Tel Aviv: Was Greta Thunberg’s voyage towards Gaza a publicity stunt? At least, Israel thinks so.
The country’s foreign ministry has termed the vessel in which Thunberg was sailing, before it was boarded by Israeli marine commandos, as a ‘selfie yacht’. The ministry has also shared a video of passengers aboard the Madleen Gaza flotilla, including Thunberg.
This comes after Thunberg claimed that she and the pro-Palestinian Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) members were ‘kidnapped’ after Israeli troops intercepted the flotilla.
Israel’s foreign ministry has maintained that the flotilla passengers were not ‘attacked’. They were given sandwiches and water, it claimed.
“The “selfie yacht” of the “celebrities” is safely making its way to the shores of Israel. The passengers are expected to return to their home countries. While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity – and which included less than a single truckload of aid – more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks,” the ministry stated in its post on X.
It further added that the means to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip ‘do not involve Instagram selfies’.
Thunberg has also released a pre-recorded video on Instagram, in which she said: “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden. If you see this video, we are being intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces, or forces that support Israel.”
“I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible,” she added.