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<a class="gmail-domain gmail-reader-domain" href="https://mondoweiss.net/2026/05/itamar-ben-gvir-is-suddenly-the-villain-of-israeli-politics-for-one-reason-he-revealed-israels-true-face-to-the-world/?ml_recipient=188349502465246777&ml_link=188349477988337295&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=2026-05-24&utm_campaign=Daily+Headlines+RSS+Automation+-+8am">mondoweiss.net</a>
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<h1 class="gmail-reader-title">Itamar Ben-Gvir is suddenly the villain of Israeli politics for one reason: he revealed Israel\u2019s true face to</h1>
<div class="gmail-credits gmail-reader-credits">Adam Horowitz</div>
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<div class="gmail-reader-estimated-time">May 23, 2026</div>
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<p>This week, Israel\u2019s Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir
became an unlikely target of derision across the Israeli political
spectrum, including the right-wing. His offense? Revealing the true face
of Israel to the world.</p>
<p>The story begins with the latest Gaza freedom flotilla, which again
was sending boats and activists to try to break Israel\u2019s illegal and
inhumane siege on Gaza. Similar to past flotillas, Israel hijacked the
boats at sea, and detained the activists. <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/21/israel-begins-deporting-gaza-aid-flotilla-activists-amid-global-outcry">430 activists were kidnapped</a> in Israel\u2019s recent act of piracy, coming from over 40 countries.</p>
<p>This time, all of the activists were to be taken to Israel. Ben-Gvir
was waiting for them and made a video mocking the activists for social
media. \u201cThis is how we welcome the terror supporters\u201d, he wrote in
Hebrew, where his English title was \u201cWelcome to Israel\u201d. </p>
<p>At the beginning of the video, an activist who is standing up,
chanting \u201cfree free Palestine\u201d is seen being pushed violently to the
floor by security who shout \u201cquiet, quiet,\u201d Ben-Gvir continues to march
in, waving an Israeli flag, and a mass of kidnapped activists is seen
being forced into stress positions with their heads down to the floor.
\u201cGood work\u201d, Ben-Gvir says to the guards, and shouts to everyone:
\u201cWelcome to Israel! We are the masters of the house!\u201d </p>
<p>It is important to note that this is a common scenario in these
arrests, and there is nothing really new about it. It is a light
variation of what is being done to Palestinians every day, and various
snuff videos showing such systemic torture have been <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2024/03/we-are-the-masters-of-the-house-israeli-channels-air-snuff-videos-featuring-systematic-torture-of-palestinians/">aired on mainstream Israeli television channels</a>. These videos have also commonly included Ben-Gvir\u2019s mantra \u201cWe are the masters of the house\u201d, which was his election slogan. </p>
<p>The Israeli Prison Service even went as far as issuing a <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/ben-gvir-posts-video-of-himself-taunting-bound-and-detained-gaza-flotilla-activists/">statement</a> to <em>Ha\u2019aretz</em>,
saying that the detention was \u201ccarried out in accordance with procedure
and professional considerations.\u201d Times of Israel notes that this was
done \u201cas media outlets suggested the prison officials present in the
clip were acting against political and military policies\u201d. These are, in
fact, their procedures, these are their policies.<sup><a id="gmail-f7130bc3-2bbc-4d0f-a7dd-cedf931558bd-link">1</a></sup></p>
<p>Yet, despite this, and perhaps in a sign of how Israel\u2019s international standing has fallen, Ben-Gvir\u2019s video set off an <a href="https://www.arabnews.com/node/2644315/middle-east">international firestorm</a>, and has become a PR problem of its own. Both <a href="https://notesfrompoland.com/2026/05/21/poland-to-impose-entry-ban-on-israeli-security-minister-over-treatment-of-gaza-activists/">Poland</a> and France have issued entry bans against Ben-Gvir with French Foreign Affairs Minister Jean-Noël Barrot <a href="https://x.com/jnbarrot/status/2058157334740820131?s=20">saying</a>,
\u201cwe cannot tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated, or
brutalized in this way, especially by a public official\u201d and calling for
other EU countries to issue sanctions against him. Italy\u2019s Giorgia
Meloni said it was \u201cunacceptable\u201d that \u201cthese demonstrators, including
many Italian citizens, are subject to this treatment.\u201d British Foreign
Minister Yvette Cooper was \u201ctruly appalled\u201d by the video, which
\u201cviolates the most basic standards of respect and dignity in the way
people should be treated.\u201d </p>
<p>Of course, no such outrage is to be found when it\u2019s Palestinians, but
that\u2019s always another story. Now it\u2019s a problem that internationals,
including Europeans, are being jeered at by Ben-Gvir as they were
paraded through detention like animals.</p>
