Greta Thunberg and crew kidnapped as Israeli forces seize Madleen

What began as a peaceful mission to deliver aid to Gaza ended with Greta Thunberg and her crewmates in the custody of Israeli forces. Rosemary Sorensen reports.

THE PENNY HAS finally dropped that the people on board the little ship named Madleen – the latest Freedom Flotilla to try to break Israel’s blockade of the Palestinian port in Gaza since the Free Gaza Movement first sent passenger boats in 2008 – were in danger for their lives.

The news came through on Sunday, Australian time, that the Israeli armed forces had boarded the Madleen as it approached Gaza with no weapons and a cargo of aid.

A video sent by the activists showed the moments when the 12 people were told to ditch their phones and a pre-recorded message from Greta Thunberg was released by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, saying:

“If you see this video, we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters.”

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Simultaneously, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz followed up his earlier threat that the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) were instructed “to take whatever measures are necessary”, with a statement that “The show is over”.

Sydney-based Free Gaza spokesperson Michael Coleman, who was taken off a Freedom Flotilla ship and detained in 2011, said the group would likely now be subjected to “violence and detention”.

Coleman said:

Since 2010, when IDF commandos killed nine Turkish citizens on board one of the Freedom Flotilla ships, there’s usually been a different modus operandi.

There’s been 30 boats sailed and usually they are seized, the crew thrown into detention where their cuts and bruises heal a bit, then sent back.

But now, the mowing the lawn – that’s what Israel calls it – the mowing the lawn has escalated exponentially, the violence and the killings.

Now, [what happens to the people on board the Madleen], all bets are off.

Reports in Australian media since the Freedom Flotilla Coalition launched the Madleen from the Italian port of Catania on 1 June have been sparse.

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Said Coleman about the presence of Swedish climate activist and Palestine supporter Greta Thunberg:

Madleen is such a small vessel and we need people with reach.

Getting Australian media to pay attention, having no Australian on board makes it difficult. Mohammed Mustafa [the Australian doctor who has volunteered and is seeking to build a children’s hospital in Gaza] wanted to go, but the timing wasn’t right.

As Independent Australia’s Michelle Pini has written, the attacks on Thunberg have been vicious, led by Israel Katz, who included the rote claims of antisemitism and called the little ship a ‘hate flotilla’.

Few reports, outside Al Jazeera, have mentioned that also on board alongside Thunberg are French European Parliament Member Rima Hassan, Brazilian political journalist Thiago Avila, French doctor Baptiste Andre and Sea Shepherd crew member, Spanish activist Sergio Toribio. French journalists Omar Faiad and Yanis Mhamdi are also on board.

As Coleman told the ABC, “Those on board would be well aware of the risks and low likelihood of reaching Gaza’s shores”.

The Free Gaza Coalition is keeping people up to date with this latest, and smallest, attempt to bring the illegal blocking of humanitarian aid into the port of Gaza to worldwide attention.

Echoing the statements posted on Telegram by Thunberg as the Madleen approached Egypt on its route to Gaza, Coleman said:

The message the world hears is that they need aid, forgetting that prior to the creation of Israel and the blockade, it was an export port.

They don’t need aid, they need their rights back. The aid dependency hasn’t happened in a vacuum.

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Coleman said his commitment to Palestinian rights began on his first visit to the West Bank in 2008, when he fell in love with the people and a realisation of the misinformation about their treatment under Israeli occupation:

“Palestinian people are the inspiration, it’s a brutal occupation and they continue to exist.”

There’s a determination in Coleman’s voice, despite his knowing what it’s like to be “detained” by Israeli forces, held in prison and then deported to Australia.

He is resigned to the Madleen crew undergoing the same treatment, although they are aware that Israel’s violence on civilians in Gaza has continued and even increased over the past few months, despite calls for a ceasefire.

Will the Freedom Flotilla Coalition continue to launch ships towards Gaza?

“There’s no doubt,” Coleman says. “Our governments fail, so we sail. We’ll sail until Palestine is free.”