News of Israeli commandos taking control of the Madleen Freedom Flotilla Coalition vessel bound for Gaza made headline news in Israel on Monday morning, as it did in many places around the world. But by early afternoon, the story had already moved down Israelis’ newsfeeds. Dramatic images of the Hamas tunnels of Gaza; the funerals of four Israeli soldiers; the Iran nuclear deal; and a potential constitutional crisis between the Binyamin Netanyahu government and the attorney general were a few of the stories competing for the attention of people here. It is a truism that there is never a slow news day in Israel, and certainly not in the past two years.
Climate activist Greta Thunberg and her crew had the misfortune of nearing Israeli-controlled waters in the week that prime minister Netanyahu, on trial for bribery for five years, was finally cross-examined in a Jerusalem court. The forceful boarding of the yacht also happened the same morning one of his erstwhile coalition partners threatened to bolt the government, potentially triggering an election.
Still, the story – particularly the lead-up to the raid – received considerable attention across all Israeli media outlets. There was, however, the usual difference between how the mainstream news channels and social media treated the story. While the former mostly took it seriously, coverage on social media mercilessly mocked Thunberg. And that included Israeli state accounts. Her dramatic and presumably pre-recorded message, “we have been kidnapped by occupational forces”, calling for help to her “comrades ... to release me as soon as possible”, was widely lampooned on social media here. (To be fair, the mocking wasn’t only confined to Israeli social media.)
The undisguised sarcasm of some of the statements by the Israel Foreign Ministry on X mirrored the contemptuous tone elsewhere in Israel. “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 stated. It then put out images of a smiling picture of Thunberg being offered a sandwich with the caption: “Greta Thunberg is currently on her way to Israel, safe and in good spirits.” The ministry went on to accuse “Greta and others” of “a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity” – presumably that was indeed the point.
Even here in Israel, the description of the flotilla, which had sought to bring attention to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, as a “selfie yacht” of “celebrities” struck some as crass. The “selfie yacht” sneer drew criticism from Ynet – the online news service of Israel’s largest daily newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth – which drily compared that phrase to the seriousness of the reporting on the story across the international media.
Mainstream television coverage in Israel generally took a more sober approach. On the evening before the yacht was forcibly boarded, the coverage focused on the risks to the reputation of Israel if the tragic events of the 2010 flotilla were to be repeated.
On that occasion, the Mavi Marmara – a flotilla organised by the Free Gaza Movement and the Turkish Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief (İHH) – was boarded by Israeli forces in international waters, and 10 activists were killed during the raid. International relations between Israel and Turkey rapidly deteriorated in the ensuing weeks and never recovered. In 2013, Israel apologised for “operational mistakes” in the raid. A compensation deal is still being negotiated between the two countries.
The Israeli-Arab rights group Adalah put out a sombre statement, noting that Israeli forces had detained the flotilla in international waters “where Israel has no legal jurisdiction or authority”, thus violating international humanitarian law.
There was the predictable eye-rolling in Israel to an Iranian foreign ministry press statement from Tehran which said: “The assault on this flotilla – since it happened in international waters – is considered a form of piracy under international law.”
It is an open secret that Iran has been funding their proxies, the Houthis in Yemen, for a decade or more. The Houthis, with the guiding hand of Iran, have been openly attacking commercial shipping in international waters in the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea for years. A week doesn’t go by in Tel Aviv without deafening sirens going off due to incoming missiles from Yemen.
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Once in Israel, Thunberg and her fellow crew members were reportedly forced – on the direct order of Israeli defence minister Israel Katz – to watch a 40-minute graphic video of the Hamas atrocities on October 7th, 2023.
“It is only fitting that the anti-Semitic Greta [Thunberg] and her Hamas-supporting friends see exactly who this terrorist group Hamas is – the one they came to support and act on behalf of – and the horrors it carried out against women, the elderly and children,” Katz said in a statement.
On Tuesday morning, the foreign ministry said the passengers had been taken to an airport in Tel Aviv for deportation.
Judging by international news coverage over the past 24 hours, Thunberg and her crew on the Madleen have certainly commanded the headlines.
Whether they managed to bring aid any closer to the starving millions in Gaza remains to be seen. One thing is virtually certain: the polarised views of many Israelis and non-Israelis will not have moved an inch.
Paul Kearns is an Irish-born freelance journalist based in Tel Aviv.
