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2024 Jerusalem municipal election

The 2024 Jerusalem municipal election was held on 27 February 2024, to elect the mayor of Jerusalem and members of the City Council.

Background and system

The election was part of the 2024 Israeli municipal elections. Originally scheduled for 31 October 2023, the elections were delayed due to the Israel–Hamas war until 30 January 2024, and then further delayed until 27 February 2024, because of the large number of candidates serving as reservists.

Unlike legislative elections, where only Israeli citizens (resident in Israel) who are 18 or older are eligible to vote, all Israeli citizens (resident in Israel) and permanent residents who are 17 or older are eligible to vote in municipal elections in Israel.

On election day, voters received two envelopes, one yellow and one white. When entering the polling booth, the voter chose one yellow ticket for the mayor and inserted it into the yellow envelope, and one white ticket for the City Council and inserted it into the white envelope.

There are 31 seats on the City Council, the maximum permitted by law. If the elected mayor's list would not win any seats, the mayor would added to the Council as a thirty-second member. The seats are distributed using proportional representation and the largest remainder method, with a threshold of 0.75 of the votes needed for a seat.

Mayoral candidates

Two candidates ran for Mayor: Mayor Moshe Lion, and Deputy Mayor Yosi Havilio.

A third candidate, Haim Epstein of the ultra-Orthodox party Bnei Torah, dropped out. For the first time since 1967, an Israeli Arab, attorney Waleed Abu Tayeh from Nazareth, announced candidacy for the office of mayor, but ultimately did not file his candidacy on the mayoral election; he was third on the Kol Toshaveha list for City Council.

Incumbent mayor Moshe Lion headed the One Jerusalem list, and has been endorsed by most right-wing and religious parties. Yosi Havilio is heading the Jerusalem Union (Ha'ihud Ha'yerushalmi) list, composed of five parties: Havilio's party Saving Jerusalem, Meretz (Dr. Laura Wharton), Labor (Eran Ben Yehuda), Yesh Atid (Yeela Bitton De-Lange), and New Deal, consisting of organizations active in the 2023 Israeli judicial reform protests. Havilio is seen as representing the left-wing and secular populations of Jerusalem, with Lion having the backing of the Orthodox-Zionist and Haredi parties.

City Council Lists

There are 31 seats on the City Council, the maximum permitted by law. If the elected mayor's list does not win any seats, the mayor is added to the Council as a thirty-second member, as happened in 2018. Fifteen lists competed for the 31 seats. Hitorerut (formerly headed by Ofer Berkovitz, currently headed by Adir Schwartz), winner of the most seats in the previous election, received an endorsement from the National Unity party. There is a new political list called All Its Residents (Kol Toshaveha) headed by an Arab Israeli woman from Nazareth, Sondos Alhot. Palestinians living in East Jerusalem are permanent residents of Israel, not citizens. Thus, they have the right to vote in the Jerusalem municipal election, but not in national elections for Knesset. An April 2021 op-ed noted that Arabs may play a major role in the 2023 municipal election, and another op-ed encouraged Arabs to become more politically active in the race for mayor and elections for Jerusalem City Hall.

Bold indicates a mayoral candidate; italic indicates a mayoral candidate who dropped out before the elections.

Issues

Key issues in the 2024 municipal election include real estate prices and development, highway repairs, and the rapidly spreading influence of Haredi Judaism in the city. Likewise, expansion of the Jerusalem Light Rail, especially the controversial blue line on Emek Refaim in the German Colony and Katamon, and a cable car from the First Station to Jerusalem's Old City and, eventually, the Mount of Olives divide voters.

Another issue facing West Jerusalemites is the debate over the increasing number of high-rise towers. Opponents include Kiryat HaYovel's Yuvalim 2041 activist group. The debate centers around whether the high-rise towers threaten the city's traditional character or not.