The Czech Republic will block E.U. attempts to sanction Israel’s Public Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over his treatment of anti-Israel activists arrested while trying to break the blockade of Gaza, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka said, according to a report on Thursday.
Macinka told E.U. partners to “not even try or we will block” attempts to sanction Israel or Ben-Gvir, Bloomberg reported. He added that such sanctions would bolster Ben-Gvir’s popularity in Israel during an election year, the report said.
The Czech foreign minister described Ben-Gvir as a “terrible person, an unbearable individual” whose behavior “really goes beyond the pale. But going after him at this time would make his political base see them as “victims of some anti-Zionist conspiracy by the West,” the Czech leader added. “Paradoxically, we would actually help them by doing this,” Macinka told Bloomberg in an interview in Prague.
Macinka said the flotilla activists were “provocateurs” and “very radical.”
The Czech Republish has been one of Israel’s closest allies within the E.U.
A video disseminated by Ben-Gvir on May 20 showed the minister welcoming detainees from the Global Sumud Flotilla. Ben-Gvir in the footage confronted the activists and accused them of supporting terrorism while they were seated with their hands bound.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar and Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter distanced themselves from Ben-Gvir’s conduct. He has doubled down on it, arguing that it helped create deterrence.
Israel detained and deported more than 400 activists from several countries in May as they were sailing to Gaza in defiance of the blockade that Israel and Egypt enforce on the Gaza Strip for fear Hamas would use supplies to build terrorist infrastructure and carry out attacks.
Justice authorities in France and Italy said they had opened investigations into alleged war crimes and torture by Israel against French anti-Israel activists who took part in the Gaza-bound flotilla. Israel has denied such allegations.
