We are appalled by the videos shared by National Security Minister Ben Gvir showing handcuffed and kneeling flotilla activists being taunted and humiliated in Israeli custody. This ugly display comes as no surprise from a man who regularly engages in this kind of performative cruelty.
This is the same minister who celebrated the death penalty bill with a bottle of champagne and the same minister who celebrated his birthday with cake in the shape of a noose. He remains in government, in control of national security policy, with a fervent base of supporters cheering his every action.
But this cannot be dismissed as the behaviour of one rogue minister. Ben Gvir is not an aberration — he is the product of a system that has made this conduct permissible. The actions of those officers in the video — tightening restraints in his presence, pushing detainees down at his feet — reflect a culture shaped from the top.
Any state serious about accountability would not simply rebuke a minister for this video. It would ask what norms are governing the treatment of civilian detainees and it would take concrete action to make sure this does not happen again. Crucially the minister responsible would not remain in power.
We call for the immediate and safe release of all remaining detained activists, and for a full account of the conditions of their detention.
What we are witnessing is not an isolated incident. It is a pattern of impunity and dehumanisation, and of a government desecrating the Jewish values that we hold so dear. It is up to Jews of conscience to call out this behaviour for what it is or else it will come to represent us.