Throughout the history of the Israeli election campaigns, there have been quite a few songs that have become, whether with the consent of their performers and creators or not, a significant part in the campaigns of the various candidates and in political developments. In the second article of “On the Way to the Poll” ahead of the 2022 election, we went back to some of them.
Strawberries – Ethnics // Ehud Barak 1999
The members of the band Ethnix have never hidden their affiliation with the left side of the political map, which is reflected in songs like “Tomorrow I’m Home” and “Qalandiya”. During the 1999 election campaign, a connection was established between them and the Labor Party’s candidate for prime minister, Ehud Barak. Barak has stated on several occasions that “Strawberries,” Ethnix’s huge hit since 1992, is his favorite song. The connection between the optimistic song about a new day coming and Barak’s campaign that promised to return the country to Rabin’s path of peace was natural, and Ethniks expressed their support for Barak and performed “Strawberries” in his presence on several occasions, including in Dan Shilon’s circle. On May 17, 1999, after Barak’s sweeping victory, Ethniks performed at the victory party in Rabin Square and performed the song once again.
Eventually, and after Barak’s short tenure turned out to be less “we both overcome the horror” and more “with me in the stack they are ready one by one”, the band members expressed remorse for the connection. In 2016, Zeev Nehama told Israel Today in an interview: “As soon as we found ourselves at Ehud Barak’s victory party in 1999, and he came up with his wife to be photographed with us, I realized we were wrong. We are being exploited. I remember the picture. GSS with a submachine gun, and everything was blown up with flags. I asked Tamir: What are we doing here? With all our essence and the Lebanon War, we as artists should not be in this place. It’s part of the scars we carry on our bodies. “
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Skin Skins – Aviv Geffen // Ariel Sharon 2001
This week, Aviv Geffen surprised the audience with his performance when he chose to dedicate the song “Journey Diary” to the Minister of the Interior, Ayelet Shaked, with whom he is friends, in what is another step in the former left-wing idol’s journey to the center and moderate right, which we have discussed extensively. In 2001, Geffen was still a clear leftist, and it was such a surprise when during the direct election for prime minister, it was reported in the media that a duke on behalf of the Likud candidate, Ariel Sharon, suggested that Geffen use the song “Leather” in election propaganda. So Geffen refused. I wonder how he would respond today.
Something New Begins – Danny Robes // Naftali Bennett 2013
In 2008 Danny Robes released “Something New Begins”, a new song after 12 years in a musical form, which was very successful and got him back on track. In 2013, a new and promising name entered the political arena: Naftali Bennett, a hitmaker and former General Staff patrol who captured the leadership of the “Jewish House” party and shook it off the gray NRP image. During the campaign, Bennett used the slogan “Something new begins”. Although he used only the name, and did not make any musical use of the song itself, it upset Robes.
“Disrupting him. My opinions are far from his and I do not share this. I hope the public will tell him his opinion. It definitely bothered me and I am very much in favor of music being in the public domain, but not for cynical purposes, which are purely commercial and without any other content. It is very “It saddens me. After all, with this slogan he is not promoting something good, but only his place in politics. I also assume that Bennett or someone on his behalf found out well beforehand if they could use the words, and that they are backed by lawyers,” Robes said at the time. Robes reportedly even considered filing a lawsuit, but dropped the case.
You are a cannon – Sarit Hadad // Benjamin Netanyahu 2013
During the 2013 election campaign, Sarit Hadad appeared at one of the Likud rallies, with the then Prime Minister on stage, and sang for him the successful song from the beginning of the millennium: “You are a cannon.” Naturally, many saw this as an expressive expression of support from a popular singer for the popular candidate, and others who raised their eyebrows a bit, claimed that the event was limited to personality worship, and even mentioned that Hadad had previously dedicated the exact same song to one of Netanyahu’s political rivals – the late Ariel Sharon.
Those in the second camp are members of the Yesh Atid party, who complained to the Election Commission and claimed that Haddad’s appearance was in violation of a section of the Election Law, which states that “there will be no election channels accompanied by entertainment programs, including performances of artists, music, singing, film screenings and torchbearers.” . The committee’s chairman, Justice Eliakim Rubinstein, found the complaint justified and fined the Likud NIS 80,000.