http://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/Pages/default.aspx has launched a special site <http://web.nli.org.il/sites/NLI/Hebrew/collections/treasures/elections/Pages/default2.aspx> (in Hebrew), which features election propaganda and media coverage from every Knesset election since the establishment of the state. The site includes thousands of election slogans and advertisements, campaign photographs of politicians, party platforms, speeches, press releases, articles and reports, etc. Digital files of Internet campaigns from the 2006 and 2009 elections are to be uploaded soon.
The structure of the site makes it possible to explore each of the 18 previous election campaigns individually or laterally, according to four core issues that have remained pertinent throughout the history of the state: social and ethnic struggles, the Arab-Israeli conflict, religionandstate, and economic issues. The user can thus trace a various partyor issue over time, e.g. the conscription of women, socialism versus free market, education.
The site also showcases more localized items of interest, including parties that existed in the earlier years of the state, among them the Yemenite Party, the Progressive Party, the Religious Women's List, the Sephardic Parties, the Fighters' Party, the Housewives Party, and the parties of Abie Nathan, Samuel Plato-Sharon, Uri Avneri and Ariel Sharon (Shlomzion).
The site also presents types of propaganda that are all but obsolete in this era of television and the Internet: caricatures, pamphlets, leaders' election rally speeches.Some of these publications, which were often distributed in tens of thousands of copies,feature serious accusations against political rivals. The site also contains materials in Yiddish, Hungarian and other languages, which date from early elections campaigns when many of the voters did not know Hebrew.
The project represents a major undertaking by the National Library, which has, in recent years, invested considerable resources in preserving and digitizing printed items such as flyers, posters, business cards, invitations, event programs, and more. It is a valuable contribution to the documentation of Israeli society.
According to Dr. Hezi Amiur, Curator of the National Library's Israel Collection,new material will be added to the site on an ongoing basis. "Most of the cultural record of election campaigns is not evident in higher culture such as literature or art, but in propaganda material that attests to its status a mainstream historical event. These publications accurately reflect the spirit of the time – the controversial topics, the intensity of popular feelings, developing vehicles of expression and even slang. The materials that have been uploaded to the site rekindle the spirit of the times and elicit nostalgia in the heart of older Israelis and curiosity in the minds of the young. The posters and photographs displayed attest to the fact that many current issues are merely new versions of ones that have been in evidence since the establishment of Israel."
