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GayMiddleEast.com News
30.10.03
On
October 28, Israelis went to the polls for municipal local
government elections. Most of the mayors and city councils
throughout the country were running for office. The
election results indicate that the G.L.B.T. community will
hold on to the power already obtained through previous
election winnings. In Tel Aviv Etai Pinkas, the second "out
of the closet" gay man that has been elected to a city
council. The first is Saar Netanel, when on June 2, 2003 he
was election to the Jerusalem city council. Both Pinkas and
Netanel are members of the Meretz Party. Etai Pinkas will
replace Michal Eden in the Tel Aviv Municipality. Eden was
the first lesbian to be elected to a city council (five
years ago).
Etai
Pinkas's gave is first reaction to GayMiddleEast.com
News as follows,, "I'm happy and proud to have been given
the opportunity to represent the G.L.B.T. community and also
to be the youngest member of the Tel Aviv-Yafo city
council. I was elected with the Meretz party in order push
forwards the cause of equal rights for the G.L.B.T.
community in Tel Aviv-Yafo, and it is my full intention to
stick by my promises. I pledge to establish Israel's first
community center dedicated to serving the needs of the
G.L.B.T. community - and for this center to be fully funded
from the city budget."
When asked about the rights of the Arab citizens of the
city, Pinkas continued "I see myself also as a person who
pledges to uphold and fight for the rights of the Arab
citizens of our city. This will be done by my working
closely with my good friend, Mr Rifat Turk, who is number
three on the Meretz list." (after Yael Dayan and
Etai
Pinkas). "I think that Meretz has shown a good example of
cooperation between Arabs and Jews in Tel Aviv-Yafo."
In Tel Aviv, the major political
parties made an intensive efforts to attract the G.L.B.T.
vote. Estimations say that 15% of the eligible voters in
Tel Aviv are gay, and due to the proportional low turn out
of straight voters, and the higher turnout of G.L.B.T.
voters, the "pink vote" reaches 20%. At a panel that was
hosted last week at the Israeli National G.L.B.T
Organization (the Aguda) and organized by the Political Council
for Gay Rights in Israel, a record number of political
candidates from many parties came to explain to the G.L.B.T.
community why we should vote for them - each candidate
expressing his/her support (both past and future) for the
rights of the G.L.B.T. community. Yuki Lavi, director of
the Political Council for Gay Rights stated, "The panel was
a demonstration of the power of the G.L.B.T. community of
Tel Aviv-Yafo. We have never seen such an outright and
intensive reach out from political candidates to the G.L.B.T.
voters." Despite this reach out, only the Meretz party
placed one of their candidates in a realistic place on their
list. A striking example of this is the Shinui party, that
put gay candidate Yonatan Danilowitz on their list, but at
number 8, giving him little or no chance to enter the city
council. It appears that various parties put members of the
G.L.B.T. community on their electoral lists at unrealistic
places, in order to be able to claim their support for the
community, but in reality doing little or nothing at all.
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