Ben-Gvir taunts detained Gaza flotilla activists, sparks global backlash

Itamar Ben-Gvir turned the arrival of detained Gaza flotilla activists into a political spectacle, posting videos that showed some of the roughly 430 detainees kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs and taunting them as they were brought to Ashdod port in southern Israel.

The activists had been intercepted by Israeli naval forces in international waters on Tuesday, May 19, 2026, after their aid flotilla tried to reach Gaza. By Wednesday, May 20, the detainees were at Ashdod, where Ben-Gvir walked among them and told them, “Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords.” In another video, he accused them of arriving “full of pride like big heroes” and said they should be imprisoned for a “long, long time.”

The backlash was immediate, and it reached the top of Israel’s government. Benjamin Netanyahu rebuked Ben-Gvir publicly, saying Israel had every right to stop what it viewed as provocative flotillas aimed at reaching Gaza, but that the minister’s conduct did not match Israel’s values and norms. The split exposed a familiar tension inside the Israeli leadership: security officials pushing an aggressively theatrical line while the prime minister tries to preserve diplomatic room to maneuver.

That divide mattered because the flotilla was not just a maritime interception. It became a test of Israel’s message discipline during a war already under intense international scrutiny, especially around the Gaza blockade. For Israel’s allies and critics alike, the videos offered a stark image of detainees being handled in a way that raised questions far beyond the port of Ashdod.

The diplomatic fallout spread quickly. Canada, Italy, France and the Netherlands summoned Israeli ambassadors over the videos, while governments including the United Kingdom, Spain and Portugal also criticized the treatment of the detainees. The flotilla organizers and rights groups said the activists were being held after being seized at sea, intensifying attention on both the blockade and Israel’s treatment of foreign activists who challenge it.