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Protesters detained from the Gaza flotilla have been handcuffed behind their backs and left to kneel face down on the ground in rows, in shocking video released by Israel.
Israel’s national security minister Itamar Ben Gvir could be seen smirking, taunting and telling detained activists they needs to be imprisoned for a really very long time.
One handcuffed Irish woman named by activists as Caitriona Graham shouts ‘Free Palestine’ at Ben Gvir but is taken down quickly together with her head forced to the ground because the minister is ushered away smiling.
‘The courage of Catriona Graham within the face of Israeli outrages, puts our leadership to shame’, Stephen Bowen, Executive Director, Amnesty International Ireland said.
Helen McEntee, Ireland’s foreign minister, also condemned the video.
She posted on X: ‘Utterly appalling and unacceptable behaviour by Minister Gvir and the Israeli government.
‘Our Embassy has formally raised this matter with the Israeli authorities and has demanded proper and humane treatment of Irish residents. These actions can’t be allowed to proceed.’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said although Israel has every right to stop ‘provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters,’ the best way that Ben Gvir handled the flotilla activists ‘just isn’t in keeping with Israel’s values and norms.’
On Wednesday, Gvir released the videos of himself walking amongst a number of the roughly 430 detainees, after their arrival on navy ships.
One video shows activists with their hands tied behind their backs kneeling with their heads touching the ground inside what appears to be a makeshift detention area at Ashdod port and on the deck of a ship.
Armed guards patrol the barbed wire perimeter, guarding the activists attempting to bring supplies to Gaza.
Ben-Gvir waved a big Israeli flag and told the detainees: ‘Welcome to Israel, we’re the landlords.’ One handcuffed activist, who was shown within the video shouting ‘Free Palestine’ as Ben-Gvir walked past, was immediately pushed to the bottom by security personnel.
In a second video, Ben Gvir says the activists ‘got here here all filled with pride like big heroes. Take a look at them now,’ while appealing to Netanyahu to grant him permission to imprison them.
‘I say to Prime Minister Netanyahu, give them to me for a protracted, very long time, give them to us for the terrorist prisons, that’s what it should appear like,’ Ben Gvir said.
Netanyahu said that he has given instructions that the activists be deported ‘as soon as possible.’
Gvir drew the ire of Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who publicly chastised his fellow minister on X, posting that ‘you knowingly caused harm to our State on this disgraceful display’ and that he had ‘undone tremendous, skilled and successful efforts made by so many individuals.’
‘No, you usually are not the face of Israel,’ Sa’ar wrote.
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Ben-Gvir shot back at Sa’ar within the Israeli parliament, accusing him of ‘bowing to the terrorists’ which he called ‘a disgrace and a shame.’ He said that any Israeli apology to the activists would send a message of ‘weakness,’ ‘submission’ and ‘give up.’
‘Is he anxious concerning the images? I’m anxious concerning the security of the residents of the state of Israel, and I care about them,’ Gvir said.
Israel accused of humiliating activists
An Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, or Adalah, accused Israeli authorities of ‘employing a criminal policy of abuse and humiliation against activists.’
Adalah said in a press release that this followed similar patterns of ill-treatment by Israeli authorities against activists in previous flotilla missions ‘for which Israel faced zero accountability.’
The group said that its lawyers and other volunteers were providing legal advice to activists at Ashdod and were demanding their immediate release.
‘The international community must take urgent measures to guard the flotilla members against this brutal and illegal conduct by Israeli officials,’ the group said.
Flotilla organisers have said the activists from greater than 40 different countries were ‘being subjected to violent abuse after being illegally abducted at sea’ while attempting to bypass the Gaza blockade. In a post on Telegram, they urged the international community to finish the blockade and release all 9,500 Palestinians ‘held in Israeli torture dungeons.’
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