Israeli security minister stirs diplomatic outrage with flotilla activist abuse video

[Violet_Crumble]

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has sparked a diplomatic crisis by publishing footage of Israeli security forces abusing international activists who were detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid.

Three activists were taken to hospital as result of Israeli violence, lawyers representing the group said. They were subsequently discharged. Dozens of others have suspected broken ribs, resulting in breathing problems.

“The team reports systemic violations of due process, and widespread physical and psychological abuse by Israeli authorities,” the rights group Adalah said in a statement. There were “a large number of complaints of extreme violence”.

Ben-Gvir’s video drew a rapid and furious response from countries whose citizens were onboard the boats, including the UK, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand, in many cases from the top of government.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/20/israeli-security-minister-itamar-ben-gvir-stirs-diplomatic-outrage-with-flotilla-activist-abuse-video?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[GiqueCee]

1. And the ships...

... were boarded in international waters, which is a cardinal no-no. That's flat-out piracy. Netanyahu and his merry band of right-wing monsters are not helping Israel; they are driving her to the brink of being labeled a pariah state, just as Trump is doing to us.
And for the record, condemning Bibi's atrocities is NOT anti-semitic; but it is anti-Netanyahu. I don't believe for a moment that he speaks for all Israelis, any more than Trump speaks for all Americans, which he most vehemently does not.

[malaise]

2. K & R

Sickening war crimes

[Eko]

3. info on Itamar Ben-Gvir.

Having defended the perpetrators of the 2015 Duma arson attack in which vigilante settlers firebombed the home of a family in a Palestinian village, resulting in the deaths of a 18 month baby and its parents,[68] it was controversial that Ben-Gvir, along with Bentzi Gopstein, were seen attending the wedding of a couple related to the perpetrators, which became known as the wedding of hate, in which the weddinggoers could be seen waving rifles, guns and firebombs and even stabbing a photograph of the Palestinian toddler who was killed.

Prior to entering office Ben-Gvir was known to have a portrait in his living room of Israeli-American mass murderer Baruch Goldstein, who massacred 29 Palestinian Muslim worshipers and wounded 125 others in Hebron, in the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre; he removed the portrait in preparation for the 2020 Israeli legislative election in hope of being allowed to run on the unified right list headed by Naftali Bennett.

On 13 October 2022, Ben-Gvir took part in clashes in Sheikh Jarrah between Israeli Jewish settlers and local Palestinian residents whilst brandishing a gun, telling the police to shoot at Palestinians throwing stones at the scene, and yelling at them that "We're the landlords here, remember that, I am your landlord."[83] This was a message he later repeated in a tweet on the morning after the 2022 election in his victory tweet.

Noted Israeli sociologist Eva Illouz has said Ben-Gvir represents "Jewish fascism".

Plenty more info about him if you can stomach it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itamar_Ben-Gvir

[malaise]

4. UK summons Israel's charg d'affaires over video of minister taunting activists

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/uk-israel-video-itama-ben-gvir

The UK has summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires as international outrage escalates over a video posted by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which he is seen taunting activists detained after a Gaza-bound flotilla was intercepted.

The global outcry continued as Israel began releasing hundreds of the activists who attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza. Authorities are in the process of deporting them, according to a legal organisation working with the flotilla.

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said on Thursday he had asked EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, to discuss sanctions on Ben-Gvir, “for the unacceptable acts committed against the flotilla, seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights”.