“I would say it’s fairly calm, but high spirits,” said Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, currently aboard a vessel en route to Gaza with the stated aim of “breaking the Israeli blockade” on the coastal enclave. Speaking in a voice message to The Sunday Times from the ship Madleen, she added: “We are very happy to be actually going, to be sailing.”
Thunberg departed from Sicily on June 1 alongside 11 pro-Palestinian activists, aiming to reach Gaza by June 7. Although that date has passed, the group now claims they have sailed past Egypt and expect to reach Gaza’s shores by Monday — unless intercepted by the Israeli military. While the group publicly presents itself as a humanitarian mission delivering essential supplies to Gaza, a report in Germany’s Bild newspaper suggests that several on board promote a radical anti-Western ideology, support terror groups, and advocate for the elimination of the State of Israel.
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The Gaza flotilla ship leaves from port in Sicilly
(Photo: Fabrizio Villa/Getty Images)
“What brought me on this boat?" Thunberg told The Times, before answering: "Just being human, seeing the footage from Gaza, hearing the reports and feeling that I need to do something, whatever that is,” Thunberg said. “And for some reason I have a platform, and if I can use that platform, for example, being on this boat and amplifying the Palestinian cause, then of course I have to do that. Because I care about justice and because … I cannot just sit around and watch this genocide happening without doing something."
“You cannot be a climate justice activist if you are ignoring all the marginalized people today and their suffering,” she said. “Both the climate crisis, the genocide in Palestine and other humanitarian crises all over the world are results of systems that sacrifice the vast majority of people and … the planet just for a very fortunate few to be able to make profit and to profit out of that exploitation and to be able to keep their geopolitical power at all costs. So I see many parallels. What is happening in Palestine is not only a genocide but also an ecocide.”
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Thunberg was quick to deny any antisemitic intent, asserting that she condemns antisemitism. “Every day since I was 15 I have received criticism from every possible angle, no matter what I do. If they can’t find anything, they make something up, for example like antisemitism accusations,” she said, adding: "We are saying that no one should be valued more or less than anyone else because of their background. And that applies to everything, also to the Palestinian cause.”
However, Thunberg has yet to condemn the Hamas-led massacre of Israelis on October 7, nor has she acknowledged the victims and hostages taken during the attack.
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Swedish activist Greta Thurnberg on board the Gaza flotilla ship
(Photo: Fabrizio Villa/Getty Images)
The 12 activists on board portray a humanitarian mission, but beyond Thunberg, the group includes Rima Hassan, a French-Palestinian Member of the European Parliament who has been banned from entering Israel; Omar Faiad, a journalist for Qatari outlet Al Jazeera; Yasemin Acar, who filmed herself dancing during Iran’s missile barrage against Israel; and Thiago Avila, who attended the funeral of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Lebanon.
Reva Viard, one of the French activists on board, told The Times: “The more time passes, the closer we get to the point of tension — but the more time passes, the more the international community mobilizes. So we’re all calm on board, and hope grows as we move forward. So the possibility that the Israeli army will attack or board the Madleen obviously exists … but there are also other boats that have reached Palestine. So we’re banking on this scenario more than any other.”