The French foreign ministry on Saturday imposed a ban on the Israeli security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, entering France over his “unacceptable actions” toward activists detained this week on a flotilla attempting to break an Israeli blockade of Gaza.
Mr. Ben-Gvir posted a video of himself this week taunting the activists, who were shown handcuffed and pinned to the deck of a ship, after Israeli troops apprehended them. The flotilla’s participants later said they were beaten and assaulted while detained.
The video ignited outrage abroad, particularly in Italy, Germany and other countries whose citizens had participated in the flotilla. The U.S. ambassador in Jerusalem, Mike Huckabee, issued a rare denunciation of Mr. Ben-Gvir’s conduct. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also condemned his actions.
Jean-Noël Barrot, the French foreign minister, said in a statement announcing the ban that Mr. Ben-Gvir’s actions followed “a long list of shocking statements and actions, incitement to hatred and violence against Palestinians.”
Mr. Barrot said that while he disapproved of the flotilla, France could not “tolerate French nationals being threatened, intimidated or abused in this way, especially by a public official.”
He called for the European Union to formally sanction him, joining Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy, who called Mr. Ben-Gvir’s actions “intolerable” and demanded that Israel apologize.
A spokesman for Mr. Ben-Gvir did not respond to a request for comment.
More than 400 people participated in the flotilla, the latest such effort by pro-Palestinian activists to symbolically break Israel’s blockade of Gaza as a form of protest. Israeli forces detained them at sea earlier this week, and brought them to Israel where nearly all were deported to nearby Turkey.
After their release, some of the activists said they had been abused in Israeli detention. A statement released on Friday by the Global Sumud Flotilla, which helped organize the action, said some of the activists had been kicked and beaten, while others had been sexually assaulted. The New York Times is looking into their accounts, but has not independently confirmed them.
The Israeli military denied “allegations of abuse” by Israeli soldiers “during the operations to protect the legal naval security blockade.” Israel’s prison service, whose guards oversee detainees, said the accusations were “false and entirely without factual basis.”
Other countries whose citizens participated in the flotilla have condemned or expressed concern over the events aboard.
Eight German nationals were among the roughly 400 activists of the flotilla who arrived in Istanbul on Thursday evening, according to Josef Hinterseher, a spokesman for the German foreign ministry. German consular officials met with the activists upon their arrival and found that several had suffered injuries, he said; the activists have since been sent for medical care in the Turkish capital.
“We naturally expect a full investigation, because some of the allegations being made are serious, and there is, as you know, a political official — Israel’s Minister of Police — who has behaved in an unspeakable manner,” the spokesman said, referring to Mr. Ben-Gvir.
The French announcement was the latest diplomatic penalty for Mr. Netanyahu’s government, which has grown increasingly isolated on the world stage. The rift has been most pronounced with Europe, which has fiercely criticized Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Mr. Ben-Gvir has become emblematic of what many see as an Israeli coalition dominated by hard-liners and religious nationalists. Before his rise to power, he had been convicted of incitement to racism and was an avowed admirer of Meir Kahane, an Israeli American extremist who wanted to strip Arab Israelis of citizenship.
As national security minister, Mr. Ben-Gvir has called for Israel to seize control of the Gaza Strip indefinitely and “encourage” its two million Palestinians to leave “voluntarily.” He has proudly described how he ordered conditions for Palestinian prisoners reduced to to the bare minimum.
The Israeli public defenders’ office, a unit in the country’s justice ministry, said in a report unsealed last year that Palestinian prisoners had been held in extreme conditions, including severe hunger, with little access to sunlight and fresh air.
Last year, Canada, the United Kingdom and a few other countries imposed travel and financial restrictions on Mr. Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich, the Israeli finance minister.
Earlier this month, the European Union approved plans to impose restrictions on several Israeli individuals and organizations for involvement in Jewish extremist attacks on Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. About half a million Israeli settlers reside in the occupied territory along roughly three million Palestinians.
On Friday, Britain, France, Canada and several Western countries threatened “legal and reputational penalties” against businesses involved in Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank. In their statement, the countries warned that anyone involved could expose themselves to “serious breaches of international law.”
Christopher F. Schuetze contributed reporting from Berlin, Elisabetta Povoledo from Rome and Catherine Porter from Paris.
