Much to Israel’s detriment, Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir pulled off an asinine and embarrassing stunt that never should have happened.

A video he released on May 20, in which he mocked pro-Palestinian detainees from the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as they were manhandled, handcuffed and pinned down on the deck of a ship in the port of Ashdod, produced an international outcry.

The video needlessly blackened Israel at a time when its military campaign against Hamas in the Gaza Strip had already tarnished its image. The activists, including the sister of Irish President Catherine Connolly, are Israel’s enemies, to be sure, but there was no need to humiliate them.

In his one-minute video, the caption of which read, “This is how we receive terror supporters,” Ben-Gvir walked past detainees who were forced to kneel. He dismissed the screams of a woman who shouted “Free Palestine” and who was shoved to the ground by masked men. And he rhetorically asked Netanyahu for permission to allow him to incarcerate the activists for a “very, very long time.”

Ben-Gvir’s intervention was nothing less than an........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)