Global condemnation is growing over footage shared by Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Ben-Gvir, which shows activists from a Gaza-bound aid convoy bound by their hands and forced to press their foreheads to the ground by armed Israeli guards.
The video released by his office showed the Minister taunting supporters while waving an Israeli flag as the national anthem played in the background. Screams could be heard in the footage, while a female activist is grabbed by Israeli forces and thrown to the ground.
European Council President Antonio Costa said he is “appalled by the treatment of flotilla members by Israeli Minister Ben-Gvir.” Costa noted that Ben-Gvir’s behaviour is “completely unacceptable” and called for the immediate release of the activists.
Multiple governments have condemned Israel’s treatment of the aid activists, calling it a violation of human dignity and summoning Israeli diplomats for formal reprimands.
Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong condemned Ben-Gvir and the “degrading actions of Israeli authorities,” saying that Israel’s Ambassador has been summoned. Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani issued a scathing joint statement calling the video “unacceptable” and demanding a formal apology. Italy immediately summoned the Israeli Ambassador, citing “total disrespect” for human dignity and the safety of the Italian citizens detained.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X that he has requested that the Israeli Ambassador to France be summoned to express “our indignation and obtain an explanation.” Dutch Prime Minister Rob Jetten wrote on X that the Israeli Ambassador had been summoned, while Foreign Minister Tom Berendsen called the treatment of the activists “shocking and unacceptable.”
New Zealand’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters said that Israel’s Ambassador will be summoned to air “grave concerns” about the treatment of detained activists from a Gaza-bound flotilla. Canada and Belgium also stated they would summon Israeli envoys to lodge formal protests.
Spain, Poland, Germany, Greece, Cyprus, the United Kingdom, Ireland, South Korea, the US, Qatar and Turkiye have also joined the chorus of condemnation over the detention of Gaza activists and their treatment.
US Senators Chris Van Hollen and Jeff Merkley condemned Ben-Gvir’s treatment of detained Gaza flotilla activists, saying it reflects more broadly on Israel’s actions towards Palestinians. “Ben-Gvir’s treatment of these detainees is disgusting and inhumane,” Senator Merkley said in a post on X. “When we see images of Gaza – destroyed communities and desperate families – we know why people are called to action,” he said.
Senator Van Hollen questioned how far Ben-Gvir would be willing to go with detainees in private.
“This is how National Security Minister Ben-Gvir treats detainees when he knows the cameras are rolling – to say nothing of what happens to Palestinians behind closed doors. This conduct is abhorrent. He should’ve been sanctioned by the US long ago.”
Chris Van Hollen
Meanwhile, Michael Lynk noted that the treatment of activists should prompt concern for Palestinian detainees.
Michael Lynk, former UN Special Rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory, said that Israeli forces have regularly intercepted aid flotillas and detained the activists on board. The difference this time is “how brutal the Minister of national security for Israel, Ben-Gvir, has been treating these activists”, which has prompted global condemnation.
Lynk asked where the same kind of “outrage” was for the Palestinians held in Israeli jails. He said that it has been well documented by the UN and others that Ben-Gvir has imposed harsh conditions on Palestinians held in Israeli detention “to the point where a number of them have died” and some of those freed “show great emaciation.”
The former UN special rapporteur for human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory stated that the flotilla activists abducted by Israel have broken no laws and “committed no crime known to international law or even domestic law.” He added that their abuse at the hands of Israeli guards and the country’s far-right security Minister, Ben-Gvir, has only become an international issue because it was recorded and publicised “to the world.”
Lynk said he did not think that Netanyahu “would have really cared” what treatment the activists were subjected to in Israeli detention, except that Ben-Gvir was “so bold as to put all of this on video and then release it to the world.”
Ben-Gvir Defends Actions
Despite criticism by governments around the world over the activists’ abduction in international waters, Ben-Gvir defended their mistreatment and attacked Foreign Minister Gideon Saar for saying the video damaged Israel’s image.
“There are those in the government who still haven’t figured out how to behave toward supporters of terrorism. Israel has stopped being a pushover.”
Itamar Ben-Gvir
He added that anyone who comes to “our territory to support terrorism and identify with Hamas will get slapped, and we won’t turn the other cheek.”
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