Flotilla spokesman: Ben-Gvir taunts 'in line with Israel values'

"What minister Ben-Gvir and other Israeli ministers revealed in those videos was not an aberration, it was exposure." These were the angry words of Gur Tsabar, a spokesman for the Global Sumud Flotilla whose kneeling, blindfolded, handcuffed activists were taunted by Israel's far-right security minister in a video he posted himself.

Western governments voiced outrage on Thursday after Ben-Gvir posted the video on the social media platform X.

The activists, whose vessel was intercepted on Wednesday in international waters by Israeli naval forces as they were trying to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza, were all deported from Israel on Thursday, the Israeli foreign ministry said.

Their treatment by police officers under Ben-Gvir's direction drew a rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But Tsabar questioned the condemnation's sentiment.

He told CGTN: "They publicly displayed blindfolded, restrained international civilians being humiliated under armed guard as political theater. And the most revealing part was not the abuse itself, it was the comfort with which Israeli officials broadcast it to the world. 

"You then had Netanyahu and Western governments rush out to say this behavior was not in line with Israel's values, but we know this is exactly in line with Israel values. That line performs a very specific function. It isolated the humiliation from the system that produced it."

'Panic'

Tsabar said Israel was involved in a desperate PR exercise. "The panic now is not over what was done, the panic was over the visibility of it, because once ministers began proudly filming the machinery of humiliation themselves, it becomes much harder for Western governments to maintain the fiction that this is all an unfortunate exception."

The outpouring of anger follows the posting of campaign-style videos by Ben-Gvir and at least one other minister in Netanyahu's government, transport chief Miri Regev, showing them visiting the port and lambasting the protesters, ahead of a potential early election in Israel.

The video shows dozens of detained activists kneeling in rows with their hands zip-tied behind their backs, in what appears ​to be an outdoor Israeli port facility. In the background, soldiers armed with long guns can be seen patrolling the area from aboard a military vessel.

"Look at them now. See how they look now, not heroes and not anything," Ben-Gvir says in the video as he walks by the activists while carrying a large Israeli flag.

'Torture'

Israeli rights group Adalah said the estimated 430 activists had been released from prison in southern Israel.

Across Europe, governments summoned Israeli ambassadors to condemn the video. Italy demanded an apology, Spain said it would not tolerate maltreatment of its citizens, and France demanded the release of all the detainees.

According to Tsabar: "This is exactly what Palestinians in Gaza, this is just a tiny fraction of what Palestinians in Gaza have been living through under - such degradation and military domination and total impunity."

He continued: "There are over 10,000 Palestinian men, women, and children who have been illegally detained, abducted, held as political prisoners and hostages. What happens off camera is beyond anything I can even mention to you. 

"It is degrading, it is sexual abuse, it is physical abuse, it is torture, it is depravity at a level that would make any viewer around the world sick to their to their core."

Flotilla organizers say they aimed to break Israel's blockade of Gaza by delivering humanitarian aid, which charities say is still in short supply despite a U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in place since October 2025 that includes guarantees of increased assistance.

The flotilla departed from southern Türkiye this week before being intercepted on Wednesday. Past flotillas - including one carrying Swedish activist Greta Thunberg - were also intercepted by Israel, with participants later deported.