‘This is their last chance’: Israeli voters beg party leaders to end deadlock

‘For them, it’s a shameful game of musical seats in parliament. For us, it’s our lives’, voter tells Bel Trew and Shira Rubin

(AFP)

It took a minute for the memory to shuffle into place, but when it did, the young ultra-Orthodox voter from an Israeli settlement shook his head and laughed bitterly.

“It’s you again,” he said pointing a wad of campaign pamphlets. “So here we are, back here again, and nothing has changed.”

The Yeshiva – religious school – student stood in front of a poster for Shas, an ultra-Orthodox party that represents Israel’s Mizrahi communities, outside a school in Pisgat Ze’ev, a settlement town in occupied East Jerusalem.

He had stood in the same spot in the September elections last year and for the April vote before that, when he first met The Independent. Aged 21, Yossi Cohen’s first-ever chance to vote was in April when he dived into the world of political campaigning with gusto.

Back then he was a vehement supporter of incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had vowed to protect the lives and livelihoods of the ultra-Orthodox and crucially the settlements, even if they are deemed illegal under international law.

Fast forward 11 months: Mr Netanyahu has been indicted across three corruption cases, two inconclusive votes have been fought and lost, and a third begun, which according to the polls, will produce another deadlock. Yossi’s jovial enthusiasm had gone.

“I think this is the last chance, the last vote. It’s not possible to have another election, someone somewhere has to back down,” he said looking worried.

Mr Netanyahu denies the allegations of corruption and says they are part of a “witch hunt” against him.

The latest election pits Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party against Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White alliance. A party needs to sweep 61 of the 120 seats in the Knesset in order to form a government, or enter in coalition talks.

When quizzed about whether Mr Netanyahu remaining as prime minister was still his red line, his reply was guarded.

“We aren’t really bothered at who is sitting at the head of the table now. I am not saying I have lost hope in Bibi, I just want a parliament.”

Across the country, this sense of desperation appears to have to driven voters to the polling booths. The elections commission recorded a 21-year turnout high by the afternoon.

But the enthusiasm to vote did not mask the anger.

Even Reuven Rivlin, the president, said there was “no sense of celebration” as he cast his ballot in Jerusalem on Monday morning.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing, time and time again and expecting a different result.

Diana Shkolnikov, voter

“I only feel a sense of deep shame when I face you, my fellow citizens,” he said.

“We don’t deserve this. We don’t deserve another horrible and filthy campaign like the one that ends today, and we don’t deserve this endless instability. We deserve a government that will work for us.”‪

His sentiments were echoed by citizens who poured disdain not only on Mr Netanyahu but the entire political elite.

“It is a real shame that we got to this place. That every time we think you can’t go any lower, it turns out that you can,” said Naama Zweig, 70, voting Blue and White in Tel Aviv.

Back in Jerusalem, Emil Reckhter, 48, who declined to say who he is voting for, agreed.

“If [the politicians] can’t pull themselves together this time, and if they call another election, it will be the last time my wife and I ever vote again,” he said.

“For them, it’s a shameful game of musical seats in parliament. For us, it’s our lives.”

Diana Shkolnikov, 24, a psychology student voting for Mr Gantz in central Jerusalem said it was “madness”.

“The definition of insanity is doing the same thing, time and time again and expecting a different result.”

Israel has stumbled through the last year after neither Mr Netanyahu nor Mr Gantz were able to build a ruling majority of the Knesset, with both sides refusing to join forces in a national unity government.

Mr Netanyahu is due in court on 17 March on corruption charges that he vehemently denies.

Blue and White refuses to pair up with Likud if Mr Netanyahu is prime minister while on trial, while Likud has vehemently refused to abandon their leader.

And so, with no clear winner, the country has been led by a toothless caretaker government, which is unable to pass a budget and certain laws.

The country’s economy has so far weathered the political turmoil.

But the longer the stalemate continues, the heavier the toll, including the lack of new money for health, education, welfare or infrastructure projects until an annual budget is approved by parliament.

Perhaps desperate for one final chance to break the deadlock, voters appeared to flock to the polling stations: the Central Elections Committee reported a record turnout by 16.00 local time (14.00 GMT) on Monday.

Nearly half of Israel’s eligible 6.4 million voters cast their ballot by that time, the highest figure since 1991, Israeli media reported. That is despite concerns there would be a low turnout because of voter fatigue and coronavirus fears.

“I think something is different this time. I think people understand this is it. Now this time there is the feeling that if people don’t go out to vote, it just won’t happen,” said Yasmin Farhadian, 31, a doctor voting Likud in Tel Aviv.

Also in Tel Aviv, Yael Stroul, 24, who has just finished his army service, said people could not cope with the situation anymore.

“We’re not just stuck in one place, we’re moving backwards.”

We’re not just stuck in one place, we’re moving backwards

Yael Stroul, 24, voter in Tel Aviv

Meanwhile, Arab-Israeli voters told The Independent there was a big push among their community to vote as momentum has gathered around the Arab-majority Joint List amid a fear that right-wing parties like Likud in Israel had become more racist.

“We know we need more votes for our community to protect us,” Mohamed Ibrahim, 23, said from Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.

Whoever wins, the country remains divided about Mr Netanyahu. In Jerusalem, the anger at the continuous merry-go-round of elections translated into an exhaustion and a desire for a return to “what was before”: a majority government led by Mr Netanyahu.

In Tel Aviv, that was channelled into a call for change.

“The fact we may be looking at a fourth election means, clearly, that the person who is taking up residence as prime minister needs to evacuate his seat,” said Mr Stroul, the former military conscript.

“Netanyahu is divisive, he’s inciting. He’s already in the phase of the indictment. In another two weeks, he’ll be in court. Even if he’s able to morally do it, a person cannot physically be in court all day and then be prime minister at night. “