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‘Imagine what they do to Palestinians’: Activist Greta Thunberg recounts Gaza flotilla ordeal
“If Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport like this, imagine what they do to…"
Greta Thunberg’s flotilla to Gaza ended in chaos and detention. The 22-year-old Swedish activist says she was assaulted and humiliated by Israeli authorities after her boat was intercepted during the Global Sumud Flotilla, a 42-boat convoy attempting to deliver emergency aid to Gaza.
When her belongings were returned, her red suitcase was covered in graffiti. Across it, someone had written cuss words in black letters, surrounded by an Israeli flag and a sexual image.
“The bag was taken by the Israeli military from our boat and came back like this,” Thunberg told Aftonbladet. “They’re like five-year-olds,” she said.
The horrific details have now come out.
Not about us, but about Palestinians: Greta
Speaking from her shared apartment in Stockholm, Thunberg discussed the details.
“This is not about me or the others from the flotilla,” she said. “There are thousands of Palestinians, hundreds of them children, being held without trial right now — and many are most likely being tortured.”
Still, she said her treatment revealed something larger.
“If Israel, with the whole world watching, can treat a well-known, white person with a Swedish passport like this, imagine what they do to Palestinians behind closed doors.”
During the interview, Thunberg received news that a Palestinian boy her age had died in Israeli custody.
“What we have been through is only a small, small part of what Palestinians have experienced. On the walls of our prison cells, we saw bullet holes with bloodstains and messages carved into the walls by Palestinian prisoners who had been there before us," she said.
She described being exposed to chemicals released over the boats.
The flotilla, she noted, was made up of around 500 participants — “teachers, doctors, researchers, students, parliamentarians, small business owners.”
The youngest was 18, the oldest 78.
They threw everything, walked around boat
Thunberg recalled the night Israeli forces boarded her vessel.
“Men with covered faces and large automatic weapons board the boat—it was broadcast live through the flotilla’s own channels and seen by people all over the world. Those who weren't guarding us walked around the boat, tearing things apart and throwing everything around," she said.
The raid was streamed live on the flotilla’s own channels and watched by thousands worldwide.
After roughly 20 hours at sea, the activists were brought to Ashdod port, south of Tel Aviv.
A soldier pointed at Greta and said, "You first, come on!" she recalled. Thunberg said she was forced to remove her “Free Palestine” T-shirt and change into another that read “Decolonize.”
Situation escalated from zero to a hundred
Witnesses described how the situation escalated “from zero to a hundred.” Thunberg said she was dragged into a fenced-off area where detainees were forced to kneel for hours.
“It was dystopian,” she said. “I saw around fifty people on their knees, handcuffed, their foreheads to the ground.”
According to her, anyone who looked up was “knocked back down.” “They dragged me to the opposite side from the others and kept the flag around me,” she said.
Thunberg also claims that far-right Israeli minister Itamar Ben-Gvir entered the area.
“He shouted, ‘You are terrorists! You want to kill Jewish babies!’” she said. “Anyone who shouted back was dragged away and beaten. I saw it out of the corner of my eye — every time I lifted my head, I got kicked.”
