Last week, Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, broadcast footage showing him at Ashdod Port taunting bound, kneeling activists from one of the Gaza flotillas. As journalist Fabrio Andre accurately observed in The Times of Israel, “he effectively handed a branding victory to those who seek to define Israel through the lens of moral decay.”
In response to Ben-Gvir’s conduct, we have heard many of Israel’s supporters point out that Ben-Gvir’s behaviour pales in seriousness to the real violence inflicted on Israelis and Jews worldwide. They point out the moral bankruptcy of the flotilla’s agitators. They call out the double standard that holds all Israelis and Jews collectively responsible for Ben-Gvir’s actions. They cite the false moral equivalences drawn daily between Israel’s adversaries and its citizens – the most egregious being the efforts to equate Hamas’s premeditated and systemic sexual violence perpetrated on and after October 7 and allegations of prison abuses of Palestinians, especially when the latter are mixed in with absurd exaggerated claims and are timed to obscure the victimization of Jews.
All valid points. But they don’t address how Ben-Gvir has damaged, and, if left unaccountable, will continue to damage Israel and the Jewish community.
We face an incredibly hostile international narrative that distorts what Zionism means and what Zionists stand for. The vast majority of Zionists simply believe in Jewish self-determination in our ancestral lands. We believe in a Jewish democratic state with full rights for its minorities, including over 20% of its citizens who are Arab. However, we are demonized and vilified for being Zionists, and for being Jews whose core identity is tied to Israel.
Our democratic values and our love for Israel require us to defend it against false accusations and blood libels, but also to identify conduct that is antithetical to what we stand for as Jews and Zionists. Otherwise, we cannot credibly distinguish between antisemites who deny Israel’s very right to exist and those who level criticism against Israel, its government, conduct or policies of the same type that would be levelled against any country.
When Israel is under attack internationally, and its reputation tarnished, we cannot protect those who sabotage what Israel and Zionism represents.
It is an embarrassment – indeed, an affront to democratic and Jewish values — that Ben-Gvir is a member of the Israeli government. His most recent behaviour is only the latest in a series of provocations. He is an anti-Arab racist, with a history to prove it. Ben-Gvir, as National Security Minister, is the proverbial fox put in charge of the henhouse. He and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich represent a stain on Israel’s government, already too closely tethered to the far right. The government’s failure to forcefully crack down on violent extremists on the West Bank contributes to its diminished moral authority, even when its conduct is just, and when it must address the existential risk posed by the Iranian terror regime and its proxies.
We recognize that diaspora Jews cannot and should not tell Israel, the only democracy in the region, what to do. We also recognize that one-sided, misinformed and, at times, malevolent attacks on Israel in mainstream and social media make most Jews reluctant to “pile on,” even when criticism of Israel is warranted.
However, as Fabrio Andre concluded: “When Ben-Gvir turns a security operation into a TikTok-style spectacle of humiliation, he makes it infinitely harder for our allies to defend us. He provides cover for the radical elements in European parliaments who have long sought to isolate Israel. Every time a minister acts with contempt for basic human dignity, the “pro-Israel” argument becomes toxic for the moderate European politician. We are not just being shamed; we are being alienated from the very alliance systems that sustain our long-term stability.”
Last Sunday, Israeli President Isaac Herzog described Israeli settler violence on the West Bank as “brutishness” by an “anarchist mob” and “acts that defile and violate every basic moral, legal, and Jewish norm.” He also stated that it must be “forbidden to abuse prisoners” regardless of the depravity of their crimes. He denounced the barbaric acts by a handful of people who think that detainees … or suspects have no rights whatsoever.”
Israel must strive to be a beacon for human rights, dignity and adherence to the rule of law, even when it judged unfairly or when its shortcomings are misused to condemn us all. These expectations extend to its treatment of detainees and prisoners, regardless of who they are.
We cannot remain silent when racist provocateurs such as Ben-Gvir sabotage what Israel and Zionism properly stand for.
Mark Sandler, Chair, Alliance of Canadians Combatting Antisemitism
Joseph Neuberger, President, Canadian Jewish Law Association