Rock musician Aviv Geffen on Saturday night responded for the first time to the assault on his father, author and songwriter Yehonatan Geffen, which took place Friday afternoon.
Writing on Twitter, Geffen said that his father was in good condition and added, “It’s easy to hurt a person, but difficult to hurt an idea. Thanks for all the concern, dad feels great.”
The attack on Geffen the father took place outside his home, near Netanya. The assailant arrived at Geffen’s home, knocked on the door and when he opened it, hit him in the face, shouted “leftist, traitor” and threw eggs at him.
The exact motives for the assault are unclear, but Geffen, who is identified with the left, this week reacted to the Likud’s landslide victory in the elections by saying that “March 17 will be declared the Nakba of the peace camp.”
“The people once again elected a racist man who said that the Arabs are flocking in large amounts to the polls. All those who voted for Bibi, do not cry when your children will die in the next stupid operation,” Geffen had said, though it is yet to be determined whether these comments are related to the assault on him.
Jewish Home chairman Naftali Bennett responded to the assault on Geffen on Saturday night, and wrote, “The assault on Yehonatan Geffen is a barbaric and cowardly act. You respond to a man of speech and pen with a speech and pen, not with your hands.”
“Yehonatan go home,” added Bennett, a reference to the title of a song written by Geffen. “Feel better.”
Aviv Geffen recently made headlines himself when he called to called to send Netanyahu “to hell” while an image of Netanyahu, Naftali Bennett and Avigdor Liberman, with a large red “X” crossing them all out, appeared on the screen behind him.
Aviv Geffen’s remarks were condemned by Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, who said, “A man who shirked the IDF, who incites against the prime minister when he and his family contributed much to the security of the state – and the leftist leaders Tzipi (Livni) and Buji (Yitzhak Herzog) don’t denounce and don’t say a word. Simply an embarrassment!”