By Walter E. Block and Oded J.K. Faran
A Few Kilograms of Theater, 1.8 Million Tons of Reality
Photo by Kushal Das – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0
Greta Thunberg’s latest performance piece, a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying a few dozen kilograms of medical supplies at best, is being marketed as humanitarian heroism. This amounts to theatrical narcissism at its worst. While Thunberg loads symbolic boxes onto boats for Instagram, Israel has facilitated the delivery of over 1.8 million tons of humanitarian aid since October 2023, worth over 700 million shekels.
The math is devastating: For every kilogram in Thunberg’s flotilla, Israel has already delivered 1,800 kilograms. The very soldiers she demonizes are the ones ensuring Gaza receives 500 trucks of aid daily, including fuel, medical supplies, and food, despite ongoing rocket attacks. Meanwhile, Hamas still holds hostages, many of whom have already been murdered. Those who remain in captivity are unlikely to survive at the current glacial pace of release.
What Gaza Actually Needs
Gaza doesn’t need more Western savior complexes packaged as humanitarian aid. It needs liberation from Hamas’s iron grip. It needs what every free society takes for granted: unrestricted internet access, schools that teach math instead of martyrdom, and the freedom to love without fear of being executed for being gay.
Gaza needs economic opportunity, not eternal victimhood. It needs the greenhouses left behind in 2005, which could have fed thousands but were destroyed by Hamas within days of Israeli departure. These food-producing investments could have been symbols of what was possible, not monuments to what was squandered. Gaza needs accountability for the billions in international aid that built terror tunnels instead of hospitals.
But addressing these truths would require Thunberg to confront the uncomfortable reality that Gaza’s suffering has an address: Hamas headquarters.
Where Were You on October 7th, Greta?
When Hamas terrorists were slaughtering 1,200 people, including infants, where was Thunberg’s moral clarity? When women were being raped and mutilated, when entire families were burned alive, when 253 hostages were dragged into Gaza’s tunnels, her otherwise very active Twitter feed was notably silent.
Months later, as hostages remain in captivity, including children and elderly Holocaust survivors, Thunberg stages her maritime theater. She’s never asked about Kfir Bibas, kidnapped at 9 months old. She’s never condemned his captors. She’s never demanded the release of this baby, who never even reached toddlerhood.
Her selective outrage reveals everything: The issue here goes beyond human rights to choosing sides, and she’s chosen poorly.
Let Them In
Here’s a radical proposal: Don’t stop her. Let her in. Let Thunberg and her flotilla of Western activists, many proudly queer, feminist, and progressive people, enter Gaza without IDF protection, without media handlers, without carefully choreographed photo ops.
Let them experience what LGBTQ Palestinians experience every day: torture, blackmail, and honor killings. Let them witness what happens to women who dare speak against Hamas. Let them see where their “solidarity” actually leads.
Stream this landing of the flotilla live. Unedited. Let reality be the teacher that ideology never could be.
The Deeper Farce
The supreme irony is that Thunberg’s stunt actively harms Palestinians. Every theatrical gesture that legitimizes Hamas extends Gaza’s suffering. Every Western activist who refuses to name the real oppressor, the terror organization that steals humanitarian aid and uses hospitals as military bases, enables another generation of Palestinian children to be raised as cannon fodder.
Real solidarity would demand Hamas surrender. Real humanitarianism would insist on the immediate release of all hostages. Real environmentalism would question why Hamas diverts water pipes into rockets.
But that would require moral courage, not Instagram courage.
Reality Always Wins
Thunberg’s flotilla represents more than a symbol of Western moral confusion; it stands as a monument to willful blindness. It represents the luxury of distant judgment, where Swedish teenagers can play revolutionary without consequences while Israeli and Palestinian children alike pay the price for Hamas’s death cult.
So yes, let her in. Let her sail past the Israeli naval blockade that prevents Iranian weapons shipments. Let her dock in Gaza City. Let her distribute her few dozen kilograms of supplies while Hamas controls effectively all aid entering Gaza.
Reality has a way of cutting through performance art. And Gaza’s reality, created and maintained by Hamas, doesn’t care about your climate activism credentials.
The Palestinian people deserve better than Hamas. They also deserve better than Western enablers who turn their suffering into content.
Greta Thunberg’s flotilla is humanitarian cosplay. It’s time to stop applauding the performance and start demanding the truth.
A Note About This Young Woman
All the world can readily acknowledge Greta’s courage. She stands for views hated by many. She is a splendid marketer. She took a position on environmentalism when she was only 15 years old and garnered the attention of pretty much the entire world to this left-wing cause of hers. Now, at the tender age of only 23, this young woman is again capturing publicity that would be the envy of many professional publicists with her flotilla.
We have some ideological advice for her. If Hamas released all kidnapped hostages today, they wouldn’t even have to surrender, they could just disappear, and the need for her flotilla would be totally unnecessary. Food and medicines would almost instantly come pouring in. But instead of calling for anything of this sort, she is acting, objectively, presumably not purposefully, to strengthen this terrorist organization.
Here is some personal advice: Wear the head covering required in that part of the Middle East or be ready for the locals to bite the hand that is trying to feed them, that is, yours.
References
1. “Humanitarian Aid to Gaza.” Government of Israel, October 15, 2024. https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/humanitarian-aid-to-gaza-15-oct-2024
2. “Coordination and Liaison Administration.” COGAT (Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories). https://www.cogat.mod.gov.il/en/coordination-and-liaison-administration/Pages/default.aspx
3. “Palestine: State of.” Amnesty International Report. https://www.amnesty.org/en/location/middle-east-and-north-africa/palestine-state-of/report-palestine-state-of/
4. “Gaza Greenhouses: From Hope to Waste.” NBC News, September 14, 2005. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna9331863
5. “Funding Trends.” UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency). https://www.unrwa.org/how-you-can-help/government-partners/funding-trends
6. “More than 1,200 killed in Israel after Hamas launch surprise attack.” France 24, October 7, 2023. https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20231007-more-than-100-killed-in-israel-after-hamas-launch-surprise-attack
7. “Israel-Gaza war: Who are the hostages taken by Hamas?” BBC News, October 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-67053011
8. “October 7, 2024 Liveblog.” The Times of Israel. https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-october-07-2024/
9. “West Bank Authorities Systematically Torture LGBT People.” Human Rights Watch, April 11, 2024. https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/04/11/west-bank-authorities-systematically-torture-lgbt-people
10. “Gaza’s Humanitarian Aid Crisis: How Hamas Controls Distribution.” Wall Street Journal, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/gaza-humanitarian-aid-hamas-israel-513a0c44
11. “EU-funded water pipes used by Hamas for rockets.” The Telegraph, October 10, 2023. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2023/10/10/eu-funded-water-pipelines-hamas-rockets/
12. “Israel says it thwarted Iranian weapons smuggling to Gaza.” Reuters, May 15, 2024. https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/israel-says-it-thwarted-iranian-weapons-smuggling-gaza-2024-05-15/
13. “Hamas Takes Control of Gaza Aid Distribution.” Wall Street Journal, 2024. https://www.wsj.com/articles/hamas-takes-over-gaza-aid-israel-war-11c30c84
14. “How Greta Thunberg became the world’s most influential climate activist.” BBC News, September 20, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49918719
https://youtu.be/rbfccVBo9tE?si=Xqtf6wfYE9zVOMNc