Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced Thursday that he had requested the EU to impose sanctions against Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir over his treatment of Global Sumud Flotilla activists, Anadolu reports.
Tajani said through US social media company X that he had formally asked EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to include the adoption of sanctions against Ben-Gvir on the agenda of the next meeting of EU foreign ministers.
He noted that the request comes in response to “the unacceptable acts committed against the Flotilla, seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights.”
Jurgen Hardt, a senior German lawmaker from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU), endorsed Tajani’s proposal, retweeting the post and issuing a sharply worded rebuke of the Israeli minister.
“Ben-Gvir’s mistreatment of the flotilla detainees, his constant incitement of settler violence, and his unlawful orders to Israeli police officers must have consequences,” he said. “The extremist Ben-Gvir is deliberately undermining Israel’s democracy.”
READ: Italy summons Israeli ambassador after Ben-Gvir filmed taunting Gaza flotilla detainees
