Israel's Ben-Gvir Shares AI Videos Mocking Gazans, Sparking Spat with France

Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's far-right National Security Minister, has circulated AI-generated videos mocking Palestinians in Gaza as the country heads toward a general election. One calls Gazans "donkeys" for staying, while another magically sends a Gazan man to Paris. The latter led to a public dispute with France, and the episode highlights how heavily artificial intelligence (AI) is featuring in Israel's campaign.

What the videos show

One video depicts Gaza in 2030 as a ghost town, with homes, schools and infrastructure destroyed. A donkey appears next to a message from Ben-Gvir's party: "You'd have to be a donkey to stay in Gaza." It appears to reference his "voluntary emigration" plan, which promotes encouraging Palestinians to leave the enclave for other countries.

In another, an elderly Palestinian man in a traditional keffiyeh sits among rubble and rubs a magic lamp, summoning Ben-Gvir and asking for help leaving Gaza. He is taken to Paris, where Ben-Gvir tells him: "Here, you'll feel right at home." The video came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on protests in France, claiming Muslim migrants were behind the unrest and warning that if Israel did not stop Hamas in Gaza, "you'll see them on the streets of Paris." Those claims have no substantiated evidence and were previously examined by FRANCE 24's Truth or Fake.

France responds

The French Foreign Ministry replied through its official "French Response" account on X, joking that even magic cannot lift Ben-Gvir's ban from entering France. France barred him last May over his treatment of activists aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Ben-Gvir answered with another AI video in which he speaks French and accuses France of welcoming the consequences of backing a Palestinian state. It includes an AI image of a devastated Paris, with Palestinian flags across the city and a keffiyeh on the Eiffel Tower.

AI in the campaign

Analysts have called the vote the first "AI-driven election." A Deutsche Welle fact-checking analysis found leading parties using AI, with Netanyahu's Likud using it in a quarter of the content examined. Israel's Election Commission requires AI-generated or AI-modified campaign content to be labelled, but regulation is otherwise limited. AI-powered robocalls have been used to ask voters about their preferences, and networks of bots and fake accounts have amplified the campaigns of Netanyahu and Ben-Gvir. Around a quarter of Israelis say they intend to use AI to help decide how to vote.