Ron Kerman, whose daughter Tal was murdered in a bus bombing in Haifa, and Yossi Zur, whose son Assaf was killed in the same attack, filed a complaint with the police this morning against Israeli poet Yehonatan Geffen.
The complaint was filed after Geffen published an image on his Facebook account containing a shirt with the words "All a suicide bomber needs is a hug."
The posting of the image caused very harsh responses against Geffen who subsequently removed the photo from the account.
The attack on bus 37 occurred in Haifa on March 5, 2003, when a Hamas suicide bomber from Hevron blew up a bus and killed 17 Israelis, nine of them schoolchildren.
The complaint was filed in accordance with Article 24 of the new Terrorism Law, "the Anti-Terror Law, 5766-2016", according to which "an act of identification with a terrorist organization, including through the publication of words of praise, support or sympathy, or to display, play or publish a password or an anthem, in one of the following, shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of three years."
Kerman and Tzur stated following the filing of the complaint: "We hope that an indictment will be filed against Geffen because, apart from the pain that he caused many bereaved families, the publishing of his picture also endangers us all, as he encourages further terror and expresses sympathy for anyone who commits terrorism against the State of Israel."
Geffen has previously under under fire for his praise of terrorists. In March Geffen said in an interview with Hadashot TV that he understands people who become “shaheeds” (martyrs in Arabic).