Shona Murray: EU must hold Israel lawmakers to collective responsibility

Even Benjamin Netanyahu sought the higher moral ground as he criticised the treatment of flotilla activists by his own security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir — but once again, no consequences for Israel or Ben-Gvir himself are likely to materialise.

A screengrab from the video shared by Israel's national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir

Europe is tying itself in knots over Israel again. 

European governments this week strenuously condemned the maltreatment and abuse of international activists taken hostage while attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza. But in the same breath, leaders made it clear — like in every case of grave human rights breaches committed by Israel — no consequences for the Israeli state will materialise.

Israeli security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s propaganda video showed his security forces abusing and humiliating flotilla members who had set sail to bring medical supplies and food to children and civilians still starving to death in Gaza.

In one of the videos, Irish woman Catriona Graham is grabbed by the hair and dragged to the ground by one of the soldiers after she shouted: “Free Palestine.” A cheering Ben-Gvir brandishing a large Israeli flag saunters among the scores of abducted flotilla members who are forcibly restrained on the hard ground in rough conditions.

Cue performative European outrage from governments which feel obliged to castigate this latest humanitarian breach, this time because of the range of European nationalities among the activists.

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Moreover, the conscious portrayal of Ben-Gvir as a singular aberration within the Israeli government is remarkable. It’s easy to lay the blame for widespread, systematic killing on one extreme member. International politicians effectively then shrug their shoulders, saying nothing can be done about it because the realpolitik in Israel is such that if he is fired, the coalition falls. And prime minister Netanyahu may find himself in front of a court for corruption if he’s no longer in power.

Ben-Gvir is a senior minister operating on the basis of collective cabinet responsibility. And as a settler leader, and former settler lawyer from Hebron, he has a strong support base. Just two months ago, he completed a successful crusade to mandate the execution by hanging of Palestinians convicted of crimes linked to “negating the existence of the state of Israel” in a military court with a conviction rate of over 94%.

Human Rights Watch described it as “entrenching” apartheid. “Combined with its severe restrictions on appeals and its 90-day execution timeline, this bill aims to kill Palestinian detainees faster and with less scrutiny”, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch Adam Coogee wrote.

The Knesset passed the law comfortably on a 62-48 margin, with the support of Netanyahu.

MKs in parliament were free to vote with their conscience. They voted in favour of the bill and broke open bottles of sparkling wine, cheering with loud abandon when the final votes went through.

The way other politicians have reacted, you’d swear Ben-Gvir alone is responsible for the complete degradation of Palestinian life in Israel.

In Brussels, an EU spokesperson said: “The treatment of flotilla activists in the video shared by Ben-Gvir is completely unacceptable, as also indicated by his own government colleagues”. Even Netanyahu apparently had the higher moral ground.

“The way that Minister Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel’s values and norms,” wrote Netanyahu, himself charged with using starvation as a method of warfare at the International Criminal Court.

A screengrab from one of the cameras onboard showing the interception of one of the vessels in the flotilla. Picture: eire_globalsumud

Similarly, the Italian government, which, along with Germany, has led efforts to block the partial suspension of the Israel-EU Association Agreement, called for EU sanctions against Ben-Gvir.

Sanctions against individuals require unanimous support, which has so far proven impossible to achieve at EU level due to staunch Israel supporters: Germany, Czech Republic, Austria, Bulgaria, Italy, and Hungary under the leadership of Viktor Orban.

German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, wrote: “Minister Ben-Gvir’s behaviour towards the flotilla activists is completely unacceptable. It fundamentally contradicts the values that Germany wants to stand for together with Israel.”

Where has he been for the last three years?

A dark history

Israel's national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir. Picture: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP

Ben-Gvir indeed has a dark history of fomenting extreme violence over Palestinians. In one incident in 2015, he attended a wedding of a group of Israeli settlers rejoicing over the killing of an 18-month-old Palestinian baby who was burned to death in his home in Duma in the West Bank.

In May 2020, he was recorded shouting and taunting a Palestinian mother whose 31-year-old disabled son was shot dead by Israeli forces.

“Get out of here, you terrorist,” he shouted at the elderly woman as she left the courtroom where those accused of killing him were acquitted. Her son, Eyad al-Hallaq, reportedly had the mental age of an eight-year-old, and was on his way to his special needs school.

Nonetheless, Ben-Gvir is a democratically elected member of parliament and was appointed as minister accordingly, where his record preceded him.

In response to the criticism levelled against Ben-Gvir and his forces, opposition leader Naftali Bennett was triggered by how the footage framed Israel in the eyes of the international community.

The coalition has “weakened Israel’s international standing to an unprecedented low", said Bennett, eyeing up the election in October. 

He said that when he’s elected to government, he promises to “fix Israeli propaganda”.