US condemns Ben-Gvir but sanctions Gaza flotilla activists

WASHINGTON — US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee became the first official from President Donald Trump’s administration to join global criticism of Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir.

The criticism came a day after the US Treasury Department sanctioned organizers of a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, and as several countries summoned Israeli ambassadors over a video Ben-Gvir posted showing him taunting detained activists.

Analysts said the incident highlighted a US double standard toward Israel, Palestinians and their supporters, and showed the US and Israel increasingly out of step with the international community.

“We see a big difference between the US and other Western countries… who see things like freedom of navigation in international waters as a fundamental concept of international law that should be respected, not to mention the mistreatment of civilians,” said Michael Omer-Man, the Israel-Palestine director at the DAWN advocacy group.

Huckabee made his comments on Wednesday, shortly after Italy, France, the Netherlands and Canada summoned Israeli ambassadors over Ben-Gvir’s video, which showed detained activists kneeling with their hands bound and at times being shoved to the ground.

Ben-Gvir is seen waving an Israeli flag, shouting and pointing over the detainees.

In a post on X, Huckabee referenced Israeli officials who criticized Ben-Gvir, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar.

Huckabee pointed to “universal outrage from every high-ranking Israeli official,” tagging Netanyahu, Saar, the office of President Isaac Herzog and Israel’s ambassador to the US, Yechiel Leiter.

“Flotilla was stupid stunt, but Ben Gvir betrayed dignity of his nation,” Huckabee wrote.

Rights observers have long documented Israeli abuses against Palestinian detainees and their foreign supporters, including detained flotilla activists. Israeli authorities have largely dismissed such accounts.

Critics questioned whether the groundswell of condemnation from Netanyahu’s government, which has emboldened far-right figures like Ben-Gvir, was motivated by the abuses or by Ben-Gvir’s decision to post the video online.

“I do believe that they’re more focused on the public relations side of it,” Omer-Man told Al Jazeera, “both with regards to the international community… and because it’s election season [in Israel] and they’re trying to distinguish themselves as the more stately, less radical actors”.

Annelle Sheline, a research fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said Ben-Gvir’s actions should be seen not as an aberration but as a manifestation of US policy that has long fostered impunity and emboldened Israel’s far right.

“Israel knows that as long as it has the unconditional support of the US, it will face no real consequences,” Sheline told Al Jazeera.

The former administration of President Joe Biden had ruled out sanctioning Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich as its term ended in 2024, despite mounting calls from US lawmakers.

In a letter that year, nearly 80 members of Congress charged that Ben-Gvir had played a role in “inciting violence against Palestinian civilians, encouraging the construction of illegal outposts, and preventing enforcement against violent settlers” in the occupied Palestinian territory.

That included using his position to “prevent police from protecting humanitarian convoys bound for Gaza, allowing settlers to attack and halt aid.”

Upon taking office, the Trump administration lifted US sanctions on violent Israeli settlers and soon after imposed sanctions on several Palestinian civil society organizations and rights groups for supporting an International Criminal Court investigation into Israeli officials.

The administration has also imposed sanctions and travel restrictions on ICC prosecutors and Palestinian Authority officials.

The latest US sanctions targeted four organizers of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which seeks to break the siege of Gaza, deliver aid and show solidarity with Palestinians. Two organizers were from the Popular Conference for Palestinians Abroad (PCPA) and two from the Palestinian prisoners’ solidarity network Samidoun.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the activists were part of a “pro-terror flotilla,” claiming the humanitarian effort was “in support of Hamas.”

Organizers roundly rejected the statement, with Samidoun decrying the sanctions as “aiding and abetting genocide.”

DAWN’s Omer-Man said the sanctions underscore that the Trump administration is “accepting [Israel’s] arguments – that trying to break the blockade is illegal in some way – at face value.”

“I think we can say that the United States, officially, is just never going to criticise Israel under the Trump administration,” he said.

The Quincy Institute’s Sheline said rare public rebukes from the Trump administration, including Huckabee labeling settler violence as “terrorism” in November, mean little against billions of dollars in annual military aid to Israel.

“Weak gestures… are insignificant in the face of billions of dollars a year,” she said.