Did the Palestinian Authority encourage Arab Israelis from east Jerusalem to vote for the Joint Arab List in the recent general election?
The unusually high voter turnout in east Jerusalem neighborhoods, together with a meeting three and a half weeks prior to the March 2 election between Joint List members, Islamic Waqf representatives and PA officials – indicates possible coordination.
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Influenced by the PA and Hamas, Arab Israelis from east Jerusalem traditionally boycott national elections, but this time more than 6,000 residents of those neighborhoods voted for the 23rd Knesset. The Joint Arab List received 5,304 of those votes, compared to 3,582 it received for the 22nd Knesset and just 1,950 votes for the 21st Knesset (when the parties comprising the Joint Arab List ran separately).
Formally, the purpose of the meeting was to express opposition to the Trump administration's deal of the century, and mainly to express support for Sheikh Akrama Sabri, the former mufti of Jerusalem who was banned from the Temple Mount by the defense establishment for a period of four months due to riots at the holy site. For years now, Sabri has been affiliated with the outlawed northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, and he has a close relationship with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
In the past, Sabri wished for the destruction of the United States and Great Britain, met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and tacitly supported (during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s) suicide attacks against Israelis.
The meeting in question was attended by almost every member of the Joint Arab List, including MK Ahmad Tibi, who in the past served as an advisor to Yasser Arafat and to Hatem Abdel Qader, the former PA minister of Jerusalem affairs. Also in attendance were Mohammed Quds, head of the Palestinian Prisoners Club in Jerusalem; northern branch deputy chairman Sheikh Kamal Khatib; Muhammad Baraka, head of the Higher Arab Monitoring Committee; and Sabri.
