Israel's far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video on Wednesday of some 430 activists detained from the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, many of them bound and kneeling, accompanied by the message: "Welcome to Israel." European governments and Israeli politicians were quick to denounce the video.
The footage, published on Ben-Gvir's X account, shows dozens of activists on a military boat with the Israeli national anthem blaring and the minister seen waving an Israeli flag.
One handcuffed activist shown in the video was immediately pushed to the ground by security personnel after shouting, “Free Palestine” as Ben-Gvir was walking by.
The video sparked an immediate outcry both internationally and within Israel.
Italy's government was among the first to react, calling Israel's treatment of the flotilla activists "unacceptable" and saying the Israeli ambassador would be summoned for an explanation. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also called for the immediate release of any detained Italian citizens and demanded an apology.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said he had also summoned the Israeli ambassador. "Mr. Ben-Gvir's actions towards the passengers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, denounced by his own colleagues in the Israeli government, are unacceptable," Barrot said in a post on X.
Within Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu criticised Ben-Gvir over his handling of the detained flotilla activists, adding that he had ordered their deportation. Netanyahu called Ben-Gvir's actions "not in line with Israel's values".
"The way minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel's values and norms. I have instructed the relevant authorities to deport the provocateurs (activists) as soon as possible," he said in a statement.
Israel's Foreign Affairs Minister Gideon Saar addressed Ben Gvir in a post on X. "You knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display – and not for the first time," Saar wrote, adding that Ben-Gvir was "not the face of Israel".
The Global Sumud Flotilla set sail from Turkey last week in the latest attempt by activists to breach Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory after Israeli forces intercepted a previous convoy last month. Israel intercepted the boats on Monday and Tuesday.
The flotilla was the latest effort by activists to highlight the grim conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians suffering from severe shortages of housing, food and medicine.
Israeli forces began stopping the boats around 167 miles (268 kilometres) from the Gaza coastline on Monday, according to the flotilla’s website. The Israeli navy stopped some 41 of the boats in international waters off Cyprus and detained those on board.
The activist group said late Tuesday that 428 people from more than 40 nations had been detained and remained “unaccounted for” as they have had neither contact with lawyers nor access to consular help and their families haven't been informed of their whereabouts.
Israel has called the flotilla “a provocation for the sake of provocation” with no real intent to deliver aid to Gaza. The boats carry a symbolic amount of aid.
"Israel is employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists seeking to confront Israel's ongoing crimes against the Palestinian people," the Adalah legal rights centre said in a statement reacting to the footage.
Lawyers from the Palestinian rights group went to the detention centre in southern Israel to meet the more than 430 detained activists.
The Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which controls under half of Gaza and whose attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, sparked the war in the Palestinian territory, also condemned the video.
In a statement, it called Ben-Gvir's actions "an expression of the moral depravity and sadism that govern the mentality of the leaders of the criminal enemy entity" (Israel).
(FRANCE 24 with AP, Reuters and AFP)
