Greta Thunberg deported from Israel after Gaza-bound aid boat was intercepted
was deported from Israel on Tuesday morning after her 'freedom flotilla' was intercepted by the IDF.
The crew on board the Madleen, who had planned to sail to Gaza to deliver aid, were scooped up by Israeli Navy boats before they reached shore and towed to the port of Ashdod.
Eight of the 12 activists refused to sign deportation papers and are being detained pending a court hearing. Thunberg and three others signed the papers and were flown out.
Thunberg was flown to the Charles De Gaulle Airport alongside French activists and will then head home to her native Sweden.
'I do more good outside of Israel than if I am forced to stay here for a few weeks,' she said, according to Moatasem Zedan, a spokesperson for the human rights group Adalah who is providing legal representation to the activists.
Israel's Foreign Ministry shared a photo of the disgruntled 22-year-old sitting on board the plane moments before the flight departed Israel's Ben Gurion airport.
Prior to her deportation, Defence Minister Israel Katz said he'd instructed IDF officials to show the activists the full, unedited footage of the October 7 attacks as recorded by Hamas terrorist body cameras.
He said: 'It is appropriate that the anti-Semitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organization they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself.'
However, he told reporters: 'Greta and her companions were taken into a room upon their arrival to the screening of the horror film of the October 7 massacre... when they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching.
'The anti-Semitic flotilla members are turning a blind eye to the truth and have proven once again that they prefer the murderers to the murdered and continue to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas against Jewish and Israeli women, adults, and children.'
Katz and other Israeli officials have come under fire for branding Thunberg and her fellow activists 'anti-Semitic' for wanting to deliver aid to starving Gazans.
But Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer said: 'This wasn't humanitarian aid. It's Instagram activism...
'Who's really feeding Gaza and who's really feeding their own ego? Greta was not bringing aid, she was bringing herself.'
The voyage of the Madleen from the Italian island of Sicily to Gaza was planned by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), an organization founded shortly after October 7, 2023 to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
The activists had set out to protest Israel's military campaign in the territory, which it claims amounts to genocide, and Israel's restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid.
Israel's military operations and aid blockades have put the territory of around two million Palestinians at risk of famine.
The FFC said the activists were 'kidnapped by Israeli forces' while trying to deliver desperately needed aid on Monday.
A statement read: 'The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted and its life-saving cargo - including baby formula, food and medical supplies - confiscated.'
It added the ship was seized in international waters about 120 miles from Gaza, and Adalah asserted that Israel had 'no legal authority' to take it over.
The Madleen was said to have been shadowed by speedboats and drones before 'quadcopters' surrounded and sprayed the ship with an unidentified 'white irritant substance', shortly before the IDF seized it.
Israel's Foreign Ministry meanwhile has portrayed the voyage as nothing more than a publicity stunt, referring to the Madleen as 'the selfie yacht'.
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Israel to deport six more activists detained on Gaza aid boat, rights group says
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The Independent
an hour ago
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