[News] Greta Thunberg aboard Gaza flotilla: Doing nothing ‘is not an option’

[Anti-Imperialist News]

middleeasteye.net
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/greta-thunberg-aboard-gaza-flotilla-doing-nothing-not-option>
Greta Thunberg aboard Gaza flotilla: Doing nothing ‘is not an option’
Mohamed Hassan
June 4, 2025
------------------------------

>From aboard a flotilla bound for Gaza
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/topics/israel-war-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
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/israel> 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
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/countries/palestine>.

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
<https://freedomflotilla.org/ffc-tracker/> 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
<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/what-gaza-freedom-flotilla> 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.

<https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/what-gaza-freedom-flotilla>

“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.

“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.”
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