[News] Israel Tortured And Sexually Humiliated Greta Thunberg

Thu Oct 16 10:48:47 EDT 2025

Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley):
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  Israel Tortured And Sexually Humiliated Greta Thunberg
  <https://substack.com/app-link/post?publication_id=82124&post_id=176291910&utm_source=post-email-title&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=lvppb&token=eyJ1c2VyX2lkIjozNjc1MTU4MywicG9zdF9pZCI6MTc2MjkxOTEwLCJpYXQiOjE3NjA1ODIyNzIsImV4cCI6MTc2MzE3NDI3MiwiaXNzIjoicHViLTgyMTI0Iiwic3ViIjoicG9zdC1yZWFjdGlvbiJ9.c9-p5Bb_Nsiy9bew8Odhkk0m6NQXTFPlWOK0FHhyCwo>

Caitlin Johnstone <https://substack.com/@caitlinjohnstone>

Oct 16, 2025

<https://substack.com/@caitlinjohnstone>

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/Listen to a reading of this article (reading by Tim Foley) 
<https://substack.com/redirect/bfae6610-03a9-488b-bee7-1e27c19c5c29?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>/:

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In an interview with Swedish paper Aftonbladet 
<https://substack.com/redirect/e3537d7f-2781-4ec4-896b-1acf16944ccc?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>, 
Greta Thunberg has corroborated earlier eyewitness reports 
<https://substack.com/redirect/c06473e6-cf89-45be-adb6-1779adcddbd3?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>that 
she and her fellow Global Sumud Flotilla activists were subjected to 
monstrous abuses by Israeli officials after being abducted from their 
boats carrying aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

Here are some machine-translated excerpts (quotes from Thunberg are 
italicized, quotes from Aftonbladet are in bold):

/“They grab me, pull me to the ground, and throw an Israeli flag over me.”/

/“They dragged me to the opposite side from where the others were 
sitting, and I had the flag around me the whole time. They hit and 
kicked me.”/

/“They moved me very brutally to a corner that I was turned towards. ‘A 
special place for a special lady’, they said. And then they had learned 
‘Lilla hora’ (Little whore) and ‘Hora Greta’ (Whore Greta) in Swedish, 
which they repeated all the time.”/

*In the corner where Greta was sitting, the police placed a flag. */“The 
flag was placed so that it would touch me. When it fluttered and touched 
me, they shouted ‘Don’t touch the flag’ and kicked me in the side. After 
a while, my hands were tied with cable ties, very tightly. A bunch of 
guards lined up to take selfies with me while I was sitting like that.”/

/“They were thrown to the ground and beaten. But I could only see it out 
of the corner of my eye, because every time I lifted my head from the 
ground, I was kicked by the guard standing next to me.”/

*Greta was then taken into a building to be searched and 
undressed.*/“The guards have no empathy or humanity, and they keep 
taking selfies with me. There’s a lot I don’t remember. So much is 
happening at once. You’re in shock. You’re in pain, but you go into a 
state of trying to stay calm.”/

*Outside, she was forced to take off her clothes again, she says.*/“It 
was mockery, rough handling, and everything was filmed. Everything they 
do is extremely violent.”/

/“It was so hot, like 40 degrees. We begged the whole time: Can we have 
water? Can we have water? In the end, we screamed. The guards walked in 
front of the bars the whole time, laughing and holding up their water 
bottles. They threw the bottles with water in them into the trash cans 
in front of us.”/

/“When people fainted, we banged on the cages and asked for a doctor. 
Then the guards came and said, ‘We’re going to gas you.’ It was standard 
for them to say that.”/

/“This shows that if Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a 
well-known, white person with a Swedish passport this way, just imagine 
what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”/

Thunberg told Aftonbladet that the Swedish government greatly downplayed 
the abuse she and her fellow Sumud Flotilla activists suffered, and 
wouldn’t even bring them water:

