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The image that ricocheted across the world was not a missile strike, nor another skyline collapsing into Gaza’s dust. It was far quieter than that. Dozens of civilians — aid workers, doctors, parliamentarians, students and activists from 44 countries — kneeling on the deck of a seized flotilla in the eastern Mediterranean, hands bound behind their backs, surrounded by armed Israeli personnel.

Then came the video posted by Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir himself: taunting detainees, waving a flag, reducing human vulnerability into spectacle. For many watching from Canberra to Ottawa, something fundamental appeared to rupture.