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Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Yossi Deitch announced on Tuesday that he would run for mayor in the October elections, becoming the first ultra-Orthodox candidate of the race and representing a possible spoiler.
Deitch made the announcement after receiving the support of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis of the Agudath Israel faction.
Deitch joins an already crowded field for the Oct. 30 elections to determine control of Israel's largest city against Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze Elkin, deputy mayor Moshe Lion, Former mayor of Jerusalem and the current Knesset of Kulanu Rachel Azaria, the deputy of the Zionist Union Nachman Shai, political activist and adviser Ofer Berkovich and right-wing activist and Jerusalem city councilor, Aryeh King.
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Representing some 37% of the Jewish population in Jerusalem, according to recent CBS data, ultra-Orthodox may hold the key to the city. Because the Arab inhabitants of the city usually boycott the municipal elections, the share of the ultra-Orthodox, who often vote en bloc, is even higher.
The tensions between the ultra-Orthodox communities of the capital are particularly high. The Sabbath is concerned.
In Jerusalem, Shabbat is observed much more strictly than in the secularity of Tel Aviv. Few restaurants and cultural institutions are open on Saturdays, and lay residents who drive into ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods are likely to see their cars smashed.
Every opening of a new Shabbat shop or establishment is greeted by ultra-Orthodox protests and profane complaints that religious residents are trying to impose their beliefs on the entire city.
A couple kisses while watching people talking and drinking in different bars of the bustling Mahane Yehudah market in Jerusalem. March 22, 2018 (Liba Farkash / FLASH90)
In June, Deputy Minister of Health Yaakov Litzman offered the support of the Gur Hasidic sect to any candidate who promised to close the nightlife market Mahane Yehuda. Elkin and Lion rejected the request.
The only former ultra-Orthodox mayor of the city, Uri Lupolianski, won the poll in 2003, with 52% against the entrepreneur Barkat, which put him out of reach of 9%. [19659003] Lupolianski was later convicted in the so-called Holyland case – with another former Jerusalem mayor, former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert – although his sentence was reduced to community service due to health problems.
Barkat mayor of the capital since 2008, announced earlier this year that he would not seek a third term as mayor and would rather be heading to the Knesset with the ruling party Likud
] Marissa Newman contributed to this report.
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