The video published last week showing National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir humiliating participants in the Gaza protest flotilla led news broadcasts across Europe throughout the day. This time, the condemnations came not only from politicians whose citizens had taken part in the flotilla. In an even more rare move, nearly all Jewish communities and organizations in Europe came out against the beatings and humiliations documented and released by Ben-Gvir and his staff.
“We usually avoid speaking about issues of internal Israeli politics,” said Jonathan Kreutner, secretary-general of the umbrella organization of Jewish communities in Switzerland. “But we decided to respond because what happened there contradicts Jewish values and the values of the State of Israel. It is a red line and contrary to Israeli law. We said we do not accept such behavior.”
Kreutner is not alone. There is hardly a Jewish community or organization in Europe that did not publish a statement or post distancing itself from the conduct of Ben-Gvir, the police officers and the soldiers filmed abusing members of the flotilla. All community representatives stressed that the condemnation is not political, but rooted in human values and in the difficulty they already face in defending Israel. “This is an image attack,” one of them said.
None of the speakers believes this particular video puts Jewish communities at immediate risk. The concern is more about the growing difficulty of confronting criticism of Israel and, ultimately, the identification of the community with images that do not reflect its values. From there, the antisemitic slope only becomes steeper.
Walker Meghnagi, president of the Jewish community in Milan, argued passionately that “Israel was right to stop the flotilla participants. They should stop harassing Israel. If they want to transfer something to Gaza, they should do it through the Red Cross, the church or the UN. The navy behaved excellently — and Ben-Gvir destroyed Israel’s entire image. This man cannot represent us in the world.”
But what shocks the community most, he said, is that “the Jewish people are not capable of doing such things.” Meghnagi said he “speaks privately with members of the Italian government and they support us. This is the most pro-Israel government in Europe, but no one agrees with what Ben-Gvir did.”
Kreutner also emphasized the difficulty of dealing with rising antisemitism. “Israel is a state governed by law, and it is clear that terrorists do not need to be handled with kid gloves," he said. "But here they tell us: If these are the values you share, then why are you talking about freedom of opinion?”
3 View gallery
Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of Jewish communities in France
(Photo: Abdullah Firas/ABACA via Reuters)
Yonathan Arfi, president of CRIF, the umbrella organization of Jewish communities in France, was among the first to condemn in a post what he called “Itamar Ben-Gvir vs. the State of Israel.” There is hardly a Jewish organization in France that did not distance itself from the incident. “This is an event that goes beyond the conflict in Gaza. It is not ‘for or against Bibi,’ ‘right or left’ — it is a moral question.”
“Nothing affects our solidarity with Israel," he said. "But we are in a constant struggle with the far-left party France Unbowed, which feeds a narrative based on the ‘Nazification’ of Israel and the Jewish people. Israel is being transformed from a country of Holocaust survivors into the new Nazis. This is a dangerous, immoral and mistaken perception, but images like the treatment of the flotilla participants feed anti-Zionist and antisemitic rhetoric.”
Arfi also praised the condemnations by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Israel’s ambassador to France, Joshua Zarka, who was summoned for a reprimand at the French Foreign Ministry but, alongside his statement that “the flotilla is a miserable PR exercise,” acknowledged on French television that “the video is the opposite of our values.”
3 View gallery
Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews
(Photo: Toby Melville/Reuters)
Those condemnations help Jewish communities “walk the tightrope,” as Michael Wegier, chief executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, put it. “I have not heard even one serious person in the community who saw the video and viewed it positively. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are part of the government. That is the situation. But in Britain, people understand there is a difference between the extremists in the Israeli government and the general public.”
At the same time, he noted that “we receive excellent treatment from Gideon Sa’ar and speak with him often. What does not happen with Diaspora Affairs Minister Chikli, who does not maintain continuous contact with us, does happen with Gideon Sa’ar.”
Wegier stressed that “we invest great efforts in Britain to preserve dialogue and maintain relations with other ethnic and religious groups. When a group in Israel displays such racist behavior toward Arabs or other minorities, it shows a very negative side of the country, and we feel the need to condemn it not only politically but ethically and morally. We do not like criticizing Israel — we are a very supportive and Zionist community — but it is impossible to express our love and ignore everything else.”