Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has published a video of himself confronting Palestinian women prisoners over their complaints about detention conditions, telling them he was personally responsible for making those conditions worse.
The footage, posted to his account on X on August 30, was filmed at Damon prison outside Haifa in northern Israel. The women’s faces were blurred and members of the minister’s entourage stood between him and the inmates.
One prisoner, speaking through a translator, said she belonged to Palestinian Islamic Jihad. She said the section was raided regularly, that the women had gone three days without washing, that there was no water in the cells and that they received no medical treatment.
Ben-Gvir replied that the days of summer camp conditions in Israeli prisons were over and that anyone who harmed his countrymen would not be housed as though in a hotel. He compared the complaints with the treatment of Israeli hostages held in Gaza after the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack.
In a post accompanying the video, the minister said he would maintain a policy of the bare minimum. He holds ministerial responsibility for the Israel Prison Service.
The Palestinian Authority’s Commission on Detainees Affairs accused Ben-Gvir of brutality, hatred and racism. The Gaza prisoners ministry, run by Hamas, said the video showed how far the Israeli State had sunk.
A proposal to place the minister on the EU global human rights sanctions list has sat before the Council of the European Union since last year. Listings require unanimity among the 27 member states, and Germany, Austria and Czechia were understood to have blocked an attempt at a Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg in June.
Senior figures in both German governing parties broke with Berlin’s position in August by demanding sanctions against him. European Commission spokesperson Anitta Hipper said that week that the EU expected Israel “to comply with all its obligations under international law”.
France, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium have imposed national entry bans on Ben-Gvir. The United Kingdom, Norway, Canada, Australia and New Zealand sanctioned him and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich in 2025.
His right-wing Otzma Yehudit (Jewish Power) party secured passage of a law on March 30 making hanging the default sentence for West Bank Palestinians convicted by military courts of deadly attacks. The Knesset approved it by 62 votes to 47.
Israelis go to the polls on October 27. Otzma Yehudit has been polling at around nine seats, up from the six it holds in the outgoing Knesset.
