Greta Thunberg among Gaza-flotilla activists deported from Israel
June 10 (UPI) -- Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was on a flight to France on Tuesday en route home to Sweden after being deported from Israel a day after the Gaza-bound aid yacht she was on was intercepted by the Israeli military off the coast of Egypt and diverted to Israel.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry said the 22-year-old left the country and posted photos on X of her boarding what appeared to be a commercial flight and sitting in an aisle seat with her belt fastened. It had been only around 12 hours since the British-flagged Madleen arrived at the southern Israeli port of Ashdod under Israeli naval escort late Monday.
She was accompanied by at least one French citizen who had also voluntarily agreed to be deported, according to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, but in a post on X, he said five other French nationals in the group would be subject to "a forced expulsion process."
Barrot said the detained French citizens had consular access.
Le Monde reported that European Parliament Member Rima Hassan was among the French contingent detained.
The status of the other five people aboard the vessel -- from Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey and Brazil -- was unclear, but the Foreign Ministry said those who refused to sign deportation documents and leave Israel would be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation.
It stressed that all the detainees had met with officials from their respective consulates.
Israeli authorities, which have dismissed the mission by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition as a publicity stunt by celebrities, dubbing the effort the "selfie yacht," attempted to sway the activists by showing them a graphic 43-minute video of the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks on the orders of Israeli President Israel Katz.
"I instructed the IDF to show the flotilla passengers the video of the horrors of the Oct. 7 massacre when they arrive at the port of Ashdod. 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," Katz wrote on X.
Katz claimed the group refused to continue watching once they found out what it was about.
The FFC posted on social media in the early hours of Monday that the Madleen was under siege in international waters off Egypt, "surrounded by quadcopters", being doused with "a white irritant substance," and that its communications systems had been electronically jammed.
"The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo -- including baby formula, food and medical supplies -- confiscated," it said in a statement.
Israel issued photos of activists being handed sandwiches and water by Israeli military personnel with a caption stating the group were on their way to Israel and "in good spirits, but the Israeli version of events was disputed by Thunberg in a video released by FFC.
"If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces or forces that support Israel," she said in the 25 second clip on X in which she also urged her family and friends to lobby the Swedish government to push for their release as soon as possible.
The Madleen set sail from Catania on Sicily, loaded with life-saving supplies on June 1 in an effort to break an 80-day blockade on international aid entering Gaza imposed by Israel after it pulled out of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire deal that lasted from January to March.
In early May, Thunberg was scheduled to board another FFC vessel, the 1,000-ton Conscience, attempting to sail to Gaza when it was badly damaged in an alleged drone strike off Malta in the western Mediterranean.
FFC said the vessel had been en route to Malta to pick up volunteers from at least 21 countries who had traveled to the island to join the mission when it was attacked, among them Thunberg and retired U.S. Army Colonel Mary Ann Wright.
In May 2010, nine people involved in a similar mission to Gaza were killed and many others seriously wounded when Israeli forces intercepted the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla of six vessels, in international waters.
A U.N. Panel of Inquiry ruled that the loss of life and injuries resulting from the use of force by Israeli forces during their takeover of the vessel were unacceptable and that they had provided no satisfactory explanation for any of the nine deaths, all of which were from gunshot wounds.
"There was significant mistreatment of passengers by Israeli authorities after the takeover of the vessels had been completed through until their deportation. This included physical mistreatment, harassment and intimidation, unjustified confiscation of belongings and the denial of timely consular assistance."
However, the report noted that Israeli Defense Forces personnel were confronted by significant, organized and violent resistance when they boarded the Mavi Marmara, requiring them to defend themselves, and that three soldiers were taken hostage and several others wounded.
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