Israel delivers 1,200 truckloads of aid in two weeks. It’s irrelevant to the Instagram activist.
Ms. Greta Thunberg and other “activists” set out for Gaza from Sicily in a boat, a mercy boat, a boat to end hunger in Gaza, a boat with baby formula, a boat to make a big difference, a boat to prove that Israel’s blockade of Gaza could be breached, a boat to change the world. Actually, not a boat. But a “flotilla.”
Alas, what happened? Greta Thunberg and her fellow activists were “kidnapped by Israeli forces.” Funny kind of kidnapping. Not the kind in which some of the kidnapees were murdered on the spot and others were taken to dungeons, denied light, denied movement, denied food. No, not that kind of kidnapping — not kidnapping Hamas-style. Rather, kidnapping Israel-style. The Israeli kidnappers took Greta Thunberg and her fellow activists for medical checks, to make sure they were OK.
That kind of “kidnapping.”
Thunberg and Co. then acquired legal representation by Adalah, a legal rights group. That kind of “kidnapping.”
Thunberg and Co. then issued a public statement, picked up by the AP and other wire services. That kind of “kidnapping.”
Greta Thunberg and her activists will be returned to their home countries, not after 620 days of captivity in dungeons, not after torture and death, but a short time after their flotilla was intercepted by Israel about 120 miles from Gaza. Incidentally, as Greta Thunberg and her fellow “activists” were kidnapped from their flotilla, they were handed sandwiches and water by Israel Navy soldiers.
That kind of kidnapping.
“This wasn’t humanitarian aid. It’s Instagram activism,” reports AP, quoting Israeli government spokes-person David Mencer.
Mencer had a few other remarks:
“Israel has delivered over 1,200 truckloads in the last two weeks. So who’s really feeding Gaza and who’s really feeding their own ego? Greta was not bringing aid, she was bringing herself.”
Try this for kidnapping:
A prerecorded message by the kidnapees pleading for rescue from the kidnappers — kidnapees who hadn’t even been kidnapped yet!
Greta Thunberg’s prerecorded message: “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.” Not only did Greta Thunberg know she would be kidnapped, she knew that she would need the Swedish government help to be released.
Not to worry, Greta. Israel doesn’t want you and your fellow kidnapees. Israel is most pleased to get rid of you, to send you back to your home countries — most pleased not to hold you underground, not to deny you food or daylight or movement or visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. The Israeli Navy and the rest of the country have better things to do than to deal with stunts.
Among the “activists” on board were French citizens. French President Emmanuel Macron was not about to be second-fiddled by Greta Thunberg, so he duly called for “consular protection and repatriation of the French citizens.”
Protection from what? Israel’s kidnapers were only too quick to provide food for the kidnapees and figure out how to deport them. Repatriation to where? Sicily, whence they came? Gaza, which they would leave as quickly as they could? The high seas?
Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard piously intoned that Greta Thunberg and the “activists” were aware of the risks, the AP reports the Swedish news agency TT as saying.
Dire risks, indeed. The risk of being “kidnapped” by the Israeli Navy. The risk of being escorted safely to port. The risk of being checked out medically. Being fed. Being allowed legal representation. Being feted by media with an international reach. Perhaps most of all, the risk of hearing their lawyers proclaim: “ . . . the arrest of unarmed activists, who operated in a civilian manner to provide humanitarian aid, amounts to a serous breach of international law.”
Who knew that a “selfie yacht” (the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s term) could trigger a serious breach of international law? Funny how these breaches are measured. If kidnapees who are peaceably kidnapped constitute a “serious” breach of international law, what’s left to describe a real kidnapping, as on Oct. 7, 2023? Last we checked , Greta Thunberg’s defense attorneys at Adala offered no suggestion.
Also not noted: Even as Greta Thunberg and her fellow “activists” rescued four migrants from the high seas who, apparently, were about to drown, Thunberg and Co. have no humanitarian impulse toward the densest nation of migrants in the world — Israel — some of whose citizens actually are kidnapees. A sign of the bigotry of the times: humanitarian impulses for everybody just so long as they’re not Jewish or not Israeli, or they work in Israel.
In case you were wondering, Israel says that the less-than-one-truckload of aid on Greta Thunberg’s flotilla will be delivered to Gaza. Congratulations, Greta.
© IJN 2025
