On Jan. 22, one of Israel’s top songwriters, Yehonatan Geffen, posted a tribute on his Instagram account to Ahed Tamimi, the Palestinian teenager who achieved global fame by slapping two Israeli soldiers in the West Bank, comparing her to Anne Frank. In a healthy society, the post would have generated a spirited debate over whether comparing a Palestinian activist to a Holocaust hero was worthy or an ill-conceived provocation.

Instead, the reactions reflected a state in disarray. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman professed himself shocked by Geffen’s poem and ordered the popular Israel Army Radio station to blacklist his songs. Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit said the order was illegal, but Liberman was not deterred. This set off a chain of events and racist invective by artists and politicians that pitted leftists against supporters of the right and immigrants from Russia against veteran Israelis. Like a cluster bomb explosion, the resulting damage wreaked havoc.

Geffen’s post did not generate any particular interest initially. Liberman was the one who turned it into a very big deal. Geffen is a prolific poet, songwriter, pundit and playwright. His uncle was late Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, and he served as a paratrooper. As a left-wing activist opposed to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, Geffen occasionally vents his views in texts many Israelis find jarring. This is what he wrote about Tamimi:

“A pretty 17-year-old girl committed a terrible deed/and when a proud Israeli officer/invaded her house once again/she gave him a slap … you, Ahed Tamimi/the redhead/like David who slapped Goliath/will be among the ranks of/Joan of Arc, Hannah Szenes [a Jewish paratrooper executed by the Nazis] and Anne Frank.”