The far-right Israeli minister taunting detained Gaza activists – The Latest
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What incident involving Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked global outrage?
This is The Guardian.
Robber bullets were used against them during the interception. Tasers were used. They were held in stress positions. The video is shocking in and of itself, but it's also what it says about the Israeli political spectrum at the moment. Why is Israel so afraid of these small boats? What's interesting is that Ben-Gavir is not concerned about what the rest of the world would think about this.
The far-right Israeli minister, Itamar Ben-Gavir, has sparked diplomatic outrage after sharing footage of security forces abusing detained flotilla activists who were trying to deliver aid into Gaza.
What shocking details are revealed in the video of detained activists?
From The Guardian's Today On Focus, this is The Latest with me, Lucy Hoffman. Well, joining me from Jerusalem is our chief Middle East correspondent, Emma Graham Harrison. Emma, thank you so much for joining us. We're speaking in the wake of the release of this video by National Security Minister of Israel, Itamar Ben-Gavir, of the detention of a number of international activists who were traveling or attempting to travel to Gaza on a massive flotilla that were taken onto Israeli shores and are very publicly submitted to this terrible treatment. It is a horrifying watch. What can we see in the video about the treatment of these detainees?
So it opens with an activist who's shouting free, free Palestine, being sort of forced down by Israeli security forces. Then it's a sort of series of clips. We see dozens of activists who are kneeling with their hands bound behind their back with zip ties and their foreheads to the floor in rows. There's so many of them that they're laid out in rows. Ben-Gavir is walking past them. He's smiling. At one point, he waves the Israeli flag and says something like, we are the owners, sort of referring to the land. And he sort of mocks them. He says, you came here as heroes. Look at you now as they're there being humiliated on camera. So it continues in that vein. And then at the end, there's footage of Ben-Gavir shouting very sort of into the face of another man who has his hands bound.
He's not bent over. He's sitting up. But he's shouts at him, Am Yisrael Chai, which means the people of Israel live.
I mean, it is an unbelievably incendiary thing to release, presumably by design to appeal domestically to Ben-Gavir's far-right audience, which we'll come to. But there has been huge international condemnation of this, given that the flotilla was carrying people of 40 different nationalities. So there's been condemnation from almost all of the governments with nationals on board, including the UK, Italy, New Zealand. Do you think Ben-Gavir was expecting this level of international condemnation?
So, you know, you rightly said he's sort of doing it to appeal to his own base. And I think that's one of the things that's shocking. The video is shocking in and of itself, but it's also what it says about the Israeli political spectrum at the moment that, you know, a prominent politician is releasing something that's provoked pretty universal outrage among countries who number some of Israel's very staunch allies. In Europe, we had Germany. And in America, we have the American ambassador, Huckabee, who's been really close to Israel. And yet in the domestic Israeli political context, Ben-Gavir sees this video, this mistreatment as an advantage. And, you know, after he was criticised publicly by the prime minister and the foreign minister of Israel, he doubled down on his video and in response to a post on X,
by the foreign minister. He sort of quote tweeted him and said something like, the foreign minister should realise that Israel is not going to be pushed around anymore. That's a paraphrase, but something completely defiant. Absolutely. He didn't even just leave it there. He sort of came back at his domestic critics.
And what was the criticism of Netanyahu? Is it unusual for Netanyahu to put out a statement, the Israeli prime minister, criticising a member of his own cabinet? Because there is obviously this far-right section of his cabinet that includes Ben-Gavir.
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