s library during the Battle of Smala in 1843.
Algeria has also demanded the return of original archives from the Ottoman and colonial eras that were transferred to France before and after Algeria’s independence.
Algeria seeks reparations for actions committed by the former occupying power, such as the 17 nuclear tests conducted in its Sahara desert between 1960 and 1966.
Mustapha Boudina, a 92-year-old former war combattant who now heads the National Association of Former Death Row Inmates, said Algeria should require even more reparations.
“We need to put pressure on our enemies of the time so that they repent and apologize” for their “numerous crimes,” he said.
Several historians believe that recognizing French colonization as a “crime against humanity” would be more appropriate.
That was exactly how Macron described it during a visit to Algiers amid his presidential campaign in 2017, sparking an outcry from the French right.