<p>Given the response, Israel\u2019s hasbara central turned to damage control
mode, and Ben-Gvir was thrown under the bus as a bad apple. </p>
<p>Prime Minister Netanyahu <a href="https://x.com/IsraeliPM/status/2057095673669918753?s=20">claimed</a>
that Ben-Gvir\u2019s video was \u201cnot in line with Israel\u2019s values.\u201d It wasn\u2019t
the what, it was the how: \u201cIsrael has every right to prevent
provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorist supporters from entering our
territorial waters and reaching Gaza. However, the way that Minister
Ben-Gvir dealt with the flotilla activists is not in line with Israel\u2019s
values and norms,\u201d he added. </p>
<p>Foreign Minister Gideon Sa\u2019ar, who thus heads the hasbara office,
shared Netanyahu\u2019s message, but had a message of his own, even more
condemnatory of Ben-Gvir, claiming Ben-Gvir wasn\u2019t the face of
Israel: \u201cYou knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful
display \u2013 and not for the first time. You have undone tremendous,
professional, and successful efforts made by so many people \u2013 from IDF
soldiers to Foreign Ministry staff and many others. No, you are not the
face of Israel\u201d, he wrote in his <a href="https://x.com/gidonsaar/status/2057075559021043833?s=20">sharing</a> of Ben Gvir\u2019s tweet. </p>
<p>And then the Foreign Ministry posted <a href="https://x.com/IsraelMFA/status/2057108578230476978?s=20">a tweet</a> with one video and three photos: </p>
<p>A video of a guard giving water to a hostage; A photo of another
offering water to a hostage; a hostage being questioned at a table; a
woman smiling (presumably a hostage). </p>
<p>\u201cThese are our values,\u201d says the caption. </p>
<p>All we\u2019re missing is candy being handed around, and maybe a choral performance to top it off. </p>
<p>The reality of the situation was that the activists had been held in
these stress positions for many hours, and the human rights organization
Adalah <a href="https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/gaza-bound-aid-flotilla-activists-subjected-to-electric-shocks-severe-abuse-in-israeli-custody-rights-group/3944064">reported</a>
that activists were sent to the hospital, suspected of having broken
ribs due to breathing difficulty, having been subject to electric shock,
and shot with rubber bullets. Activists also <a href="https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fx.com%2Fi%2Fstatus%2F2057108578230476978%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAYnJpZBExZXFpRE4wTVJTWkxOZFFwdnNydGMGYXBwX2lkEDIyMjAzOTE3ODgyMDA4OTIAAR7HfNTQXijtsS1xKZJFTriiV8dpMlaJ2_MpwY1J2XaYANSjKA7APmW9zbV8-A_aem_YWdncwCsXGTFwTmkeLOvhmJ6xllq%26brid%3DYWdncwEOWbD0RL3J30LGlbi_Ir7s&h=AUDd-ALL50U-E2hCZ10DTWN-OPRnnsGCf0ZRvDp1mfvqGjwoxmLWArwhqFn9wMPmLEH6LannDz2UCMbiBjYqYZ3BPTVkQ-dU3KND4QpWoYp01heKvtsouEoaBSRWImihGK5KOGDEHZFqZw&__tn__=-UK-R&c[0]=AUCnikdC1FNocFUOjLioeZfoso-Jz1dUNgCosB-IL-XTSPnAHOALI2u4LAb3kS7xLfwT0It-fiZLbNeDkrOEdpeIHTPRWTbibz8_lizqJgtJpxEUrPNpHxA_jWYIZ_9OmRj4mNDNsQ88gX4Gh4nbUdwTWruv5a7zV7P1Pvz9uYaLBuluuEC0PZmpPUoaqA9mZWgFYrptcELc1KGWasnNLQ">reported</a>
sexual assault, including rape. On one particular Israeli ship, at
least 12 sexual assaults were documented, \u201cincluding anal rape and
forcible penetration by a handgun.\u201d This is, of course, standard
procedure when it comes to Palestinians, including the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2025/11/understanding-the-mindset-behind-israels-usage-of-rape-as-a-weapon-of-genocide/">systematic use of rape</a>, which was effectively legitimized when the <a href="https://mondoweiss.net/2026/03/israeli-soldiers-who-gang-raped-palestinian-prisoner-are-now-free-to-return-to-military-service/">Sde Teiman gang rape case</a> was recently closed. </p>
<p>So this moral panic over Ben-Gvir\u2019s crude behavior is really an
attempt to draw attention away from this abuse, and it appears to be
working. He is being made out to be an obnoxious fascist outlier, when
in fact Ben-Gvir represents the true face of Israel. </p>
<p>This is all about Israel, as a whole. It\u2019s Israel\u2019s siege, it\u2019s
Israel\u2019s genocide, and the world needs to awaken to this understanding.
It\u2019s not just about a few rotten apples, a particularly vile minister,
or a few bad cops. </p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Jonathan Ofir</strong><br>Jonathan Ofir is an Israeli musician, conductor and writer based in Denmark.</p>
<hr>
<p><strong>Note</strong></p>
<ol><li id="gmail-f7130bc3-2bbc-4d0f-a7dd-cedf931558bd">It is also notable, that Transportation Minister <a href="https://x.com/regev_miri/status/2057043359848440192?s=20">Miri Regev</a>,
of Netanyahu\u2019s Likud, posted a similar video, where she claimed the
activists were \u201cterror supporters\u201d who come \u201cdrugged and filled with
alcohol\u201d, who try to \u201churt the sovereignty of the state of Israel\u201d. Her
video captions once again the hostages in the same stress position.
Regev\u2019s video did not get much attention. <a aria-label="Jump to footnote reference 1">\u21a9\ufe0e</a></li></ol>
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