‘We resist silently’: Many Palestinians to boycott Israel’s municipal vote

Palestinians in East Jerusalem are debating voting in municipal elections, but most are expected to boycott again.

Occupied East Jerusalem –  Munir Nuseibeh has the right to vote in Jerusalem’s upcoming municipal elections, but he refuses to do so. The 42-year-old Palestinian doesn’t want to legitimise Israel’s occupation and annexation of the city’s east.

“This election will not liberate us. It will – at best – give Palestinians [in East Jerusalem] a few more services,” Nuseibeh, a legal expert, told Al Jazeera.

“But why should we integrate ourselves into an apartheid machine, as opposed to working on the real goal which is to dismantle the apartheid regime?”

Ever since Israel captured East Jerusalem and other Arab lands in the 1967 war, Palestinians in the city have collectively boycotted these elections for the same reasons as Nuseibeh.

There are about 362,000 Palestinians in East Jerusalem, most of whom have residency status but are stateless. That means they can participate in local elections — like the municipal vote in Israeli cities on February 27 — but not national ones.