Ben-Gvir is no exception

Abominable. Unacceptable. Despicable. Deplorable. Unconscionable. Barbaric. Degrading. Intolerable. These were some of the indignant adjectives uttered by governments around the world in the global condemnation of the macabre spectacle staged by Zionist Minister Ben-Gvir against the international activists of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which made headlines on May 20. But, contrary to how it is presented, he is not an exception; he is a true face of the Zionist state.

The leaders of the genocidal state of Israel felt the impact of the international crisis and, in a gesture as desperate as it is hypocritical and ridiculous, they tried to distance themselves from the man who, in their service directs the murders and torture of Palestinians in the dungeons of the Zionist state, as well as the state’s repressive apparatus, which includes increasingly arming criminal settlers to kill more in the West Bank, for example. And little by little, solidarity lays bare what the Palestinian resistance never tires of exposing: the brutal nature of a racist colonial project.

Seeking to please the domestic audience and perhaps vie for the position of prime minister in the snap elections following the dissolution of Parliament, which was unanimously approved by the Zionist legislature on the 20th, Ben-Gvir released a bizarre video, as is his custom. He had already done so many times while “overseeing” the treatment of Palestinian political prisoners—whether it was already bad enough or needed to get worse. So confident in Israel’s impunity that he now directed the cameras to show the escalated violence against the international activists on the flotilla.

In it, he appears as the overseer of the humiliation and assaults on the 428 international activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla who were violently seized on May 18 and 19 in international waters by the occupying naval forces. Hailing from some 50 countries, the participants were the remnants and reinforcements of the flotilla following the first interception of 22 ships and 181 activists in late April, including the mission’s leaders, the Brazilian Thiago Ávila and the Spanish-Palestinian-Swedish Saif Abukeshek. The treatment was also violent for everyone, with particularly severe torture against the coordinators and their detention for ten days.

The Zionist “National Security” Minister Ben-Gvir has already visited other activists kidnapped from flotillas last year; this is not the first time, and he always displays a sadistic pleasure in humiliating them. Some dare to shout “Free Palestine,” which costs them further physical and psychological abuse. That is what was seen just now against an Irish woman, whom Ben-Gvir himself shoved to force her to kneel. The scenes are truly bizarre: 428 people forced to kneel, with their heads on the ground and plastic zip ties tightened around their hands.

As part of the torture, they were forced to listen to the Zionist anthem. “Welcome to Israel!” Ben-Gvir sneered. He was mimicking another minister, Transport Minister Miri Regev, who also posted a video on her social media with the image of the hostages from the flotilla in the background.

Ignoring that latest video, since it had no impact, the criminal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went so far as to say that Ben-Gvir’s actions do not align with “Israel’s values.” Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar was quick to say: “With this shameful display, you have consciously caused harm to our state, and this is not the first time […].” And he added: “You are not the face of Israel.”

The attempt to reverse the diplomatic crisis and global condemnation—with several countries such as France, Italy, Canada, and the Netherlands announcing they would recall Israeli ambassadors, a gesture of reprimand and a sign of diplomatic discontent—was to present Ben-Gvir as an “extremist,” an exception. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The Face and Nature of the Genocidal State

The true face of Israel is plain to see, for anyone who cares to look. The long history of crimes against humanity spanning 78 years of the Nakba (the Palestinian catastrophe) is finally beginning to be known by a wider audience.

The widely documented genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza over more than 500 days brought that blood-soaked history to light. The Palestinians took it upon themselves to show the world their own martyrdom in real time, aided by new technologies: the refinements of cruelty, with the imposition of hunger, thirst, and a total absence of living conditions; bombings of hospitals, schools, tents, entire residential neighborhoods, sanitation stations, solar panels, universities, churches, mosques—everything. Entire families burned alive and erased from the civil registry, rubble, carnage. Advanced ethnic cleansing in the West Bank, apartheid, and aggressive colonial expansion, with pogroms (violent attacks by Zionist settlers).

The occupation soldiers felt emboldened to also display their atrocities on social media, mocking and boasting of being perpetrators of genocide. Even a Palestinian who had gone missing amid all the killing was displayed online, blindfolded and put up for sale as a slave.

Medieval torture methods were also leaked from the Zionist dungeons where 9,600 Palestinians are suffering, including nearly 400 children, with reports of men and women being raped using large objects and attacked with dogs.

In the resistance’s exchanges of political prisoners, images of the freed Palestinians shocked the world: some had legs amputated due to untreated infections and injuries, others were unrecognizable in their emaciated bodies due to imposed starvation, and many other horrors the world witnessed; and the very same governments that now express outrage over the treatment of the international activists on the Global Sumud Flotilla chose to look the other way. After all, these are Palestinian bodies, and they are not human; they deserve to be killed and tortured.

Hypocrisy and selective outrage

Everything is justified. Israel is legitimized to commit atrocities. Its lying propaganda that it is “defending itself”—when it is the colonizer, the occupier—is validated. Thus, the same outraged governments sleep soundly while continuing to be the recipients of deadly technologies to repress, criminalize, and kill the oppressed and exploited in their own countries. Israel remains the attractive shopping center that serves the extermination and genocide of other peoples, such as Indigenous peoples, Black people, and the poor in Brazil. And the Palestinian people function as a human laboratory for testing and developing innovative weapons, drones, and control and surveillance equipment and software.

