Greta Thunberg, in a video posted on social media, said she and other members of the Freedom flotilla en-route to Gaza have been kidnapped by Israeli forces. This comes after the Daily Mail reported that several Israeli vessels surrounded the ship Madleen, prompting the crew to raise an alarm.

Thunberg shared a pre-recorded video appealing for international help. “My name is Greta Thunberg, and I am from Sweden,” she said in the clip. “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.”

      • Kirp123@lemmy.world
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        29 天前

        Curious to see how the EU and other European countries will respond. One of the people on board is a EU PM.

        Besides Greta the boat had people from many other European countries such as France, Spain, Germany and the Netherlands. There are also a Turk and a Brazilian on board.

        I really hope the people on board are safe. They don’t deserve this.

        • HumanPenguin@feddit.uk
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          29 天前

          They will respond politically. And that is all.

          The history means every nation in Europe is split to hell on this subject. So what ever action any specific gov takes. Will be the end of that gov. So no gov will have the courage to challenge with anything but diplomacy.

      • ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml
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        29 天前

        When Israel does it “it has a right to protect itself” from unarmed civilians bringing food.

    • Drewfro66@lemmygrad.ml
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      29 天前

      Israel would claim that the flotilla was providing material assistance to a military enemy, and were a legitimate target

  • zephorah@lemm.ee
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    29 天前

    Why is everyone so hands off and permissive with Israel? Like they can do nothing wrong when they go out of their way to do wrong things?

    • reaper_cushions [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      29 天前

      For Germany: Israel is an indulgence for the Holocaust.

      For the USA: Israel is an unsinkable aircraft carrier in a largely hostile region that is protected by international law.

      For the rest of Western Europe: They are vassals of the US, so naturally they don’t want to piss of their daddy.

      For everyone else: they don’t want to provoke the US either.

    • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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      29 天前

      it should be fairly obvious to everyone by now. Israel is an extension of the US, their unsinkable aircraft carrier in the middle east, or as Biden put it “if israel didn’t exists, we would have to invent it to protect our interests in the region.”

      also it’s fairly obvious that the “rules based order” is nothing more than a “might makes right order” enforced by the US.

      • Gosplan14_the_Third [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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        28 天前

        Israel has hit bourgeois internationalism with a sledgehammer, it’s actually interesting to see. Even in the war of Ukraine, the libs using that as an argument to oppose Russia with, have basically dropped that talking point in late 2023.

      • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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        29 天前

        Biden is the top AIPAC recipient.

        The aircraft carrier story is nothing more than a cheap excuse. The real reason US politicians support Israel is because of the AIPAC lobby bribing them and the Epstein tapes they are on.

        • davel [he/him]@lemmy.ml
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          28 天前

          Reporter: [REDACTED]
          Reason: Anti-semitic conspiracy theory that Israel is in charge of the US and not the other way around

          You really need to let this go. US imperialism is not a “cheap excuse,” nor are Christian Zionists. Every time you dismiss the hegemonic US’ agency and falsely lay all the blame on Israel, you’re feeding into antisemitic tropes.

          • MarxMadness@lemmygrad.ml
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            28 天前

            It’s simultaneously:

            1. The broader U.S. imperial apparatus (e.g., the State Department) understands Israel’s importance for the U.S. and backs it for that reason
            2. All sorts of minor U.S. politicians who don’t really influence foreign policy face a major hurdle from AIPAC if they don’t sufficiently support Israel

            The U.S. is predominantly running the show, but Israel has agency too, and its state policy involves filtering out U.S. politicians who might oppose its interests as early as possible. This includes a massive amount of pro-Israel propaganda intended for mainstream consumption, harassing professors at colleges, etc.

          • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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            28 天前

            Nope. If anything people should have been completely convinced by now that I am right over the past 20 months. The ‘aircraft carrier’ is the cheap excuse from the same guy who destroyed the US global reputation so Israel can do genocide.

            Are we watching the US and Europe destroying their entire reputation so Israel can do a genocide or not? Nobody can explain this away with convenience factor. This genocide is in no way beneficial to the empire.

            Christian Zionists such as Genocide Joe are indeed also a reason this is happening, but they too do not support Israel for any pragmatic cause which would benefit the empire such as being an aircraft carrier.

