President Rueven Rivlin is planning an unusual get-together at his official residence a week or so before the elections: He will meet with around 100-120 Israelis who have chosen not to participate in the democratic process, and not to vote, and will try to convince them otherwise.
The President's Residence is set to issue an appeal on social networks to Israelis who have no intention of voting in the elections and invite them to pass on their particulars along with a detailed explanation of their decision not to vote.
The president's staffers will then review the responses to weed out spammers and also to break down the reasons offered – economic despair, lack of faith in the democracy, Jewish-Arab relations, secular-religious relations, and so forth.
Thereafter, 100-120 of the respondents will receive a personal invitation to the meeting with the president at his residence. One of Israel's leading pollsters will also attend the get-together to explain the significance of the respondents' failure to vote.
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Senior academics with whom Rivlin has consulted ahead of the meeting have told Yedioth Ahronot that the president is very concerned about the public's loss of faith in Israel's democracy and has thus decided to spearhead an initiative to persuade people to exercise their democratic duty.
"The matter is under consideration and we hope to have news on the subject soon," said a statement from the President's Residence.