(LifeSiteNews) — Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir posted a video on Wednesday that triggered widespread international backlash.
The clip depicted the taunting and mistreatment of activists who had been seized on Monday by Israeli forces while participating in the Global Sumud Flotilla, a non-violent civilian effort aimed at delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza by sea.
In the footage shared on X, Ben-Gvir is seen ridiculing the detainees, who are shown kneeling or lying face-down with their hands bound behind their backs. At one point, Israel’s national anthem plays in the background as the activists remain restrained on what seems to be an Israeli ship.
ככה אנחנו מקבלים את תומכי הטרור
Welcome to Israel 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/7Hf8cAg7fC
— איתמר בן גביר (@itamarbengvir) May 20, 2026
In reaction, multiple governments — including those of Italy, France, the Netherlands, and Canada — summoned Israeli ambassadors to express their indignation.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni described the images as “unacceptable,” further stating, “It is inadmissible that these demonstrators, including many Italian citizens, are subjected to this treatment that violates human dignity.”
She announced that Italy was taking urgent steps at the highest levels to secure the prompt release of its nationals while also demanding an apology from Israel and summoning the Israeli ambassador.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on X that while Paris did not endorse the flotilla, the French citizens involved deserved respectful treatment and swift release. He confirmed that France was summoning the Israeli ambassador to convey its “indignation and obtain explanations.”
The video even drew criticism inside Israel. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar stated that Ben-Gvir had deliberately damaged the country’s interests through this “disgraceful display.”
U.S. Ambassador Mike Huckabee joined with the internal voices, saying Ben-Gvir had “betrayed the dignity of his nation” by publishing such footage of human rights activists being bound, humiliated, and abused. Though, as observed by Al Jazeera, “he did not specify he condemned the abuse or only the decision to publish the video.”
According to the Global Sumud Flotilla organizers, Israeli forces recently intercepted around 50 vessels in international waters, detained 428 activists from various countries, and as of this writing has released just eight of them.
As explained by Russian Orthodox nun Mother Agapia to Tucker Carlson last August, “sumud” is a Palestinian concept indicating a certain resiliency or a “quiet persistence” that exemplifies the people’s enduring commitment to remain in the land of their forefathers, resisting the Israeli occupation and displacement. “This is our land and we’re going to stay here,” the nun summarized at the time.
READ: Holy Land nun tells Tucker: American Catholics must ‘change the support for Israel’ in the US
Ben-Gvir embraces ideology of Jewish supremacy, violent expulsion of Palestinians
Formed in the extremist terrorist-designated Kach movement, Ben-Gvir is an example of Jewish supremacist ideology emerging from a fringe element in Israel to now obtaining political power.
Born in Jerusalem in 1976 from parents with roots in Iraqi Kurdistan, the leader of the “Jewish Power” party was radicalized as a youth in Rabbi Meir Kahane’s terrorist movement. This ideology has long advocated for the notion of Jewish supremacy, the expulsion of Palestinians from their ancestorial lands, and militant interpretations of Jewish law, including justifications for genocide.
READ: Israeli extremist rabbis instruct soldiers heading to Gaza: ‘Kill all their children’
While, for example, Kahane referred to Palestinians as “dogs” who “must sit quietly or get the hell out,” he is a spiritual inspiration for Ben-Gvir, who has referred to him as a “saint” and “hero.” The national security minister has also kept Kahane’s books prominently displayed and openly identified himself as a disciple of the late rabbi from New York, who relocated to Israel in 1971 and was assassinated in 1990 at age 58.
Ben-Gvir also displayed a portrait of the mass-murdering Jewish terrorist Baruch Goldstein — who murdered 29 Palestinians in 1994 — in his home until he entered politics.
Additionally, during a 2022 memorial service for Kahane, the soon-to-be minister of national security at the time shared a podium with extremist rabbis, including Rabbi Bentzi Gopstein, who has called Christians “blood sucking vampires,” demanded their expulsion from the Holy Land, and advocated for the burning of churches.
Former defense minister: ‘Jewish supremacy’ ideology of Ben-Gvir turning nation into ‘Judeo-Nazis’
Lamenting the Israeli army’s ethnic cleansing of Gaza in late 2024, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon expressed strong condemnations of Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, stating he judged them to be worthy of indictments from the International Criminal Court for war crimes and crimes against humanity that have been inflicted upon the Palestinian people due to their orders.
Yaalon, who has been warning for years about the grave dangers of the radical religious Zionism espoused by these extremist ministers, also gave an interview in March 2023 when he framed the movement’s perils with the sharpest irony.
“When you talk about Smotrich and Ben-Gvir,” he said at the time, their ideology of racial subjugation is a concept that “rests on Jewish supremacy: Mein Kampf in reverse.”
And more recently, in January, Yaalon strongly condemned this ideology in the context of Jewish terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank along with other government policies. Yaalon warned that the “ideology of ‘Jewish supremacy’ … has become dominant in the Israeli government (and) reminds one of Nazi racial theory” that, with the violence against Palestinians, is turning the nation into “Judeo-Nazis.”
One week ago, Israeli Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, said: “We also have plans to encourage the emigration [of Palestinians] from Gaza and the West Bank.”
He was openly talking about the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from Gaza and the West Bank.
No world… pic.twitter.com/QhmaSQ2gJd
— Ihab Hassan (@IhabHassane) May 22, 2026
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