{"id":124989,"date":"2026-05-21T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/124989\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T17:21:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T17:21:08","slug":"member-countries-call-on-eu-to-sanction-israels-ben-gvir-over-flotilla-taunts-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/124989\/","title":{"rendered":"Member countries call on EU to sanction Israel\u2019s Ben-Gvir over flotilla taunts \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Antonio_Tajani\/status\/2057423156042747922?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote on X<\/a> that he had asked EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas to put the adoption of sanctions on the agenda of the next meeting of the bloc\u2019s foreign ministers. He accused Ben-Gvir of committing \u201cunacceptable acts\u201d and of subjecting the activists to \u201charassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Spanish Prime Minister Pedro S\u00e1nchez \u2014 who had <a href=\"https:\/\/www.middleeasteye.net\/news\/spain-bans-israeli-ministers-ben-gvir-and-smotrich\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">already banned<\/a> Ben-Gvir from entering Spain last year \u2014 similarly <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/sanchezcastejon\/status\/2057157317351932161?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> that Madrid would \u201cpush Brussels\u201d to extend the sanctions \u201con a European scale as a matter of urgency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In Poland, Foreign Minister Rados\u0142aw Sikorski <a href=\"https:\/\/www.timesofisrael.com\/liveblog_entry\/polands-foreign-minister-requests-ban-on-ben-gvir-entering-the-country\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">asked<\/a> that Ben-Gvir be banned from entering the country. Speaking to POLITICO, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said the video \u201cshowed why it is important that we sanction these extremist ministers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Germany\u2019s Johann Wadephul <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spiegel.de\/ausland\/video-von-itamar-ben-gvir-johann-wadephul-verurteilt-unsaegliches-verhalten-von-israelischem-minister-a-a1f4120e-d6f2-47b5-bd5b-b871c9b60b4e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">condemned the footage<\/a> on Wednesday as depicting \u201cunspeakable behavior.\u201d An EU diplomat told POLITICO Italy\u2019s shift on the sanctions would increase pressure on Germany to similarly reconsider its position to punitive measures, given that it would remain the only major EU country opposing them.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time that national capitals were calling for action against Ben-Gvir, in Strasbourg 29 MEPs on Thursday signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/21\/Request-for-EU-restrictive-measures-and-travel-ban-against-Israeli-Minister-Itamar-Ben-Gvir-following-his-public-mocking-of-detained-activists-and-ongoing-violations-of-international-law-1.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a letter<\/a> calling for EU sanctions against the Israeli minister for flotilla detentions. The lawmakers accused the minister of \u201cdespicable behavior\u201d and said the incident reflected \u201ca systematic political project that has devastated the Gaza Strip\u201d while transforming \u201cabsolute impunity into a system of governance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But major obstacles to taking punitive measures against the politician remain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote on X that he had asked EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[3893,1648,41,949,159,537,3894,1722,37,7191,6367,42358,49,8816,971,1217,6286,509,1218,2248],"class_list":["post-124989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-antonio-tajani","tag-australia","tag-benjamin-netanyahu","tag-canada","tag-foreign-policy","tag-germany","tag-giorgia-meloni","tag-human-rights","tag-israel","tag-johann-wadephul","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-meps","tag-middle-east","tag-new-zealand","tag-norway","tag-pedro-sanchez","tag-poland","tag-sanctions","tag-spain","tag-sweden"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116613721879000767","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}