The sinister truth about Greta’s selfie ship

After Israeli forces had detained and removed her from a flotilla supposedly carrying aid to Gaza, all-purpose activist Greta Thunberg arrived at Athens airport on Monday night to a raucous hero’s welcome.

If you listen carefully, though, the crowd seemed less interested in the plight of Gazans than in calling for the death of Israelis. Specifically, members of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF). Cries of ‘Death, death to the IDF’ were so loud and protracted that they, and other chants, twice interrupted Thunberg’s press conference.

The 40-boat Global Sumud Flotilla on which Thunberg had been sailing had been intercepted by the IDF roughly 100 kilometres off the coast of Gaza. Those on board were taken to the Port of Ashdod in southern Israel, arrested and mostly flown home by Israeli authorities on Monday. Thunberg has alleged ‘abuse and mistreatment’ at the hands of Israelis – a claim that is hard to reconcile with the sight of a healthy, unharmed Thunberg, energetically addressing a crowd late at night after an international flight. Then again, she could hardly have told the crowd that she had been rescued by the very people they wanted to kill.

The crowd’s intense loathing for Israel was evident from the moment Thunberg arrived. A supporter who introduced the Swedish activist to the crowd emphasised the importance of her giving a speech ‘the day before Israelis use 7 October to lick their wounds’ – which is one way to talk about the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust. These were hardly the words of someone who ‘believes in human dignity and power of nonviolent action’ – a core principle of the flotilla, at least according to its website.

Other members of the flotilla have expressed views even more repugnant. The public comments of activist Sarah Wilkinson afford a glimpse of the kind of small talk that might have been on offer below deck. ‘The Israelis are not human’, Wilkinson said. ‘They have hands, they have faces, but they are not one of us. They are monsters.’ She described Hamas fighters who took part in the 7 October attack as ‘heroes’, and celebrated the news of Israelis ‘fleeing their homes’. She posted these comments along with a picture of an Israeli woman running for her life from Hamas terrorists at the Nova music festival.

There is a distinct possibility that Wilkinson’s views were the rule, rather than the exception, among flotilla members. This week, an Israeli government department published a report linking several of the armada’s ‘steering members’ with Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The evidence includes members of the flotilla being photographed at meetings with senior members of Hamas and attending the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah, the former leader of Hezbollah.

One thing the flotilla appeared to have no interest in, despite its public objective, was delivering aid to Palestinians. Israeli police claimed that none of the ships on the flotilla was carrying food, water or medical supplies. Not an ounce, they said, could be detected of the purported 300 tonnes of vital supplies that the media told us the flotilla was so gallantly conveying to Gaza.

Israel’s claims aren’t without credibility, even before we consider the footage taken by police on board the ships, who found them empty. This might explain why Thunberg and other members of the flotilla steering committee repeatedly rejected offers from the Vatican and Cyprus to deposit aid with them, thus allowing for its distribution through organisations such as the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem. The flotilla leaders rejected what they referred to as a ‘diversion’, giving no other reason for refusal. Flotilla members were seemingly determined to be arrested by Israeli police, in full knowledge that they would be sent home, untouched, on the next available flight – which is exactly what had happened to members of the first flotilla in June.

The Global Sumud Flotilla reminds us that there is one other thing motivating these activists beyond their hatred of Israel; namely, their own narcissism. Thunberg and her crew clearly relished being treated like Nelson Mandela, making a long walk to freedom, at Athens airport.

Indeed, Thunberg’s own address was so self-centered that it was hard to distinguish whose ‘suffering’ she was most agitated by – hers or the Gazans. ‘I will never, never be able to comprehend how humans can be so evil’, she said of the Israelis, twitching with indignation. ‘I could talk for a very very long time about our mistreatment and abuses, trust me’, she added, before conveniently deciding to say nothing about it at all. She said she had been forced to convene the flotilla because ‘my leaders’ who ‘claim to represent me… they do not represent me’. Nearly every pronoun was first person – it was I, we and us.

As with so much anti-Israel activism today, the Palestinian people were never really the main concern. This was a stage on the high seas for narcissistic self-promotion – and for revolting Israelophobia. The only people this flotilla ever helped were the activists themselves.

Hugo Timms is an editorial assistant at spiked.