Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani formally wrote to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Thursday, requesting that sanctions against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir be placed on the agenda of the next EU foreign ministers’ meeting.
Spain and Ireland backed the call the same day. The trigger was a video Ben-Gvir posted on Wednesday showing detained activists from the Global Sumud Flotilla, which had sailed from Turkey towards Gaza, forced to kneel with their foreheads to the ground and their hands zip-tied at Ashdod port. In the video, Ben-Gvir waves an Israeli flag at the kneeling detainees and declares: “The holiday camp is over. Those who act against the State of Israel will find a determined country.”
The diplomatic reaction was unusually sharp, and it came from unexpected directions. EU Council President António Costa said he was appalled. Kallas called the treatment unacceptable and demanded Israel comply with international law, in a statement of just 67 words. Notably absent was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who had issued no statement as of Thursday evening. Even US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee described the video as “despicable.”
Within Israel’s own government, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar posted a public rebuke: “You are not the face of Israel. You knowingly caused harm to our State in this disgraceful display.”
The Video Changed the Tone
The immediate trigger was not abstract policy.
It was an image. That visual humiliation gave governments a much easier object to condemn than the wider war, where Europe has often sounded divided, procedural, or evasive. Ben-Gvir is not an ordinary minister in European eyes: he is already banned from entering Spain and several other EU member states individually, and the UK, Norway, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand all sanctioned him and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in June 2025. The EU has not followed, despite describing both men as extremist for years.
That context matters because it frames what Thursday’s calls actually represent. Ireland’s Prime Minister Micheál Martin went further than most, writing in a leaked letter to Costa that the EU should at minimum ban settlement products and consider suspending parts of its Association Agreement with Israel. That is a larger demand than a travel ban on one minister, and it reflects how far the conversation has moved in 48 hours.
Europe Still Hesitates
Yet calling for sanctions is easier than agreeing them.
EU-level action against Ben-Gvir has been repeatedly blocked: a separate Commission proposal to suspend preferential trade tariffs with Israel already faces opposition from Germany and others. France’s foreign minister condemned both Ben-Gvir and the flotilla activists in the same statement, which says something about where Paris’s instincts still sit. The EU has so far agreed only to sanction a small number of Israeli settlers accused of harassing Palestinians, none of whom has yet been named.
This is why the episode matters beyond Ben-Gvir himself. It tests whether Europe can treat individual accountability as more than rhetorical theatre. Focusing on a single minister narrows the target: governments that do not want a full confrontation with Israel can still argue for a penalty tied to one act, one figure, and one clear breach of basic dignity. That political cover may be enough to move something. It may also prove, once again, that it is not.
The Real Test Comes Next
If sanctions follow, the episode will show that Europe can still draw a line when humiliation is public enough and political cover is broad enough. If they do not, the lesson will be harsher. Europe’s red lines will start to look like media events rather than policy commitments. This row is not only about a degrading video. It is about whether Europe still knows how to make outrage costly.
Keep up with Daily Euro Times for more updates
Read also:
Somaliland’s Top Visit to Israel: The Appointment to Rework the Map
Gaza, Genocide, and Comedy, Right?
Cyprus: Israel’s Twin Approach on Türkiye
