Geffen: 'I can understand how a person trampled for 50 years would want to be a martyr'

Poet Yehonatan Geffen once again courts controversy, says biblical hero Samson was 'first martyr. I can't fathom the depths of insanity a person can reach after 50 years of refugeedom'; Ahed Tamimi, who he compared to Anne Frank recently, was deserving of greater appreciation, he says, in Palestinian hunt for a 'Trumpeldor of their own.'

Ran Boker|Published: 03.22.18 , 11:13

Poet Yehonatan Geffen, no stranger to controversial remarks, has told Channel 2 News that he could "understand how a person trampled for 50 years would want to be a martyr and visit the virgins in the sky."

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Geffen added that Palestinian teen provocateur Ahed Tamimi, sentenced Wednesday to eight months in prison for slapping an IDF officer and accosting him and another comrade, was "worthy of the utmost appreciation."

"Palestinians are seeking their own Trumpeldor," he continued, referring to Israeli national hero Joseph Trumpeldor who valiantly died fighting Arab irregulars during the battle of Tel Hai in 1920.

Yehonatan Geffen said Ahed Tamimi was deserving of 'more appreciation' (Photo: Talia Gilon, courtesy Yes Doco)

"If (we) had any brains, and if (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu) wanted peace in any way, shape or form, he would say, 'I have a lot appreciation for this girl who so bravely slapped a soldier.' I'm against slapping soldiers, generally speaking," he qualified.

Geffen also expounded on the issue of suicide bombers and said in the interview—to be aired in full on Friday evening—that, "The first suicide attacker was a Jew by the name of Samson. You know, Samson the hero … 'Let me die with the Philistines.' He was a martyr. I can't fathom the depths of insanity a person can reach after 50 years of refugeedom."

Geffen previously court controversy several weeks ago when he published a poem comparing Tamimi to Anne Frank and Hannah Szenes, but later apologized for the comparison after drawing the ire of, among others, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman.