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Pro-cannabis demonstrators decorated a police jeep with Green Leaf paraphenalia.
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| By israelinsider staff March 27, 2006 |
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Mock votes took place at various universities and colleges in the runup to Israel's parliamentary elections. Aleh Yarok ["Green Leaf" in English], pushing for decriminalization of cannabis, may be a surprise victor in Israel's elections, after excellent showings in campus mock polls.
At the Technion in Haifa, generally regarding at the Israeli equivalent of MIT, Green Leaf finished in first with 19 mandates, Kadima received 18, Meretz 13, Labor 12 and the Likud nine.
At the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the right-of-center National Union-National Religious Party came in first with 24 mandates. Meretz finished second with 23, Labor got 21, the Likud and Kadima 11 each and Green Leaf, pro-marijuana party, received eight.
At the Jezreel Valley College Labor came in first with 22 mandates. Kadima and Israel Beiteinu each received 19, Green Leaf got 16, the Likud nine, National Union-NRP eight, Meretz eight, Balad seven, Hadash six, Atid Ehad four and United Torah Judaism two.
At the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba Labor came in first with 34 mandates. (Prof. Avishai Braverman, the former chancellor of the university, is running on the Labor list.) Meretz came in second with 20 seats, Kadima had 19, Green Leaf nine and the Likud six.
Students at Tel Aviv University didn't bother to vote. "We didn't want our votes to be wasted, too," one non-voter said, declining to say which party she preferred, although she leaned toward Green Leaf (or perhaps was just leaning). "If there's a party, any party, I'm all for it."
Running under the slogan "we have other aspirations," Green Leaf has broadened its platform to include non-drug issues such as support for digital downloads, greener scenery, and subsidies for higher education. Controversially, it has not ruled out negotiations with the terror-supporting Hamas, perhaps inspired -- or aspired -- by its similarly verdant color.
Most polls have indicated that Green Leaf will not pass the 2% bar required to gain entrance to the Knesset. A party activist said the requirement was not too high. "But we are," she added.
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