From aboard a flotilla bound for Gaza, Greta Thunberg told Middle East Eye that while governments had failed Palestinians, it fell “on us to step up and be the adults in the room”.
The prominent Swedish climate activist spoke to MEE’s live show from international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, where she said spirits aboard the Madleen – the latest vessel attempting to break Israel’s siege on Gaza – were high.
“We are currently on our way towards Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla mission,” Thunberg said on Tuesday. “Spirits are very high.”
She and 11 other activists set off from Sicily on Sunday, carrying urgent supplies for besieged and starving Palestinians.
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The aid includes baby formula, flour, rice, diapers, women’s sanitary products, water desalination kits, medical supplies, crutches, and children’s prosthetics.
“We cannot sit by and allow this to happen. We are watching… a genocide happening, following decades and decades of systematic oppression, ethnic cleansing, occupation,” said Thunberg.
“We are just human beings, very concerned about what’s happening, and do not accept what is going on.”
Last month, another vessel organised by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), the Conscience, failed to continue its journey after being struck by two drones near Maltese waters.
“All evidence strongly suggests that it was Israel who did it,” Thunberg said.
‘We are just human beings very concerned about what’s happening and do not accept what is going on’
– Greta Thunberg, activist
She’s well aware that such an attack could take place again.
“There is, of course, a big risk of being stopped on the way there,” the 22-year-old said. “But we are trying to get to Gaza and planning for that.
“We are peaceful activists and volunteers, and we do not carry weapons. We are sailing peacefully on international waters, which is our right.”
The vessel, which is being tracked live on the FFC’s website for “safety, accountability, and solidarity”, is expected to take seven days to reach Gaza.
FFC-organised ships have been attempting to break Israel’s 18-year land, sea and naval blockade on the Gaza Strip for nearly two decades.
In 2010, the Mavi Marmara flotilla mission was attacked by Israeli forces, who boarded the ship and killed ten activists. Since then, Israeli troops have frequently intercepted and seized vessels attempting to break the siege.
Thunberg, named Time’s Person of the Year in 2019 for her climate activism, remains undeterred.
“We have promised ourselves and we have promised the Palestinian people to do everything we can,” she said.
“When our governments are failing us… then it falls on us to step up and be the adults in the room.”
Israel imposed a complete blockade on all humanitarian aid to Gaza for 11 weeks, before partially lifting it on 19 May to allow very limited United Nations aid deliveries, and a US-backed scheme widely panned as unworkable.
‘I am so sorry we betrayed you’
A number of commentators have mocked and threatened Thunberg and the other activists in recent days. Most notably, Lindsey Graham, the US senator, wrote on X: “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”
Thunberg, who has been at sea for three days now, hasn’t seen the posts.
“Luckily, I don’t have access to social media here, so I don’t get to see all that hate,” she said.
“It is very absurd that in times of genocide, policy makers who are complicit in this genocide are using this opportunity to spend their energy to try to mock people who are at least trying to do something.”
She said that the international community had “betrayed” Palestinians, not only by “sitting doing nothing”, but through active complicity.
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“Our governments, our institutions, our companies are supporting this genocide,” she said. “It is our tax money. It is our media who are continuing to dehumanise Palestinians.”
“On behalf of the international community, the so-called western world, I am so sorry that we have betrayed you by not supporting you enough,” she added.
Thunberg has been subjected to hate for her outspoken solidarity with Palestinians, after initially coming to the global public’s attention for her vocal climate activism.
But she says the two causes are inextricably linked.
“It’s so weird to me that people are separating caring about the environment and the climate from caring about humans,” the activist said.
“We are standing up for justice, sustainability, liberation for everyone. There can be no climate justice without social justice.”
