Greta Thunberg: “We’ve been kidnapped”

The Swedish activist spoke to journalists on her arrival at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where she was deported by the Hebrew state authorities, before returning to Sweden. Paris, where she was deported by the authorities of the Hebrew state, before returning to Sweden.

on her arrival at Charles-de-Gaulle airport in Paris, from where she was to return to Sweden, Greta Thunberg spoke to journalists. “We have been kidnapped in international waters [by Israel]”, she denounced. She described the act as “illegal”.

“They kept us in the ship’s holds without letting us out on deck. But that’s not the most important thing, the important thing is that there’s a genocide going on in Gaza, a provoked famine,” she added.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which organized the mission from the yacht The Madleen, demanded the immediate release of all those detained.

The passengers on the Madleen, carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, wanted to “break the Israeli blockade” in the Palestinian territory, where the humanitarian situation is critical after more than 20 months of war.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant maintained that the main aim of the maritime blockade is to prevent the transfer of weapons to Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union in particular.

On Monday, the Israeli government accused “Greta Thunberg and the other [activists of] trying to stage a media provocation with the sole aim of gaining publicity for themselves”, calling their craft a “selfie yacht”.

The Israeli navy intercepted the Madleen on Monday morning around 185 kilometers off Gaza, in international waters, before taking it to the port of Ashdod. The passengers were then transferred to Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport for deportation.

According to French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, four of the six French nationals arrested on Tuesday refused to be voluntarily deported from Israel. They are expected to be forcibly expelled by an Israeli judge in the next few days. They will remain in detention until then. In addition to France and Sweden, citizens from Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Turkey were also on board.

According to a press release from the team of Rima Hassan, a French MEP who is one of those still detained, the crew members “were only able to exchange briefly with their lawyer, for around ten minutes, before undergoing an initial hearing before the Israeli authorities”.

“The latter claimed that the crew had entered Israeli territory illegally, and imposed a 100-year ban on their entry. The crew members were then presented with a document inviting them to acknowledge this alleged illegal entry. They had the choice of signing it – and being immediately deported – or refusing, and being brought before an Israeli judge”, reads the press release.

The eight who refused to sign it “denounce a propaganda operation aimed at legitimizing an illegal arrest and detention”, says the document.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry said that the seized goods, including infant milk and medicines, would be transferred to Gaza “via genuine humanitarian channels”.

Israel now favors distribution via the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which it supports along with the United States. However, the UN and many NGOs refuse to collaborate with this system, believing that it contravenes the fundamental principles of humanitarian aid: neutrality, impartiality and independence.