Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir posted a video today celebrating his visit to a detention facility, where he taunted Gaza flotilla activists while they were forced to kneel on the ground, with their hands bound. Yesterday, the IDF illegally kidnapped them in international waters. So much international outrage broke out that even Prime Minister Netanyahu had to disassociate himself from Ben Gvir’s public sado-masochism.
As recounted by the Times of Israel, a female activist who shouted “Free Palestine” was grabbed by her head, then “shoved to the ground by officers who drag her out of Ben Gvir’s way, as he tours the facility. The treatment of the detainees appeared akin to security forces’ handling of the most severe terrorists in the prisons overseen by Ben Gvir’s office... With dozens of bound activists kneeling on the ground, Ben Gvir is seen waving a large Israeli flag and shouting in Hebrew, ‘Welcome to Israel! We are in charge here!’ Another shot pans through the kneeling activists, as Israel’s national anthem is blasted over a loudspeaker. Ben Gvir is subsequently seen shouting ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ (the nation of Israel lives) at a bound detainee trying to argue with him. As a woman is heard crying out, Ben Gvir is also heard urging guards at the facility ‘not [to] be bothered by their screams'.”
