Israeli Ambassador defends interception, condemns Ben Gvir

Israel’s Ambassador to Australia has condemned National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s treatment of Gaza flotilla detainees as “disgraceful” while defending the interception itself as legally justified and conducted with “great sensitivity”.

Ambassador Hillel Newman told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Thursday there is “no big gap between Israel and Australia” on the incident because Israeli leaders have condemned Ben Gvir’s actions “from wall to wall”.

“The leadership of Israel has condemned what he did. It’s disgraceful. That’s not the approach of the government of Israel. It’s not the policy of the government of Israel. It doesn’t reflect the values of the state of Israel,” Newman said.

“This humiliation, which was done by Ben Gvir after [the flotilla] already reached safe ground, was not to be done.”

Ben Gvir filmed himself at an Ashdod port facility waving an Israeli flag and shouting “Welcome to Israel! We are in charge here!” at dozens of bound activists forced to kneel on the ground with their hands tied behind their backs.

The video begins with a female activist shouting “Free Palestine,” before being grabbed by the head and shoved to the ground by officers who drag her out of Ben Gvir’s way. Ben Gvir is heard shouting “Am Yisrael Chai” (the nation of Israel lives) at a bound detainee trying to argue with him, and urging guards “not [to] be bothered by their screams” as a woman can be heard crying out in the background.

Newman told 7.30 the interception itself was handled properly.

“The whole flotilla was dealt with great sensitivity. No one was hurt. The interception was done very smoothly,” he said.

When pressed by host Sarah Ferguson about whether Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have anticipated Ben Gvir’s behaviour when appointing him to a ministerial position, Newman defended the coalition arrangement.

“The fact that you have a right-wing person in your government doesn’t mean that you can anticipate everything that that person does,” he said.

“You measure a person according to what he does, and when he does something which is intolerable or unacceptable, then you measure the government whether they respond, and in this case, we’ve seen a strong response from the Foreign Minister, from the Prime Minister.”

Newman noted Israel is heading to elections and “there are high probability that if other parties do not boycott Netanyahu, then he’ll be able to make a new coalition without Ben Gvir”.

When asked about guarantees that the 11 Australian citizens among detainees would not be further mistreated, Newman said: “No one out of the 400 plus people that were on the flotilla, no one was harmed. The interception itself was done with great sensitivity by the State of Israel, by our security forces.”

He dismissed allegations of violence and sexual humiliation as “false narratives and false accusations against the security forces of Israel”.

“There’s been no sexual attacks of any kind against the flotilla people. Violence is not true. There are many accusations which are flown out there which are untrue,” Newman said.

The ambassador emphasised that the flotilla itself was “a provocation, totally unnecessary” attempting to break “a legal blockade, which has been authorised by UN bodies and others”.

“Anyone who wants to give humanitarian aid can deliver humanitarian aid through the mechanisms. There are mechanisms set up, and there is no shortage of food and water,” he said.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on social media on Thursday that the images were “shocking and unacceptable”.

“We condemn his [Ben Gvir’s] actions and the degrading actions of Israeli authorities towards those detained,” Wong said.

“Australia’s Ambassador to Israel has made representations to Israel, reiterating our call for the release of the detained Australians and for Israel to ensure no ill treatment of any detainees and to act in line with international obligations.”

Wong said she had directed the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to call in Newman to reinforce the message.

Australia sanctioned Ben Gvir earlier this year.