Writing in “Doar Hayom,” Daniel Auster, prominent lawyer of this city, who has been active in the fight to maintain major Jewish interests in the new Jerusalem Municipal Corporation and who is himself a candidate for election as a Councillor, makes a strong plea for a Jewish mayor here.
He declares that the Jews number 4,235 electors, and that there are 2,812 Moslems and 1,550 Christians, so that the latter jointly number 4,362. In other words, he maintains that the Jews are fifty per cent of the Jerusalem electorate. That there is no Jewish mayor, he charges, is due to neglect upon the part of the Jews who do not register.
Actually the number of Jewish taxpayers in Jerusalem is 6,314 and of non-Jews 4,263, or in other words a sixty per cent Jewish majority. Even if non-Palestinians are omitted, there are the taxpayers who are partners, sub-lessees, and others who are eligible to vote.
Auster demanded that the Jewish population in Jerusalem must fight for a sixty per cent majority, and he called for further electors to register within the present fourteen days’ period of grace which expired July 25. Another 700 Jewish electors would mean one more Jewish councillor, making them seven out of thirteen, instead of six Jews, four Moslems, and two Christians as now. The Jew could then demand that the Government appoint a Jewish mayor.
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