Gevald campaign - Wikipedia

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these messages)

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Hebrew. (December 2020) Click [show] for important translation instructions.

Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia.
Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article.
You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Hebrew Wikipedia article at [[:he:קמפיין געוואלד]]; see its history for attribution.
You may also add the template {{Translated|he|קמפיין געוואלד}} to the talk page.
For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Gevald campaign" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with Israel and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. You may improve this article, discuss the issue on the talk page, or create a new article, as appropriate. (December 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

(Learn how and when to remove this message)

Poster attacking the Democratic Party ticket in the run-up to the 1864 United States presidential election, containing much of the scaremongering tactics typical of Gevald campaigns.

Political campaigning
Part of the Politics series

Finance Grassroots fundraising
Management Opposition research Consultation
Message Advertising Canvassing Retail politics Election promise Get out the vote Gevald campaign Lawn signs Post-truth politics Text messaging
Negative campaigning Attack ad Fearmongering Push poll Smear campaign Voter suppression
Key people Candidate Campaign manager Campaign staff
Politics portal
v t e

A Gevald campaign (Hebrew: קמפיין געוואלד) is a partisan get out the vote campaign^[1] aimed at convincing voters that voting for a certain candidate or party is the only way to avert a certain catastrophe.

The term was coined in 2007 by Israeli pundit Ya'akov Ma'or, in his book "What have we learned from Arthur Finkelstein". It is derived from "gevalt", a German expression of alarm.^[2]

The practice

[edit]

Gevald campaigns are typically a last-minute affair run on or in the lead-up to election day. Tactics used during Gevald campaigns often include spreading messages warning of the catastrophe that would supposedly occur if voters would not vote for the "correct" option. Typically, these messages would paint the picture of an impending economic or socio-political disaster, and include terms with negative connotations such as "danger" and "crisis", meant to increase fear and panic amongst the voters. The purpose of this scaremongering is to "guide" potential voters into believing that voting for an option not supported by the campaign would result in misfortune.