Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Israelis Head to the Polls To Vote in Municipal Elections

The battle for the mayor of Jerusalem will be among the closely watched races as Israelis go to the polls in municipal races.

Voting is being held Tuesday for mayor and local offices in nearly 200 cities and towns in Israel.

In Jerusalem, the incumbent Nir Barkat is being challenged by official Likud candidate Moshe Lion, though Lion is one of the few official Likud candidates for mayor that has not received the backing of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Lion has been endorsed by the haredi Orthodox Shas and United Torah Judaism parties.

In Tel Aviv, longtime incumbent Ron Huldai is being challenged by the left-wing Meretz Knesset member Nitzan Horowitz, who if elected would become the first gay mayor in Israel.

In the central city of Ra’anana, popular former mayor Ze’ev Bielski, who served as a Knesset lawmaker for the Kadima party between 2009 and 2013 and also chaired the Jewish Agency and the World Zionist Organization, is again on the ballot for mayor.

A contentious race for mayor is being fought in Beit Shemesh, the site of several conflicts between haredi Orthodox and secular residents, between the Shas-backed incumbent Moshe Abutbul and independent candidate Eli Cohen, who also is backed by the Jewish Home party.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.