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Jerusalem Arabs: The Forgotten Constituency

(Jerusalem Post) Khaled Abu Toameh - The Palestinian Authority has once again urged the Arab residents of Jerusalem to boycott next week's municipal elections for fear their participation would be interpreted as Palestinian recognition of the annexation of the eastern part of the city in 1968. Masked Palestinian activists appeared in a number of Arab villages and neighborhoods to hand out leaflets warning the residents against participating, signed by Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. There are at least 120,000 eligible Arab voters in the city, but less than 10% have cast their votes in previous municipal elections. "By boycotting the elections, the Arabs have shot themselves in the foot because they have deprived themselves of the opportunity to participate in the running of day-to-day affairs of the city," says Shalom Goldstein, Arab affairs adviser to the mayor of Jerusalem. Yet scores of Arab businessmen, merchants, and village heads have shown an unprecedented interest in the upcoming election, many of them openly and in total defiance of the PA. Some residents attribute this to the weakening of the PA's influence in the city with the closure of Orient House and the crackdown on Palestinian activists and security agents in the Arab neighborhoods. "We're not afraid of Arafat and his men....The PLO and Arafat are now very weak in Jerusalem. They have suffered many blows, especially since Sharon came to power. I believe that this time thousands of Arabs will vote," said Zuheir Hamdan, a village head in the Sur Baher neighborhood who was seriously wounded by Fatah gunmen outside his home a year ago.
2003-05-30 00:00:00
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