            Countries such as Egypt, UAE and Saudi are infinitely more obedient than Israel which does things like the USS liberty and selling American secrets to Russia.

            • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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              28 天前

              There are hundreds of explanations, from crushing armed resistance to prevent other movements from arising, to showing military might so other nations don’t get any ideas, to being a bandaid to the property crisis in the West, to further increase MIC sales, to just being a blunder, etc…

              • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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                28 天前

                The American hegemony runs on soft power and American exceptionalism. Showing other nations that they can… starve women and children in a concentration camp… is not what I would call a “great showing of might”.

                Even the MIC sales in Gaza are not that huge. Ukraine is making the MIC tonnes more money while the Western hegemony fully believes it is doing the right thing.

                Gaza is the dumbest and least significant hill to die on for the empire. But it dead set to die on it.

                • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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                  28 天前

                  US hegemony runs of military might and financial might, not soft power ffs. There is a reason to the thousands of US military bases all around the world yk.

            • ComradeRat [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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              28 天前

              This genocide is in no way beneficial to the empire.

              They want the Gaza Marine Gas field. They don’t want the financial risk of the Palestinian people attacking the facilities and transportation.

              • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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                28 天前

                Then they would have cleansed all the Palestinians into Egypt at the start.

                There is nothing worse for the reputation of Israel and the West than getting these types of headlines every single day because they had to be literal cartoon villains and shoot 30 Palestinians trying to find food at an aid point.

                If this ends with the ethnic cleansing of Gaza, which it might, doing it at day 600 instead of day 30 makes absolutely no sense.

                It is not the negative news, but the repetition of negative news which sticks in people’s heads.

                • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
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                  28 天前

                  Biden pushed for the mass displacement option early on, but Egypt, Jordan and other regional actors refused, just like they have so far under Trump.

                • Nakoichi [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                  28 天前

                  Nah this is not the hill you should be dying on. This is literally ahistorical non materialist analysis with a dose of antisemitism.

                  Where do you think the Israel lobby gets its funding lmao.

    • eldoom@lemmy.ml
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      29 天前

      We just need to help god make the book of revelations happen so Jesus can come back!

      /s

    • merc@sh.itjust.works
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      28 天前

      Do you mean governments or people?

      People don’t have much power here. Other than boycotts, what can people do?

      For governments, Israel is fairly powerful. They have powerful lobbyists, and aren’t shy to leverage claims of antisemitism against anybody who speaks up against Israel. In many cases, there’s also the guilt over how jews were treated in WWII. This is one reason Germany is so incredibly pro-Israel. Then there’s the fact that Israel is still more-or-less a democracy, which makes it unique in the middle east. It’s the one country in the region pushing back against various Islamic fundamentalist goverments, movements and terrorist groups. Many countries don’t want to lose that “friend”.

      And then there’s spyware. Most of the best spyware in the world is produced in Israel. Some cynical people would say that countries don’t want to lose access to the world’s best producer of spyware. Some even more cynical people would say that that spyware has already been used on politicians and Israel is using it for blackmail. Who knows what the right level of cynicism is.

      • Thesilverpig@lemmy.ml
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        28 天前

        Don’t forget that Epstein was linked to Israel Military intelligence, so there is that…

      • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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        27 天前

        there’s also the guilt over how jews were treated in WWII.

        How many are still alive? That excuse has long expired.

        the region pushing back against various Islamic fundamentalist goverments

        You can thank the CIA for that.

        • merc@sh.itjust.works
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          27 天前

          How many are still alive? That excuse has long expired.

          It’s not individual guilt, it’s institutional guilt. In many other cases that’s a good thing. We want German kids to grow up learning about the holocaust and thinking “we can’t allow that to ever happen again”. I don’t think what’s happening in Gaza could happen in Germany because of what Germans are taught growing up.

          OTOH, in Israel they seem to only be taught that jews are victims and can never be perpetrators.

          You can thank the CIA for that.

          Yeah, they were involved. They were saving the world from the dangers of communism. Looking back, all the west really had to do was sit back and wait for the communist system to collapse. But, I wonder what the middle east would look like without the CIA’s interference. It sure seems unlikely it would be a land of healthy, stable democracies. Look at all the places where the CIA didn’t interfere. Countries ruled by strongmen is the rule rather than the exception.

          But, however we got here, that has been Israel’s traditional role. It was a democratic country with somewhat similar values to the west, nestled among Islamic Arab countries with very different values.

          • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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            27 天前

            We want German kids to grow up learning about the holocaust and thinking “we can’t allow that to ever happen again”.

            I think they kind of overdid it 'cos know they activelly defend nazis…

        • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
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          29 天前

          While their statement is a hyperbolic and reductive statement about only the other side of the symbiotic relationship, we must also not strip Israel of its agency. Also, Israel≠Jews, as much as Israel tries to convince you they are the same.

          In the macro scale. Yes, Israel is propped up by the west as a powerful tool against other regional powers and the imperial system funnels funds into their upkeep.

          But it’s also true that in the micro scale. Politicians are more directly and personally rewarded to keep those funds flowing (AIPAC exists regardless of tropes) and Israel uses the leverage they have as one of the more valuable strategic tools to grant them leeway others wouldn’t have.

          It’s a two way street. Israel and The US/west aren’t parasites leeching off one or the other, they’re symbiotic.

          • barrbaric [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            29 天前

            Sure, there’s a two-way relationship, but the US is the global hegemon (or at least was until very recently), while Israel is a regional power. They may both influence each other, but the US has more say in the relationship.

        • Korkki@lemmy.ml
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          28 天前

          Replace jew/Israel with zionist if it helps you. It’s more accurate anyway.

  • kreskin@lemmy.world
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    29 天前

    All they had to do was wait until the boat entered Israeli waters to do it legally. Why do it in international waters? Israelis seem to want to break laws just for the sake of showing they dont consider any laws to matter. In some ways they are worse than nazis. They are like perpetually angry butthurt toddlers with weapons.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      At no point would the boat enter Israeli waters. Only Palestinian waters.

      The illegal Israeli sea blockade is illegal for reason: it is not their water.

    • lorty@lemmy.ml
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      29 天前

      They want to make a point that they don’t care about international law

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          28 天前

          Was gonna say, they’ve not been given any reason to care about international law.

          Although, I swear I saw that the ICC put out a warrant for Bibi.

          • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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            27 天前

            So what? Not all nations care.
            Like the UN: nice, noble… toothless.

      • melsaskca@lemmy.ca
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        29 天前

        You may be right. The whole world is on the brink ,deciding if we will move forward as a global “rule of law” or a global “might makes right” future.

        • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
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          We have always lived under “might makes right”. Ask any country that has been under the boot of western imperialism.

          This is just the collapse of the charade of “rule of law” as the stranglehold of the western might begins to slip.

    • shadowfax13@lemmy.ml
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      29 天前

      this country is run and heavily populated with most vile criminals ever to exist

      when contemplating about what they are capable of, then think of them as the most disgusting mexican drug cartel not a country of law and human decency.

    • Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
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      28 天前

      there’s no “legally” what, they enter Gaza territoral waters, only gaza has authority to regulate it’s territorial waters.

      Israel has no right to control Gaza’s waters.

  • PastafARRian@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    Thunberg and crew are heroes in my eyes. No doubt a very extreme form of political protest, obviously they knew the outcome here. Even they couldn’t predict blatant piracy. Hope she is returned safely…

  • Korkki@lemmy.ml
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    29 天前

    “The tiny amount of aid that was on the yacht and not consumed by the ‘celebrities’ will be transferred to Gaza through real humanitarian channels,” the ministry added.

    They will toss the aid to the wood chipper and laugh about it, won’t they…

    • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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      29 天前

      Quite a thing to create the world’s most dire need for humanitarian aid in the history of the species and then criticize any aid as tiny in comparison to the need you’ve manufactured

    • Aedis@lemmy.world
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      Nah they’ll actually dangle the food in front of starving people to draw a crowd and then bomb them.

      Fucking monsters.

    • geneva_convenience@lemmy.mlOP
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      29 天前

      Israel has a reputation for not even following through on these basic minute propaganda gestures. Because they are comically evil.

      • Anomalocaris@lemm.ee
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        28 天前

        remember that time where they piled a bunch of boxes with a printout that said medical aid, then have soldiers move them into an hospital they evacuated, showing how weightless they are. and how useful will those empty boxes will be in the hospital they vacated

    • IttihadChe@lemmy.ml
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      29 天前

      Nah, they will give it to their ISIS aligned collaborators and then shoot anyone/bomb anyone else who goes near it.

