The issue of Jerusalem, which was to cause a national crisis a year later, was almost absent from the 1999 election posters. Above are two exceptions – on the left is one from the Third Way party, using the stones of the Western Wall as a background. The party switched its focus to Israel keeping the Golan Heights, and as the election went on this poster seldom appeared. I found this fragment in a gully along the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway. The Third Way won no seats.

On the right is a poster from Balad, an Arabic party, with Dome of the Rock – “In spite of the hatred of the Zionists, Jerusalem is Arabic.”

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In the 1996 elections, both Jerusalem and the Golan had been at the center of the debate. Two posters and one postcard below give an idea of the rhetoric. They came from the netsite of Women in Green. Arafat has Jerusalem in his gunsight, in a representation that plays on his assymetrical face, and a shifty-eyed Asad looks toward Jerusalem as he hovers the Golan: “Who will you vote for?” Shimon Peres, having arranged “The New Middle East,” floats offshore.

Between 1996 and 1999 many Israelis had become accustomed to the prospect of a real compromise on Jerusalem. However, the failure of the negotiations with Syria lowered optimism, and Barak’s sudden withdrawal from Lebanon raised issues of his government’s competence and worries that Arab expectations of concessions would be raised. The poster at right calls for a commission of inquiry over Barak’s withdrawal.

The pope’s visit brought out 1an especially vituperative poster announcing a rally of a rightwing Zionist group. Arafat shakes the pope’s hand, and the mufti of Jerusalem, its Islamic leader, looks down from the top of the Wall. A very large crescent is added to the Dome of the Rock. The cross = swastika graffiti was added often by some party who felt even more strongly.

		Barak is dividing Jerusalem.
		A poster from and to the religious groups. Worshippers at the Western Wall are in danger from Arafat’s guns.
			This interesting poster was directed from a unnamed religious group to Eli Yishai, Knesset leader of the Shas party, which had often given the peace process a majority in the Knesset, but whose position was uncertain. I found it in the religious district of Jerusalem in June 2000. King Nebuchadnezzar besieged Jersusalem, it says, and he turned into an animal. Titus besieged the city and an insect (a mosquito) ate his brain. Eli Yishai, get this “well well into your head.” The poster quotes Shas’ mentor, Rabbi Yosef, from the paper Hamodiya, that all of Jerusalem must remain intact.
Yishai’s name is put in parallel with the two historical villains, suggesting something without saying it. Get this “well well” into your head, was a slogan from an advertisement for advertising on the radio. This poster shows the behind-the-scenes dynamics of one reason why the peace process failed. Yishai took its advice. Shas left the coalition on June 13, 2000, just before the Camp David talks, causing pessimism on whether Barak would be able to deliver on any deal he made there.