RIYADH: The foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, strongly condemned on Sunday the “appalling, humiliating, and unacceptable” acts committed by an extremist Israeli minister against activists from a flotilla to Gaza.
Israel’s far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir sparked global outrage earlier this week after promoting a video of himself taunting activists from the flotilla to Gaza who were detained by his police force.
His tactics drew a backlash this week, as foreign leaders — and even coalition partner Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — condemned his on-camera treatment of some 430 detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla.
In one clip, Ben-Gvir is seen waving a large Israeli flag over hunched-over detainees whose hands appear to be bound.
In another, he taunts a kneeling detainee whose wrists are zip-tied, yelling “Am Yisrael Chai” at him — Hebrew for “The nation of Israel lives.”
The foreign ministers of the Kingdom, the UAE, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan, Turkiye, Pakistan, and Indonesia said that the deliberate public humiliation inflicted by Ben-Gvir on the detainees constitutes a shameful assault on human dignity and a clear violation of Israel’s obligations under international law.
The ministers also condemned in the strongest terms the unlawful and extremist incitement and violence perpetrated by Ben-Gvir and other Israeli officials against Palestinians in the occupied Palestinian territory.
The ministers warned that Ben-Gvir’s provocative actions fuel hatred and extremism and undermine efforts to achieve a just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution.
They demanded that Ben-Gvir be held accountable for his actions and called for concrete measures to end his repeated provocations, incitement, and violations, to prevent him from continuing his threats and to ensure that such actions are not tolerated or repeated.
The ministers further stressed the need to protect the human rights and dignity of all detainees, ensure their humane treatment, and guarantee full respect for international law in the occupied Palestinian territory.
