![Sample our Area Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5922/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Area-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The September 2019 elections ended up as a race for the Russian vote. Avigdor Lieberman, founding chairman of the Israel Beitenu party, launched a two-pronged, bilingual campaign in which the party’s Hebrew-language Facebook page presented a trilogy titled ‘The Tales of Ali Bibi’, while its Russian-language website posted a video titled ‘The Knight at the Crossroads’. This article analyzes these videos’ overt and covert folkloric themes and immigrant motifs and their attempt to transmit Lieberman’s encrypted political messages. It shows that for all their differences, both Hebrew- and Russian-language videos presented a negative campaign that predominantly focused on political opponent(s)’ alleged flaws rather than on Lieberman’s virtues and/or achievements.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Downer, Political Branding; and Steir et al., “Elections Campaigning.”
2. Coccobelli, “Not Every Day”; Steir et al., “Elections Campaigning”; and Vaccari and Valeriani, “Follow the Leader.”
3. Magin et al., “Campaigning in the Fourth.”
4. Haleva-Amir, “Not all about.”
5. Lev On, “Campaigning Online.”
6. Haleva-Amir, “Not all about”; and Orkibi, “‘New Politics’.”
7. Abdulaev and Shomron, “Celebrity Politicians”; and McDonnell and Wheeler, “@realDonaldTrump.”
8. Horton and Wohl, “Mass Communication,” 215.
9. Shedlosky-Shoemaker, Costabile and Arkin, “Self-Expansion Through,” 557.
10. Barnes, “Fanfiction as Imaginary”; and Shedlosky-Shoemaker, Costabile and Arkin, “Self-Expansion Through.”
11. Liebers and Schramm, “Parasocial Interactions and Relationships.”
12. Abdulaev and Shomron, “Celebrity Politicians”; and Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life.
13. Edwards, “Running in the Shadows”; and Parry-Giles and Parry-Giles, “The West Wing’s.”
14. Abdulaev, “The Right Not To”; Carter, “The Campaign of 1928”; Conners, “Visual Representations”; Haque, “The Use of Folklore”; Kadende-Kaiser and Kaiser, “Modern Folklore”; and Lowthorp, “Folklore, Politics.”
15. Fialkova and Yelenevskaya, Ex-Soviets in Israel; Remennick, “Twenty Years Together”; and Ro’I, “The Move From.”
16. Al-Haj, The Russians; Amit, “Identity. Belonging”; Nossek and Carpentier, “Community Media”; Remennick, “Twenty Years”; and Remennick and Prashizky, “Generation 1.5.”
17. https://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Friday-Newscast-q3_2019/Article-19d3e8bf85fbc61027.htm Review: 28 august 2019; Khanin, “The Israeli”; and Khanin, “The Israel Beiteinu.”
18. Orlik, “Epic Laws”; and Durdella, Qualitative Dissertation Methodology.
19. Samatar, “Spectacle of the Other.”
20. http://www.gushkatif.co.il/info/%d7%99%d7%99%d7%a9%d7%95%d7%91%d7%99-%d7%92%d7%95%d7%a9-%d7%a7%d7%98%d7%99%d7%a3/ Review: 28 august 2019.
21. Hubbs, Mother Russia.
22. Fialkova and Yelenevskaya, Ex-Soviets in Israel; and Remennick, “Twenty Years.”
23. Abdulaev, “The Right Not To”; and Fialkova and Yelenevskaya, Ex-Soviets in Israel.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Narmina Abdulaev
Dr. Narmina Abdulaev is a lecturer at the Department of Communication Studies and Department of Hotel & Tourism Management at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and a research fellow at the Department of Hebrew and Comparative Literature at the University of Haifa, Israel. Her research focuses on celebrities, influencers, tourism, fandom and folklore in the media.