Jewish City Destroyed By Likud

Analysis / Interpretation / Press

Detailed description

This is an election poster for the 1984 Israeli elections. The anti-Likud poster was produced by the Ma’arach (Labour Alignment) party. The poster is mostly in black and white with the words “It is the only hope” written in red. The text asks why Likud always fails and gives as an example the evacuation and destruction of the city Yamit in the Sinai peninsula. The illustration on the poster is of bulldozers destroying the buildings in Yamit. The design of the word “failure” resembles the style for the word Likud used by the Likud party.

The reference to Yamit reminds the viewers of the cost of entering into a peace agreement with Egypt, a controversial issue at the time. As a result of the 1979 Camp David Accords, Israel agreed to return the Sinai peninsula, including the city of Yamit, to Egypt in exchange for peace. Before the return in 1982, the residents of Yamit were evacuated, some forcibly, and the buildings were bulldozed. The message can be viewed as ironical, since Likud has always advocated settling all parts of Israel, such as the Sinai peninsula at the time, and Ma’arach, which traditionally supported returning land in exchange for peace, seems to be criticising the result of the peace treaty with Egypt. 

Source:

https://web.nli.org.il/sites/nli/english/digitallibrary/pages/viewer.aspx?presentorid=EDU_XML_ENG&docid=EDU_XML_ENG700129879