The foreign ministers of the Group of Eight Arab Islamic states on Sunday strongly condemned the actions of far-right Israeli police minister Itamar Ben Gvir towards participants in the Gaza-bound flotilla while they were in Israeli detention. They described his deliberate public humiliation of detainees as a disgraceful assault on human dignity.
The eight nations, which include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Indonesia and Pakistan, said in a statement that Ben Gvir’s actions are a clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Governments have expressed outrage after Ben Gvir posted a video in which he taunted activists who were pinned to the ground.
Some of the detainees, who had intended to bring humanitarian aid to Gaza, later alleged that they were physically assaulted in detention, which Israel’s prison service denied.
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The flotilla was intercepted by Israeli forces in international waters earlier this week, and the activists were taken to an Israeli port where the video was recorded. The footage showed detainees kneeling in rows with their hands tied behind their backs as Ben Gvir looked on. The incident has drawn widespread international criticism, including from the European Commission, which called the treatment completely unacceptable.
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