Israeli singers Yonatan Geffen, Noa attacked for anti-Netanyahu views

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(JTA) — The Israeli singer Yonatan Geffen was physically attacked for public comments he made lamenting Benjamin Netanyahu’s election victory.

The following day, the Israeli musician Noa said she was verbally threatened and abused because of her politics.

Geffen was attacked at his home in a central Israel village on Saturday after posting on Facebook that Netanyahu’s March 17 election victory was the “Nakba” of the Israeli peace movement, Haaretz reported. Nakba, which is Arabic for “catastrophe,” is the word that Arabs use to describe Israel’s victory in 1948 and their displacement.

An unidentified individual tried to hit the musician, pelted his house with eggs and called him a “leftist traitor.” According to Ynet, in addition to the Nakba comment, Geffen also said at a concert prior to the attack that “to everyone who slipped a Likud vote into the ballot box, don’t cry when your children die in the next dumb conflict.”

Noa, whose full name is Achinoam Nini, posted on Facebook Sunday that when she arrived at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport after a trip to Italy that hecklers yelled, “Here’s Achinoam Nini … enemy of Israel. We’ll deal with you like Geffen.”

For many years she has been outspoken about her dovish and left-wing views.

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