An estimated 20,000 voters went to the polls in Nazareth today to cast ballots for a mayor and a 17-member municipal council in an election that has become the focus of attention all over Israel. Nazareth, in the Galilean hills, is the largest Arab city in Israel, Four candidates are standing for mayor, representing five party lists. But the crucial contest is between George Sa’ad, strongly backed by Premier Yitzhak Rabin’s Labor Party, and Tewfiq Ziad, candidate of the pro-Moscow Rakah Communist faction.
Rakah has gained considerable ground in Nazareth and among Israeli Arabs generally in recent months because of its pro-Arab nationalist line and is apparently confident of an easy victory in Nazareth. The government views a Communist-controlled Nazareth as a potential disaster with widespread repercussions throughout Israel’s Arab community.
Accordingly, the government has brought unprecedented pressure to bear on the local voters to reject the Rakah candidate. Several Cabinet ministers have visited Nazareth recently, including Labor Minister Moshe Baram. They have tried to convince the voters that a Communist victory would politicize the town at the expense of local issues and problems.
Some observers fear the government’s overt interference may have backfired to the benefit of Rakah and say that only a miracle can prevent a Communist victory today. The best the government can hope for is the failure of any candidate to poll an absolute majority, in which case a run-off election between the two front runners will be held within two weeks. That would give the Labor-backed candidate more time to campaign on local issues but with the minor lists eliminated Rakah could benefit as well.
PALESTINIAN ISSUE INVOLVED
The tension surrounding the Nazareth elections reflects the emergence of the Palestinian issue as the central focus of Middle East politics. The series of victories won by the Palestine Liberation Organization at the UN during the past two months inevitably has had an impact on Israeli Arabs and may have fired their nationalistic passions which have been largely dormant in 28 years of Israeli rule.
Similarly, the civil war in Lebanon between right-wing Christian Arabs and pro-PLO Moslems has become a campaign issue in Nazareth with the Communists stressing that their candidate is a Moslem and his opponent a Christian.
These events may have a polarizing effect in a town where internal conflicts have prevented the election of a municipal council for more than a year, Nazareth’s affairs have been handled up to now by an Israeli-appointed committee headed by Ali Khaider, an inspector of the Education Ministry.
The percentage of eligible voters participating in election has always been high in Nazareth and the envy of many other towns in Israel, Despite cold weather and heavy rains there were long lines outside of the 26 polling stations this morning. Police reinforcements were brought into the town as a precautionary measure but the voting is expected to be orderly. The results are not expected to be known until late tonight or tomorrow morning.
Whatever the outcome, the Nazareth elections have special significance as they are the first in Israel in which a mayor and town council will be elected by direct ballot. Until the law was changed recently, local elections, like national elections, have been for party lists. The list polling the largest number of votes appointed the mayor.
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