JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s pick for Jerusalem mayor has been knocked out of the race, with two other contenders advancing to a runoff.
Results of the municipal elections released Wednesday show veteran political activist Moshe Lion and secular activist Ofer Berkovitch moving on to another vote on Nov. 13 after neither won 40 percent. The winner will succeed outgoing Mayor Nir Barkat. Netanyahu’s candidate, Cabinet minister Zeev Elkin, was eliminated.
Jerusalem is a diverse city, with a once-Palestinian majority that diminished over time from Israeli expansion. Palestinians are now roughly a third of the city’s registered population, while the two-thirds Jewish majority is divided between secular, modern Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox residents.
Elsewhere in Israel, longtime Tel Aviv incumbent Ron Huldai was re-elected and Einat Kalisch Rotem ousted longtime Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav to become the first female mayor of Israel’s third-largest city.
Edited article from AP.
