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.
