The Party of European Socialists (PES) strongly condemns the despicable actions of Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who published a video endorsing the physical and verbal abuse by Israeli security forces against international activists. Citizens of different nationalities were detained whilst attempting to sail to Gaza to deliver vital humanitarian aid. The far-right minister was filmed waving an Israeli flag and cheering as security officers kicked, pushed, and applied excessive force against the detained members of the international flotilla. The PES demands their immediate release.
PES President Stefan Löfven stated:
“Such abuse of human rights, carried out in public and actively promoted by a high-level Israeli official on social media, has absolutely no place in any modern society.
We call for a decisive international response against this contemptible act, which serves only to fuel further division and violence within the Israeli Palestinian crisis. We demand full respect for the rights of the population living within the Palestinian territories, an immediate end to the violence in Gaza and the West Bank and we call upon Israel to clear the path for humanitarian aid to reach the Palestinian people, who have suffered for far too long.”
The Party of European Socialists firmly calls upon the Israeli government to demand Itamar Ben-Gvir’s immediate resignation.
Itamar Ben-Gvir already possesses an extensive record of human rights violations, documented among others by the UN Special Committee investigating Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people. He was the driving force behind the controversial “prison revolution” that legalised structural torture within Israeli detention institutions, and he successfully campaigned for the passage of the Death Penalty for Terrorists Law, reviving capital punishment within Israel. Government officials calling for war crimes and crimes against humanity, as Minister Ben Gvir, must be held accountable.
The PES calls upon the European institutions and the President of the European Commission to formally and unequivocally condemn this egregious act by Minister Ben-Gvir, including by applying EU sanctions, reinforcing the European Union’s unwavering commitment to human rights and international law.
