Ben-Gvir. He is not only Israel’s minister of national security. Itamar Ben-Gvir is both a symbol of Israel and one of its destroyers. He is the fusion of everything that has placed Israel on the same page of history as apartheid South Africa — in fact, on an even darker one. In the end, Ben-Gvir is also a form of liberation, at least for the occasional journalist, because he and his boss Netanyahu make it possible, at last, to write more openly about Israel itself.
Ben-Gvir walking among the detained Gaza flotilla activists, humiliating them before the cameras as they kneel with their hands bound, is a reminder that living caricatures exist. He represents, almost cartoonishly, the very worst — not only of the state he serves, but of the outer limits of human degradation. Around him, meanwhile, sitting and lying with their hands tied, are representatives of some of the best humanity can provide.
Whatever toxic Israeli media may say, however often every human rights activist is branded a Hamas supporter, these people came there risking their lives out of a very simple impulse — but one that deserves recognition in a world where it has become far too rare: the almost superhuman impulse of solidarity and goodness.
The flotilla cannot reach the coast it set out for. We know that. It can no longer even reach Israel’s occupation waters, or its territorial waters. That was the old Israel, the one that waited for them there and only then brutalized them on deck. That Israel no longer exists. Today’s Israel, where security is defined by Ben-Gvir, hunts people in international waters. Perhaps even that is not the final step in the world’s permission and surrender. At this pace, in the next edition, Israel will hunt these people in their own cities, in their rooms at their computers, in the streets — freely, just as Iranian scientists are killed on their own doorsteps.
Regarding the latest incident, Reuters today reports serious allegations from activists released from Israeli detention after the interception of the Global Sumud flotilla. They speak of beatings, sexual abuse, and even rape. Some activists ended up in hospitals, while Italian prosecutors have begun investigating possible kidnapping, torture, and sexual violence. The Israeli prison service denies all allegations, claiming the detainees were "treated lawfully".
Investigations, we are told, are under way, so we cannot directly say who is telling the truth. We can only say that Ben-Gvir, by his very presence and posture, walks among people like a great sadistic indictment.
His boss, meanwhile, wears the International Criminal Court arrest warrant almost like a medal before his domestic audience. And they can do this — both of them, and the entire ruling elite of Israel — with the blessing of the thug in the White House.
This time, Israeli forces detained 430 people from 50 boats. According to the organizers, some detainees were held on improvised "prison ships", in containers, without basic conditions, amid beatings and humiliation. One Italian activist described injuries to her ribs, arms, eyes, and ears. Five French citizens were hospitalized in Turkey, some with fractured ribs or vertebrae, while Germany confirmed that its consular officials had seen injured citizens and demanded explanations.
Yes, explanations should certainly be demanded. But from whom? Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir? That would be a farce — and unnecessary. European leaders can stand side by side, look deep into one another’s eyes, and ask each other for explanations.
Without diminishing in the slightest the injuries of the brave activists, whom we have already saluted — and they themselves would probably agree — is it not utterly obscene to perform concern over these cases while, under the rubble of Gaza, there still lie people just as innocent, just as completely massacred, dismembered, raped, and destroyed?
If anyone in Europe cares about justice, let them not begin their campaign at the end. What we are hearing in the media is not concern. It is damage control for scenes that this time reached the European public, unlike the hell of Gaza, which was watched only out of the corner of the media’s eye.
A brief reminder. Israel receives 3.8 billion dollars in annual U.S. military aid under a ten-year arrangement, while in April the U.S. Senate blocked all resolutions that would have halted the sale of roughly 450 million dollars’ worth of bombs and bulldozers to Israel. Let someone in concerned Europe comment on that.
And what does Europe say? The European Commission called the treatment of the activists "completely unacceptable", while Italy is speaking of possible sanctions against Ben-Gvir.
Ben-Gvir? Why only Ben-Gvir? However much he may enjoy sadism, he could not have done on his own what Israel has done, and continues to do, as an entire state.
The minimum — the absolute minimum — Europe should impose is urgent sanctions against the entire state of Israel. Not inhumane sanctions of the kind Europe, in partnership with America, has imposed on other disobedient countries; it should never sink to that level. But sanctions that shut Israel out of the entire system until Israel transforms into something different. Not slightly different. Radically different. An Israel we cannot even imagine at this moment — and yet that is the only solution. An Israel in which a Nelson Mandela comes to power.
How should that begin? With a complete blockade of appearances. Israel has turned itself into a symbol of its own actions, and it no longer has the right to be present where it once was. Not at sporting competitions, not at Eurovision, not at commemorations, not at economic forums.
South Africa fell when it had nowhere left to go. It fell when every form of cooperation with it, every placement of it in a shared context, came under pressure. Things moved quickly then — from the impossible to collapse.
Israel has already entered that space. And it entered it on its own. Ben-Gvir, Smotrich, Netanyahu brought it there — but it must also be said, so did a large part of the public that accepted a grotesque interpretation of its own position in the region and the world. When regimes fall, a confused people remains; after some time, it usually comes to its senses. The Israeli people — alongside exceptional individuals who, it must be said, stand out impressively in their dissent, but remain only individuals — must feel global isolation. Nothing less than that.
Paradoxically, and with a humane outcome, this would be the best and most peaceful solution for Israel itself. When Mandela came to power in South Africa, it moved the entire just world. But if we are completely honest, it was also a wise diversion, a pacification. With his arrival, the door quietly closed on a furious revenge that, had no other path existed, would have preferred a far bloodier transformation.
Israel, if it is ever forced to choose, should choose the South African scenario — not the alternative that may one day arrive in the form of enormous revenge if it ever loses its American guardian.
Of course, Ben-Gvir and those like him will not think of that yet, at least not today. They look at America, they look at Europe, then they look at themselves, concluding that they can still do whatever they want. They can, today. But today passes quickly, and that can be felt in every corner of America and Europe. Not among the elites; they will fall last. It can be felt among people, in conversations, in an attitude that is linking itself transnationally, and in a conclusion that will eventually become unified: the Israeli system must fall, and it will fall. With a new Mandela, the perpetrators of war crimes may escape. But in the hearts of those who already know that this Israel has no future, there is no desire for revenge, no desire for summary justice, only for peace and for the hell to stop. That flotilla will surround Israel, and the whole world. Not today. But we always hope for tomorrow.
Comments