      • WoodScientist@sh.itjust.works
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        29 天前

        They will then destroy Hamas. Once Hamas is destroyed, they will demand that the new group be destroyed before the war can end. They will then fund a third group to distribute aid.

        • Almacca@aussie.zone
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          27 天前

          Israel has repeatedly shown that they will stop at nothing short of completely wiping out every last Palestinian.

    • BodyBySisyphus [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      28 天前

      The sheer chutzpah of “Not only are we arresting you for trying to clean up our mess, but it’s not like you brought enough mops anyway.”

    • Wolf@lemmy.today
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      28 天前

      Real humanitarians who will deliver the aid via sniper bullets to the forehead.

  • RecipeForHate1@lemmy.ml
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    29 天前

    Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist, was also in that boat and was kidnapped by the Israeli state. That’s a crime against humanity.

  • HiddenLayer555@lemmy.ml
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    28 天前

    #BringThemHome

    Good thing Sweden isn’t Israel or else they’d have bombed their hospitals already.

  • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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    29 天前

    Israel has decided to grab the attention of some of the people who weren’t already outraged. It’s a bold more. I hope it works out the way I think it will.

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        28 天前

        I think there are people who support Greta who haven’t taken a side on the Israel / Palestine genocide. My hope is that their grabbing her will turn more people against their horrid actions in Gaza.

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      28 天前

      I can understand where the fear that she’ll be killed comes from, but I really don’t think that’s what will happen. She’s too high profile, and her and the others know it. That’s what’s part of what makes this such a bold move. They were basically daring Israel to do something about it. There is a legitimate chance of harm coming to them, but I really expect they’ll just be released in a few days.

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      Yeah I admire Greta, but anyone who’s been paying attention had to know this would eventually happen.

      Punch enough knife-tips and you’ll get cut. Greta wouldn’t shut up and wouldn’t sell out, now she’s going to die a lot.

  • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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    28 天前

    Why the fuck did she even go there? Did she think she would make a difference? She would be better off trying to become a military officer, and prepare defenses against future Israel invasion.

    • Fedizen@lemmy.world
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      28 天前

      She’s pitting the swedish embassy against the israeli government. If more people did it there would be one less genocide.

    • Hotrod54chevy@lemmy.ml
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      28 天前

      Or she could be using her celebrity to draw attention to something going on in the world that doesn’t have enough attention shined on it maybe?

      • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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        28 天前

        People KNOW! They are just racist and don’t care about the victims in Gaza.

        We need another approach. The world no longer cares how many bodies it pilles

          • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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            27 天前

            Independence, sovereignty, just making it as hard as possible to kill and oppress.

            Overall, never play by their rules. You will never get anything done by begging the psychopaths in charge to stop hurting you. Telling them how much you are suffering, only spurs them on. You can’t count on democracy or the goodness of people either. There is no law and order.

            Gaza is probably doomed. You have to prepare yourself to defend your own life.

            • rumimevlevi@lemmings.world
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              27 天前

              Independence, sovereignty, just making it as hard as possible to kill and oppress.

              That’s not within the average joe and activists power to do

      • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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        27 天前

        There’s better ways to kill yourself than being in the hands of Israel. It’s such a cruel fate for someone like her.

        She would have been more useful elsewhere too.

          • WorldsDumbestMan@lemmy.today
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            27 天前

            War in Ukraine? I mean, if you are going to die either way, might as well die fighting THE enemy, part of the ones that are behind nearly everything bad happening in the world, just so happen to be in a war you can join. Oh how perfect…and they are losing!

            • rumimevlevi@lemmings.world
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              27 天前

              if you are going to die either way, might as well die fighting THE enemy, part of the ones that are behind nearly everything bad happening in the world

              Those behind nearly everything bad happening in the world is the United Snake in the last half century . Not to whitewash Russian and China evilness in history

              Dying for Ukraine or for Palestine or any other occupied land is a noble death that require lot of courage

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                27 天前

                It’s all the same ideology, same types of rich people, and the petroindustry. Every time I hear abut a pipeline burn, I am very happy.

            • Allero@lemmy.today
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              27 天前

              So, she just chose one of two most cruel conflicts. Arguably, Palestinians face an even worse fate, with an extensive humanitarian crisis, than even the Ukrainians.

              Why do you specifically choose Ukraine over Palestine?