The Palestinian resistance, which neither bends nor surrenders, nevertheless shows the way: collective persistence and steadfastness (Sumud). International solidarity reflects and amplifies their voices. And it wears down the Zionist colonial project, accelerating its decline. Governments insist on not supporting them and, aligned with the Zionist lobby, attempt to criminalize and intimidate the defenders of Palestine. But even for these governments, there is a limit.

Palestinian bodies are fine; it’s normal, it’s trivial. Torture, rape, assaults, broken ribs suffered by international activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla—as evidenced by accounts following the release of the 428 hostages—are unacceptable because they exacerbate the crisis of capitalism in their own countries and generate instability. Fifty-three people had to be hospitalized due to the brutal violence they were subjected to by the occupation—very brutal, but not even 1% of what is inflicted daily on Palestinians—now even with political prisoners facing public hanging under Israeli “law.” Ben-Gvir made a video of the structure with the gallows set up to receive Palestinians and received a birthday cake with a drawing of a gallows made by his wife as a gift. It was all filmed, but the outrage remains selective.

The Palestinian cause, as the embodiment of just struggles against oppression and exploitation anywhere in the world, exposes the terrorist state of Israel, but it also exposes the hypocrisy of nation-states, whose governments issue statements and condemnations yet refuse to impose sanctions or sever ties with their genocidal ally.

And so impunity knocks at the door, to the rhythm of the waves of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Israel felt so comfortable seeking the final solution in the ongoing Nakba that it displays its brutal face to the world, even against international observers.

Historical international complicity has not ceased. Netanyahu rushed to try to distance himself from Ben-Gvir to prevent governments from having no other choice but to take that step.

Not only him, but also the “liberal wing” of Zionism, whose project is just as racist, colonial, and genocidal, but far from the cameras and the eyes of the world. As key players in the 1948 Nakba, they fear that the “Zionist far right” will bring that project to collapse by revealing to the world the true face and nature of Israel, and they defend it tooth and nail.

The Deepening Decline of the Colonial Project

But the damage is already done. Israel has lost hearts and minds. A Pew Research Center survey conducted between March 23 and 29 reveals that in the U.S., 60% of Americans hold a negative view of the Zionist state. “Six in ten Americans have a very or somewhat unfavorable view of Israel, an increase of seven percentage points from last year and nearly 20 points since 2022,” it notes. In Europe, it is no different. Nor in Latin America.

The Palestinian resistance shows the way. And the Global Sumud Flotilla persists. “When governments fail, we sail.” And it keeps coming back, despite the escalating violence against its members. And it affirms: “For Palestine, we will not stop.” It is Israel that must be stopped.

And solidarity finds new paths. Right now, the Maghreb Sumud Convoy, with nearly 230 participants from 21 countries, is attempting a land crossing to march toward Gaza. It is currently detained and prevented from moving forward, awaiting authorization from Libya. The powerful enemies of the Palestinian cause are revealing themselves. As the Palestinian revolutionary Ghasan Kanafani taught, in addition to imperialism/Zionism, they are: the Arab regimes and the Arab/Palestinian bourgeoisie. But the convoy has already announced that it is determined and will not give up.

Riding that wave and following those steps, the call is to strengthen the mobilization and take to the streets. Not a moment’s peace for the genocidal state. No normalization of apartheid, genocide, colonization, and ethnic cleansing. Now is the time to ramp up pressure on governments and demand an end to complicity with Israel. It is time to deepen the decline of the Zionist colonial project. Do not stop, never give up, do not feel defeated or intimidated.

To the participants of the Global Sumud Flotilla, the words expressed in a letter by the Palestinian photojournalist from Gaza, Abdel Rahmann Alkahlout, shared in Portuguese by the Brazilian oil tanker captain Leandro Lanfredi, one of the flotilla’s participants:

From the mothers of Gaza who fall asleep to the sound of airstrikes,

From the children who wake up terrified, searching for their parents under the rubble,

From the journalists who carried a camera in one hand and the remains of their friends in the other,

From the wounded, from the parents forced to bury their own children with their own hands…

We write this message to you.

Perhaps you will never truly understand what it means, for a besieged and abandoned people, to feel that someone was willing to risk their own life for them.

Perhaps you will never know how the mothers of Gaza wept when they saw your ships sailing toward them, simply because it reminded them that, somewhere in this world, there are still people who see them as human beings.

In Gaza, we have grown accustomed to being left alone under fire. We have grown accustomed to the world watching our children die and then going on with their lives as if nothing had happened. But you broke that silence.

You did not carry weapons. You carried a living conscience. You carried dignity for a people whom they tried to starve, isolate, and erase.

The people of Gaza will never forget those who crossed the sea just to tell them: “We may not be stronger than death, but we refuse to remain silent in the face of it.”

One day, the children of Gaza will grow up hearing stories of people from all over the world who faced threats, imprisonment, and danger just to knock on the door of a besieged Gaza and say: “You are not alone.”

Beneath the rubble, the tents, the overcrowded and pain-filled hospitals, and hearts exhausted by loss and siege… thank you for choosing humanity when much of the world chose silence.

The Palestinian resistance shows the way. And from the rubble of the Nakba, its seeds will blossom, in an unbreakable land that bleeds but refuses to die: A free Palestine from the river to the sea!

First published here by the IWL