The State of Israel must let East Jerusalem's Arabs vote in the Palestinian Authority's legislative council (parliament) elections. That is not only because it undertook to do so in the Oslo Accords, but also because it does not want them as citizens of the state, and because it is the only way for the city's 250,000 Arabs to exercise their right to political expression.
The issue of Jerusalem's Arabs' voting rights came to the fore more than 20 years ago, when discussions about holding general elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip first started. Jerusalem's Arabs indeed hold Israeli identity cards, but they are not citizens of the state. They were given the ID cards only as documentation attesting to their right to permanent residence in Israel. A permanent resident is eligible for most of the rights available to every Israeli citizen, aside from two very significant ones: He/she is not eligible for an Israeli passport; and he/she does not have the right to vote in Knesset elections.
Jerusalem's Arabs participated in elections for the Palestinian parliament in 1996 as well as last year's presidential elections (in which PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas was elected). To allow them to vote for Palestinian institutions required a technical compromise. This need arose because Israel feared that allowing elections to a foreign entity within Israeli territory would be interpreted as a violation of the country's sovereignty, and the matter is, of course, sensitive when it comes to Jerusalem.
The Palestinians demanded setting up polling stations throughout the eastern part of the city. Under the compromise, the polling stations were established at Israeli post office branches in the city's Arab neighborhoods. From Israel's point of view, Jerusalem's Arabs thus mailed their ballots to the West Bank; whereas from the Palestinians' point of view, the city's Arabs voted for the Palestinian Authority from within Jerusalem too.
A similar compromise also was used with regard to candidates who were Jerusalem residents: these candidates were required to provide an alternative West Bank address. And in this way, both sides were satisfied.
Israel's threat to deny Jerusalem's Arabs the right to vote evoked an immediate Palestinian response. A PA spokesman charged that this kind of punishment would lead to the elections' cancellation.