Aziz Abu Sarah at the Next Chapter, March 17-21, 2014, Vancouver Convention Center, Vancouver, Canada. Photo: Ryan Lash
On October 30, 2018 Jerusalem’s 375,000 voter age residents will have the opportunity to elect a new mayor and city council. In the last elections five years ago about 224,000 people used their right to vote. Amongst the 150,000 Palestinian residents who then had the right to vote about 1% used that right. (There are now about 175,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites who have the right to vote). Amongst the national religious and the ultra-orthodox Jewish voters, participation was above 90% whereas amongst the other Jerusalemite Jews all along the scale from traditional to secular, voter participation was about 50%.
Jerusalem is the core of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, but it is also the core of potential peace, not just between Israelis and Palestinians, but also among Jews themselves. As the conflict has become more acute with the absence of a peace process for more than four years, Jerusalem has become more polarized. For Palestinians in the city, life has become much more difficult. 78% of Jerusalem’s 350,000 residents live under the poverty line. Despite paying municipal taxes, municipal services are greatly lacking in East Jerusalem.
For the past 50 years, Palestinians have boycotted Jerusalem’s municipal elections because they do not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and do not recognize Israel’s unilateral sovereignty in the city. Not participating in the elections in which they have the right to vote, has been a matter of principle supported at the Palestinian national level. But the policy has worsened the situation and has led to a deterioration of Palestinian rights in the city.
Increasing numbers of Jerusalemites – Israelis and Palestinians alike – are despairing at the lack of a hopeful vision for the future. We believe that it is time to adopt a new strategy. The time for change is now.
We have decided to work on creating new hope in the city by launching a campaign to encourage all potential voters in Jerusalem to participate in the elections. Be believe that the Municipality of Jerusalem needs include the entire diversity of the populations of Jerusalem. We hope that a much greater sense of equality can be established in Jerusalem, especially between Israelis and Palestinians, even before the issue of Jerusalem’s borders and questions of sovereignty are resolved. Representatives in the Jerusalem city council should include social, political and entrepreneurial activists from all over the city – reaching out to mainstream and periphery groups – giving a voice to all of the transparent people in the city and creating a new Jerusalem – one which believes that all of Jerusalem belongs to all of the people of Jerusalem.
Gershon Baskin
We have decided to advocate for these goals and work intensively over the next months to achieve them. For those of you who don’t know us, Aziz Abu Sarah is an entrepreneur, speaker, peace builder and author and member of the well respected Abu Sneineh Family. He is a National Geographic Explorer and a TED Fellow. In 2009, Aziz co-founded MEJDI Tours, a cultural exploration vehicle for an ever-changing travel market. Dr. Gershon Baskin is the founder and co-chairman of IPCRI – Israel/Palestine Center for Research and Information dedicated to the resolution of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict on the basis of a “two-states for two peoples” solution. He is an author of two books on his peacemaking efforts and he has a regular column published in media in Israel and abroad.
According the Israeli law, Jerusalem election campaigning will begin on August 28, 63 days before the elections. The legalities of raising funds for a political party in elections in Israel are very strict, including not being able to raise money for the elections from people who do not have to right to vote in municipal elections in the State of Israel.
But from now until August 28, we are legally allowed via a registered nonprofit organization in good standing to conduct educational and advocacy campaigns about voter’s rights, the importance of voting, the technicalities of how to vote – which is very important for people who never voted before. We can use this time to raise funds to wage several legal battles to ensure that all election materials from the municipality and the national elections committee are available in Arabic and accessible to the residents of East Jerusalem. We will fight a legal battle to ensure that the list of eligible voters is published in Arabic and that the voters have sufficient time and accessibility to ensure that they can vote on election day. We need to ensure that there will be sufficient ballot stations in all parts of Jerusalem, not as in the past. There is much to do and little time to do it.
In order to legally raise funds and to conduct these campaigns, we will be working with IPCRI – Israel Palestine Creative Regional Initiatives – a joint Israeli Palestinian NGO.
We will be also utilizing the Friends of IPCRI in the US which is a tax deductible 501 (c)(3) public charity under US tax laws. The Friends of IPCRI’s Charter states that: “The public and charitable purposes of the corporation are to promote, advance, and encourage research and public education in support of a just and peaceful settlement of the Israeli Palestinian conflict, and to receive contributions for, to make donations to and otherwise support IPCRI”.
See below the details of on what we will be spending the funds that you contribute and below see the attached recent article about our new initiative.
Time is of the essence and we need your support immediately.
Thank you for being a “ground floor” investor in this social start up which will make a much needed change in Jerusalem for all its residents.
Contributions in the US (and around the world can be made online with a credit card) at this link:
PayPal Donate
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=K4Q99BT5N9S9Y
You can also make a direct deposit or a wire transfer to our US Bank Account in order to receive the U.S. tax receipt:
The Friends of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information Voter Education Campaign
Wells Fargo Bank
Account: IPCRI General
Account Number: 2000628959379
Routing Number: 121000248
Swift – wfbius6s
The Friends of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Development (Information) is registered as a tax deductible public charity
IRS Identity number: #95-4194646
For contributions in Israel:
Bank Hapoalim
Talpiot Branch, Branch number: 748
Account number: 444998
Swift: POALILIT
IBAN: IL86-0127-4800-0000-0444-998
Your contribution will be spent to achieve the following tasks (from now until August 28, 2018):
Educational campaign on voters’ rights
· Newspaper advertisements
· Outdoor signs on streets
· Radio advertisements
· Preparing how to vote videos in Arabic
· Hiring voter education coordinators in East and West Jerusalem
· Organizing meetings about public participation in elections in Jerusalem
· Educational campaign to ensure that government authorities ensure equal access to important voting information:
· Ensuring that the government authorities in the municipality and in the Ministry of Interior make all elections materials in Arabic
· Ensuring that the authorities prepare ballot stations in all of the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem on an equal basis of calculating numbers of voters per ballot space as is done in West Jerusalem
· Preparing materials in Arabic and Hebrew about the issues that are addressed by the municipality – what can be achieved by high voter participation in the elections and research on what the outgoing municipality did regarding the issues that concern us
· Legal Consultation and Office Space for the Educational Campaign
Dr. Gershon Baskin and Aziz Abu Sarah
