Itamar Ben-Gir has been barred from entering France following outrage over his treatment of activists detained from the Global Sumud flotilla.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot condemned Ben-Gir's conduct towards French and other European citizens as 'reprehensible', stating: 'We cannot tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated, or brutalised in this way!’
Barrot added that France, alongside Italy, is pushing for European Union sanctions against the Israeli minister.
A video shared by Ben-Gir on Wednesday, captioned 'Welcome to Israel', showed the far-right minister waving an Israeli flag beside bound activists held at a detention facility in the Israeli port city of Ashdod. The footage also showed him taunting detainees and encouraging guards as they forcibly pushed a woman to the ground.
Since returning to their home countries over the weekend, activists aboard the Global Sumud flotilla have reported physical and sexual abuse after Israeli forces intercepted the vessel in international waters last week.
Ben-Gir was already sanctioned last year by the governments of the United Kingdom, Australia, Norway, Canada, and New Zealand over what they described as his 'repeated incitements of violence against Palestinian communities, the first coordinated sanctions imposed by Western governments on a sitting Israeli minister.
