Jerusalem, Israel - When Jerusalemites go to the polls Tuesday to elect a new mayor, they will choose among a man on trial in France for arms trafficking and money laundering, a self-made millionaire who wants to build thousands of Jewish homes in the heart of an Arab neighborhood, and an ultra-Orthodox rabbi who won't put his picture on his campaign posters.
Jerusalem is home to sites holy to three major religions, and its future is one of the most contested issues dividing Israelis and Palestinians. But the city is also one of the poorest in Israel. About half of Jerusalem's residents are Palestinians or ultra-Orthodox Jews, many of whom are unemployed and pay little or no taxes.
"Jerusalem is in a pivotal place right now," said Anat Hoffman, who recently resigned after 14 years on Jerusalem's city council. "Economically and culturally it's sinking, and it's become a place that Israelis from outside the city don't even visit."
Many Israelis say they feel increasingly alienated from the city they claim as their capital, saying it is too poor, too crowded and too religious. Jerusalemites say they want a mayor who will deal with the city's growing problems and attract more Israelis and tourists.
Each of the three candidates running for mayor says he will revitalize the city. Polls show a close race between two of them -- high-tech millionaire Nir Barkat and ultra-Orthodox candidate Rabbi Meir Porush.
Barkat, 49, narrowly lost a campaign for mayor five years ago and now serves on the city council. He has thousands of young, enthusiastic volunteers who hand out leaflets and canvass door-to-door.
"The young people are leaving Jerusalem," his campaign literature warns. "This is a real danger to Jerusalem's future and causes a decline in the general standard of living in the city."
At a recent campaign stop at a community center, Barkat laid out his plan to build thousands of new apartments for Jewish young people in East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed. Such settlements would be likely to anger Israeli critics as well as Western governments, which have not recognized Israel's annexation and consider continued Israeli settlement of occupied land an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.
"This land belongs to the municipality and has already been set aside for building," Barkat told a crowd of about 150.
Barkat also wants to invest heavily in tourism infrastructure and bring 10 million visitors a year to Jerusalem. He has said he would impose fines on the foreign owners of luxury apartments in Jerusalem that are usually empty except for a few weeks during the summer and Jewish holidays such as Passover. He has suggested that the owners, most of them from the United States and France, rent their apartments to students, a proposal those owners are unlikely to welcome.
"Too often, politics in Israel is focused on the conflict, and we don't do enough to focus on who we are and the institutions and infrastructure we need to work here," said Sarah Kass, an activist for Barkat who moved to Israel from the United States two years ago.
Barkat's chief rival is Porush, 54, of the Agudat Israel party. An ultra-Orthodox Jew, Porush is a former deputy housing minister in the government, responsible for building thousands of homes in Jewish settlements in the West Bank. He has promised to bring 100,000 young people to Jerusalem and offer affordable housing, but says little about how he will accomplish these goals.
His posters depict him as an animated character reminiscent of Santa Claus, but in person, Porush is more formidable, with a long white beard and a long black coat.
At one campaign event, he challenged the mostly secular audience to move past the stereotype that he would only help ultra-Orthodox institutions.
"The public should judge me by my past successes, as minister of housing and of deputy mayor of the city, not by my beard," he said. "So what if I have a long beard -- what does that mean? That I'm not qualified?"
Porush reminded the audience that under the current mayor, Uri Lupolianski, who is also ultra-Orthodox, more secular bars and entertainment venues have opened in the city.
In the last election, 80 percent of all eligible ultra-Orthodox voters turned out, compared with 32 percent of all other voters. Porush hopes a similarly high ultra-Orthodox turnout will help him win.
The most colorful mayoral candidate, and the least likely to win, is businessman Arkady Gaydamak. He was born in Russia, moved to Israel and then spent most of his life in France before returning to Israel in 2000.
Forbes last year estimated Gaydamak's wealth at $950 million, most of it allegedly earned in the arms trade with Angola; other media estimates place his wealth as high as $4 billion.
One of 42 defendants being tried in France for illegal arms dealing and tax evasion, Gaydamak has said he will attend the trial and prove himself innocent after the mayoral race is over.
Gaydamak has won fans by buying Beitar Yerushalayim, the local soccer team, and pouring money into it, as well as for rescuing a Jerusalem hospital from bankruptcy. His campaign posters read "Gaydamak doesn't talk, he acts." Some graffiti artists have changed the wording to "Gaydamak doesn't talk Hebrew," since he is far from fluent in the language.
Most of Gaydamak's support comes from Palestinians in East Jerusalem. Israel offered citizenship to Palestinians when it annexed the eastern half of the city in 1967, but few accepted. Most East Jerusalemites are not citizens but "residents" who carry Israeli-issued identity cards that give them freedom of movement and access to Israeli medical clinics and social security.
But it is almost impossible to get an Israeli permit to build a home in East Jerusalem, and tens of thousands of homes have been ordered demolished. East Jerusalem also needs hundreds of classrooms. The high school drop-out rate is 50 percent among boys and 30 percent among girls.
Gaydamak has taken out huge ads in Palestinian newspapers promising "social justice for all."
Palestinians in East Jerusalem, who make up a third of the city's population of 760,000, have traditionally not voted in municipal elections, saying that to do so would be a recognition of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem.
This year, as in the past, the Palestinian Authority called on East Jerusalemites not to vote. The mufti of Jerusalem, the most senior religious Muslim leader, issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, against standing for office in the election.
Nonetheless, some Palestinians in East Jerusalem said they would still consider voting.
Akram Abu Shalbak, 40, who helps Palestinians prepare legal briefs, said he is voting this year for the first time.
"Gaydamak says he wants to make life better in East Jerusalem and equalize the municipal budgets for East and West Jerusalem," Shalbak said. "His campaign and his program are clear. We must play a role in these elections to improve our situation."
But others, such as Nuha Musleh, a Palestinian journalist and translator, said they would not vote.
"Even though I believe in fighting for the services and our rights in the city, internationally and regionally, I won't vote," she said. "According to U.N. resolutions, Jerusalem is occupied land, and I'm not going to recognize Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem."