Greta Thunberg, others to be deported, refused to watch October 7 video

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg and 11 other activists detained aboard a boat trying to breach the Gaza blockade have been brought to Ben-Gurion Airport on Tuesday morning ahead of their deportations, Israel’s Foreign Ministry said.

“Some of the “Selfie Yacht” passengers are expected to leave within the next few hours. Those who refuse to sign deportation documents and leave Israel will be brought before a judicial authority, in accordance with Israeli law, to authorize their deportation,” the ministry said.

“Consuls from the passengers’ home countries met them at the airport,” the ministry added.

After arriving in Ashdod, all underwent medical checkups.

Defence Minister Israel Katz ordered a screening of a 43-minute video of Hamas atrocities for the 12, but said they refused to watch it. The video is based on footage from Hamas bodycams, security cameras, cellphones and dashboard cameras and call recordings. The hard-to-watch video was previously screened for international leaders and journalists.

“Greta and her flotilla companions were taken into a room upon their arrival for a screening of the horror film of the October 7 massacre, and when they saw what it was about, they refused to continue watching,” Katz said in a statement. “The antisemitic flotilla members are turning a blind eye to the truth and have proven once again that they prefer the murderers to the murdered and continue to ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas against Jewish and Israeli women, adults, and children,” he added.

Israeli forces intercepted the Madleen on Monday morning as it was trying to break the Gaza blockade. The boat was carrying a token amount of humanitarian aid, which Israel said would be delivered to Gaza.

Israel and Egypt have maintained restrictions on Gaza leading up today’s blockade to prevent weapons smuggling since Hamas seized control of the Strip in 2007. Since then, Palestinian activists have periodically sent flotillas trying to breach the blockade. In 2011, an independent UN inquiry into the Mavi Marmara affair of 2010 criticized Israeli forces for using excessive force but upheld the blockade’s legality.

A terror-affiliated businessman is reportedly behind the boat carrying Swedish ‘activist’ Greta Thunberg and others towards Gaza.

Zahar Birawi is a founding member of the ‘Freedom Flotilla’, the organisation that sent the yacht, named ‘Madleen’, towards Gaza, claiming to be on a humanitarian mission.

Birawi is a Palestinian based in Britain and was previously the chairman of the Muslim Association of Britain (MAB), of which the armed wing is a proscribed terror group.

In addition to being chairman of MAB, Birawi was a board trustee for Education Aid for Palestinians (EAP), whose members are identified with Hamas, and involved in transferring funds to Hamas.

He was also involved in sending convoys and ships to the Gaza Strip, including involvement in the organization of the Mavi Marmara flotilla at the end of May 2010, which was found to contain weapons.

According to Meir Amit, the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre, since October 7, he has been promoting initiatives to send “aid ships” to the Gaza Strip as part of his role as chief of the International Committee to Break the Siege on Gaza (ICBSG).

Regarding the financing of the boat, Dr. Hayim Iserovich, Deputy Director and Head of Research at the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center told TPS-IL: “We don’t have proof on papers, but since he is the head of the committee and a leader of Freedom Flotilla Coalition, he played a significant role in funding and organising it.”

Thunberg, 22, and several others, including Irish Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham, 64, boarded a small ‘pleasure’ boat which left the shore of Italy last Sunday.

Many on board are known to publicly support Hamas and Hezbollah on social media.

The Foreign Ministry dismissed Madleen as a publicity stunt, referring to the boat as a “selfie yacht” organised to “stage a media provocation.”

Experts yesterday called for harsher measures to act as a deterrent to self-styled ‘activists’.

At least 1,180 people were killed, and 252 Israelis and foreigners were taken hostage in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on October 7. Of the 55 remaining hostages, 33 are believed to be dead.