Elections for Prime Minister were held in Israel on 6 February 2001 following the resignation of the incumbent, Labor's Ehud Barak. Barak stood for re-election against Likud's Ariel Sharon. It was the third and last Prime Ministerial election, and the only one which was not held alongside simultaneous Knesset elections. Voter turnout was 62.3%, the lowest turnout for any national election held in Israel. The low turnout was at least partially due to many Israeli Arabs boycotting the poll in protest at the October 2000 events in which 12 Israeli Arabs were killed by the police. Other possible reasons are Sharon's massive advantage in advance polls, and the lack of enthusiasm of Barak supporters due to his perceived failings, notably, the failure of the 2000 Camp David talks with the Palestinians, and the "turbine affair" in which Barak yielded to the religious parties' pressure, violating previous promises.
Background
Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon
In 2000, 18 years after Israel occupied Southern Lebanon in the 1982 Lebanon War, Israel unilaterally withdrew its remaining forces from the "security zone" in southern Lebanon. Several thousand members of the South Lebanon Army left with the Israelis. The following month, the UN confirmed that Israel's force deployment was now entirely consistent with the various security council resolutions with regard to Lebanon. Lebanon claims that Israel continues to occupy Lebanese territory called "Sheba'a Farms". The Sheba'a Farms dispute has provided Hezbollah with a ruse to maintain warfare with Israel. The Lebanese government, in contravention of the UN resolution, did not assert sovereignty in Southern Lebanon, which came under the control of Hezbollah.
2000 Camp David Summit
In the summer of 2000, talks were held at Camp David to reach a "final status" agreement on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The summit collapsed after Yasser Arafat would not accept a proposal drafted by American and Israeli negotiators. Barak was prepared to offer the entire Gaza Strip, a Palestinian capital in a part of East Jerusalem, 73% of the West Bank raising to 90–94% after 10–25 years, and financial reparations for Palestinian refugees for peace. Israel would therefore have gained an additional 6–10% of the West Bank, including more of East Jerusalem than previously held, and Palestinian leaders would have had to give up the Right of Return. Arafat turned down the offer without making a counter-offer.
Second Intifada
On September 28, 2000, Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, the following day the Palestinians launched the al-Aqsa Intifada, which included increased Palestinian terror attacks being made against Israeli civilians. Both Palestinian and Israeli sources allege the terrorism was planned much earlier.
October 2000 events
The October 2000 events were a series of large-scale protests carried out by Israeli Arabs, mostly alongside major Israeli highways, following the outbreak of the second intifada. In some cases, the protests escalated into clashes with the Israeli Police involving rock-throwing, firebombing, and live-fire. Policemen used tear-gas and opened fire with rubber-coated bullets and later live ammunition in some instances, many times in contravention with police protocol governing crowd-dispersion. In all, during these protests 12 Arab citizens of Israel and a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip were killed by Israeli Police, while an Israeli Jew was killed when his car was hit by a rock on the Tel-Aviv-Haifa freeway. These events led to a significant drop in support for Ehud Barak amongst the Israeli-Arab population. In addition, the severity of the events in which main highways were blocked, many vehicles were attacked, communities and government institutions were attacked, full or partial blockade was imposed on several towns, and in which many shops were burned, led also to a decrease in Ehud Barak's popularity among the Israeli Jewish public. Following the protests, there was a high degree of tension between Jewish and Arab citizens and distrust between the Arab citizens and police. An investigation committee, headed by Supreme Court JusticeTheodor Or, reviewed the protests and found that the police were poorly prepared to handle such disturbances and charged major officers with bad conduct. The Or Commission reprimanded Prime Minister Ehud Barak and recommended Shlomo Ben-Ami not serve again as Minister of Public Security. The committee also blamed Arab leaders and Knesset members for contributing to inflaming the atmosphere and making the violence more severe.
