Colombian President Gustavo Petro on Wednesday sharply condemned Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir after videos emerged showing him mocking detained international aid activists intercepted aboard a Gaza-bound flotilla.
The diplomatic friction unfolded following the Israeli Navy's interception of the "Global Sumud Flotilla," a humanitarian convoy carrying roughly 430 international volunteers trying to breach the blockade of the Gaza Strip.
The video shared by Ben-Gvir showed bound and kneeling activists being processed at the port of Ashdod, drawing immediate global condemnation.
"State Minister Ben-Gvir is acting like a true Nazi,” Petro wrote on his account on the US social media company X. "That’s how he treated our fellow citizens, simply because they wanted to stop the genocide in Gaza.”
In the video posted online, Ben-Gvir can be seen carrying and waving a large Israeli flag as he walks among hundreds of handcuffed activists forced to kneel with their heads touching the floor at a makeshift detention facility.
As the Israeli national anthem played in the background, the footage was captioned by the minister with the message: "Welcome to Israel.” At one point in the clip, a restrained activist who shouted "Free Palestine” was immediately pushed to the ground by security forces.
The high-profile detainees included citizens from over 45 countries, including several Colombian nationals, as well as high-profile figures such as the sister of Ireland’s president. Activists have reportedly launched a hunger strike, characterizing their detention in international waters as an illegal act of piracy.
The international backlash prompted a rebuke from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who sought to manage the diplomatic fallout on Wednesday.
While Netanyahu defended the military interception, asserting that Israel has "every right to prevent provocative flotillas of Hamas terrorism supporters from entering our territorial waters," he explicitly distanced his office from the national security minister's actions.
"The way Minister Ben-Gvir treated the flotilla activists is not in line with the values and standards of the State of Israel,” Netanyahu claimed in an official release, adding that he had ordered authorities to expedite the deportation of the activists as quickly as possible.
The Global Sumud Flotilla departed from the coast of Türkiye last week, laden with humanitarian aid, intending to draw global attention to the severe shortages of food, medicine, and housing in Gaza.