/“We were together and told them about the treatment we received. About 
the lack of food, water, about the abuse. The torture. We showed them 
the physical injuries we had — bruises and scratches. We gave them all 
our contact details — I gave them my father’s number and the number of 
our contact in the organization. We were clear: everything we say now 
must be released to the media.”/

/“They didn’t do anything, they just said: ’Our job is to listen to you. 
We are here and you are entitled to consular support.’”/

/“We said over and over again: we need water. And they saw that the 
guards had water bottles. The embassy staff said: ’We’ll make a note of 
that.’ One of us, Vincent, said: ’Next time we meet you, you must bring 
water.’”/

*Then it took two days before the embassy staff showed up again.*

/“They didn’t bring any water, except for a small bottle of their own 
that was half empty. Vincent, who was in the worst shape, got to drink 
it. We kept asking the guards, ‘Can we have some water?’ but they just 
walked around with their water bottles and didn’t answer.”/

/“I said, ‘Are you going to leave us like this? If you leave now, they 
will beat us up.’ But they just kept walking.”/

*When Aftonbladet compares emails sent by the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs to relatives, with what the captives describe telling embassy 
staff, it becomes clear that the seriousness of the situation has been 
downplayed.*

*The Ministry of Foreign Affairs describes the scene at the port, where 
Greta Thunberg was beaten for hours, as follows: “She told us about 
harsh treatment and that she had been sitting on a hard surface for a 
long time.”*

*On Saturday, several media outlets published testimonies that Greta had 
been subjected to torture.*

*Aftonbladet has spoken to three other members of the flotilla who 
largely confirm what Greta Thunberg says and who have all experienced 
various types of abuse and humiliation. We have also spoken to 
relatives. Everyone is highly critical of how the Swedish embassy staff 
acted.*

	<https://substack.com/redirect/6e9a871f-7d46-4c5b-aa9c-d27f8dc4adcf?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM> 	

https://x.com/yung_coxey/status/1978493992477106417 
<https://substack.com/redirect/9ff4be94-c521-4c3a-9a63-f75bc4610adc?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>

Thunberg’s statements are not just in alignment with eyewitnesses who 
said these things were done to her 
<https://substack.com/redirect/9adea505-2ed8-4907-b9e0-f5eef7d22808?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>, 
but with statements from the Israeli government itself.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir said last month 
<https://substack.com/redirect/60b4cadb-315c-4f9a-8979-d228b2ea8a9c?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>that 
Sumud activists must be treated as terrorists in order to “create a 
clear deterrent” from future flotilla activism, declaring that “Anyone 
who chooses to collaborate with Hamas and support terrorism will meet a 
firm and unyielding response from Israel.”

“We will not allow individuals who support terrorism to live in comfort. 
They will face the full consequences of their actions,” Ben-Gvir said at 
the time.

After the flotilla activists were abducted by the IDF, Ben-Gvir filmed 
himself taunting them and calling them “terrorists” 
<https://substack.com/redirect/fc6bd92a-842f-48d6-8b68-8398eba1f4c3?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>and 
said 
<https://substack.com/redirect/d9490ff9-6b61-43bf-a004-a0a55258190d?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>he 
“was proud that we treat ‘flotilla activists’ as terror supporters.”

Israel, needless to say, has an extensively documented 
<https://substack.com/redirect/c7680182-ad22-477a-9255-79b3788ea83d?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>record 
of torturing and raping 
<https://substack.com/redirect/d93b33ec-18a2-473a-b4f7-cca26da1131a?j=eyJ1IjoibHZwcGIifQ.9RIwWbE6EVIB7Jy8lfazxZKfps8R18neRGMKwOiqnRM>individuals 
who’ve been given the “terrorist” label by the regime.

So what Thunberg is describing would be Israel doing what it said it was 
going to do in order to send a message and deter future efforts to feed 
starving Palestinians — perhaps singling out the most high-profile 
activist on the flotilla for special abuse in order to really drive the 
point home.

Israel is so evil it’s actually hard to wrap your mind around it.

________

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© 2025 Caitlin Johnstone
PO Box 378, Mentone, 3194, Victoria, Australia

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