Israel’s far-right Nationwide Safety Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has posted a video of himself taunting overseas activists kidnapped from a Gaza-bound support flotilla at a makeshift holding pen in Israel’s metropolis of Ashdod.
The activists, kidnapped by Israeli forces in worldwide waters, are seen cable-tied and kneeling whereas Israel’s nationwide anthem blares within the video, which was launched on Wednesday.
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A number of international locations, together with Italy and France, have summoned Israeli ambassadors to clarify the stunt.
In addition to a worldwide backlash, the video has even been met with sharp rebukes from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and staunch ally, United States ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee.
We break down what we all know up to now.
Who’s Ben-Gvir?
The 50-year-old lawyer and politician has led the far-right Jewish Energy (Otzma Yehudit) social gathering in Israel since 2019. He was sworn into the cupboard after the 2022 elections.
He was later appointed as nationwide safety minister and given management of Israel’s Border Police division within the occupied West Financial institution.
A settler in Kiryat Arba, some of the radical settlements on Palestinian land within the occupied West Financial institution – all of that are unlawful beneath worldwide regulation – Ben-Gvir has convictions for incitement to racism, destroying property, possessing a “terror” organisation’s propaganda materials and supporting a “terror” organisation – Meir Kahane’s outlawed Kach group, whose founder advocated for expelling non-Jews from Israel and which Ben-Gvir joined when he was 16.
He ceaselessly carries out anti-Palestinian acts, together with recurrently storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem’s Outdated Metropolis, Islam’s third holiest website, alongside Israeli settlers and beneath the safety of Israeli forces.
He usually performs Jewish prayers on the website, which isn’t allowed for non-Muslims as a part of a status quo arrangement in place since 1967, and has expressed his intention to construct a Jewish synagogue instead of the holy Muslim website.
Who’re the flotilla activists?
This refers primarily to the Gaza aid flotillas – teams of boats carrying activists from completely different international locations which have set out throughout the Mediterranean in an try and ship support and lift consciousness at varied instances since October 2023, when Israel launched its brutal assault on the Gaza Strip, which has killed greater than 72,000 Palestinians, largely civilians.
However the fashionable flotilla motion goes again additional than this. It emerged in 2006 throughout Israel’s struggle on Lebanon and expanded after Israel imposed its blockade on Gaza in 2007.
Since then, lots of of vessels organised by worldwide solidarity teams have tried to achieve the territory, carrying humanitarian support and activists.
In 2008, two boats from the Free Gaza Motion grew to become the primary to efficiently attain Gaza by sea regardless of the blockade.
However since 2010, Israeli forces have intercepted practically each flotilla in worldwide waters.
On Tuesday, not less than 430 activists from greater than 46 international locations have been kidnapped throughout Israeli interceptions of the newest flotilla.
What did Ben-Gvir say and do within the video?
Within the video launched on Wednesday, a lady approaches the minister and says in English, “Free Palestine!” earlier than masked safety officers put their fingers on her head as they snap it down and push her away.
“Good job,” Ben-Gvir says to the officers, earlier than stating, “Welcome to Israel. We’re the landowners right here; that’s the way it must be.”
Activists are then seen on their knees with their heads on the bottom and arms tied behind their backs in “stress positions” because the figures of armed Israeli safety officers look down on them from atop transport containers.
Ben-Gvir, waving an Israeli flag and closely protected by safety personnel, may be seen weaving in between the activists, showing to relish the second as he taunts them.
What has the worldwide response to the video been?
A number of international locations, together with Italy, France, the Netherlands and Canada, have summoned Israeli ambassadors to their capitals to specific their “indignation” over Israel’s therapy of the kidnapped Gaza flotilla activists and to demand the discharge of their residents.
French International Minister Jean-Noel Barrot additionally denounced Ben-Gvir’s actions as “unacceptable”, calling for the discharge of French residents “as quickly as potential”.
Canadian International Minister Anita Anand known as the incident “deeply troubling”.
United Kingdom International Secretary Yvette Cooper stated the video confirmed “completely disgraceful scenes”.
“The photographs of Israeli Minister Ben Gvir are unacceptable. It’s unacceptable that these protesters, together with many Italian residents, are subjected to this therapy that violates their human dignity,” Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stated in a press release on X.
How have activists been handled earlier than?
In Could 2010, when Israeli commandos stormed the Turkish ship Mavi Marmara, 10 activists have been killed and dozens have been wounded.
Allegations of mistreatment by activists who’ve been delivered to Israel after naval interceptions have been frequent, and organisers say they concern sanctions and accusations of Hamas hyperlinks are getting used to justify additional crackdowns.
The issues come amid earlier allegations by activists of abuse, together with sexual abuse, throughout previous interceptions by Israeli officers.
Organisers have additionally accused Israeli naval forces of firing “rubber bullets” at activists throughout the newest interception, which occurred in worldwide waters.
Many activists who’ve beforehand been detained have been wanting to level out that the main focus must be on Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails who’re subjected to torture and don’t have the choice to be deported.
In 2025, high-profile activist Greta Thunberg, who was on board a earlier flotilla, informed Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that activists had been crushed, kicked and threatened with being gassed in cages.
Nonetheless, she emphasised that the eye mustn’t stay on the activists as there are “1000’s of Palestinians, lots of of whom are youngsters, who’re being held with out trial proper now, and plenty of of them are most definitely being tortured”.
How does Israel deal with Palestinian prisoners?
Practically 10,000 Palestinians are at the moment being held in Israeli prisons in Israel and within the occupied territory, based on the prisoners’ rights group Addameer.
Some 3,532 of them are administrative detainees – individuals held with out cost or trial – whereas 342 are youngsters.
Israel is the one nation on the earth that tries youngsters in navy courts, usually denying them their fundamental rights.
Palestinians detained in Israeli prisons undergo near-constant dehumanising therapy by guards and troopers.
Beneath a brand new regulation handed this yr and spearheaded by Ben-Gvir, navy courts are actually capable of impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of killing Israelis in acts of “terror”.
This regulation won’t impose the identical penalty on Jewish Israelis convicted of killing Palestinians, which reinforces the authorized inequalities that grant privileges to Jewish residents whereas concentrating on Palestinians.
