“Greta Thunberg is currently on her way to Israel, safe and in good spirits,” says Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs in early hours of the morning.

At around 3 a.m. on Monday morning, the Israeli Navy boarded the Madleen, a small sailboat launched by the Gaza Freedom Flotilla coalition. Branded the “selfie yacht” by Israel’s Foreign Ministry, the vessel was intercepted in international waters and towed to the Port of Ashdod without injury. Shayetet 13, Israel’s elite naval unit, completed the operation peacefully.

But the real battle, as always, was on social media.

As Israeli forces approached, alarms sounded onboard. Activists posted videos claiming they were “surrounded by warships,” that the boat was being “kidnapped,” and that they were now “hostages of Israel.” One participant warned the world via Instagram: “We are being hijacked.”

Meanwhile, the IDF calmly offered water and sandwiches. The Israeli Foreign Ministry called the stunt what it was: a made-for-Instagram performance masquerading as humanitarian action.

Let’s be honest. This wasn’t an aid mission—it was a floating media event. The ship carried less than a truckload of supplies, while Israel, under fire and duress, has facilitated over 1,200 aid trucks into Gaza over the past two weeks. If the mission were truly about delivering help, the organizers would have used the Ashdod route like every NGO on the ground.

The message from the MFA was clear:

“The passengers are expected to return to their home countries. While Greta and others attempted to stage a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity — and which included less than a single truckload of aid — more than 1,200 aid trucks have entered Gaza from Israel within the past two weeks, and in addition, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation has distributed close to 11 million meals directly to civilians in Gaza.

“There are ways to deliver aid to the Gaza Strip — they do not involve Instagram selfies. 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.”

One of the participants on the boat, a French and Syrian citizen, Rima Hassan, a Syrian refugee who came to Niort, France at age 9 and who was recently denied entry into Israel for her denial of October 7 atrocities.

I have been to Syria and it’s such an antisemitic country that when I was there knew I could “actually” be kidnapped if I mentioned just the word Israel or that I had been planning on visiting Israel after my trip to Jordan. Instead, you say Disneyland. Me and my travel companion Cara had spies following us around Aleppo, the same paranoid city from which Rima is from. Syrians are bred to hate Israel and Jews with a passion, and it’s no doubt she has carried vengeance for Israel as she attempted to “break the siege” to enter Gaza.

Rima is abusing the freedom of western values to try and destabilize the Middle East through peddling lies and instigating mentally-challenged people with autism like Greta Thunberg to risk their lives in a cause that is meant to stew breed contempt and harassment of Jewish people globally. Thunberg has since abandoned the cause of climate change.

Other members of the “flotilla” of one include Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham—alongside individuals with known ties to pro-Hamas propaganda, and one who attended the funeral of Nasrallah, the head of the Hezbollah terror organization.

The IDF, anticipating the media backlash, made efforts to engage the ship through civilian maritime communication. A video later published showed Israeli officers politely instructing the vessel to redirect to Ashdod, where aid could be legally processed and sent to Gaza.

Instead, the flotilla chose social media confrontation, armed with phone cameras and hashtags set up in advance.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz ordered that Thunberg and the others be shown raw footage of the Hamas-led October 7 massacre so they understand why Israel is trying to return its hostages and remove Hamas from power: “It is appropriate that antisemitic Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters see exactly who they came to support.”

The term “antisemitic” may sound harsh—but this flotilla never mentioned Hamas rockets falling on Israeli kindergartens. It made no distinction between innocent Gazans and genocidal militants. And while Greta amplifies every detail of Israel’s military operations, she remains silent on Iranian executions, Syrian prisons and mass executions of which Rima is very familiar; she doesn’t mention China’s Uyghur gulags or the killing of Yemenis by the Houthis.

You can’t claim the moral high ground while sailing with people who excuse child slaughter. Activism without ethical clarity becomes hate theatre. In this case, it’s dangerous theatre.

At Green Prophet, we believe in environmental justice and human rights. We support Palestinian dignity and freedom—but we reject moral relativism that glosses over terror. You can fight occupation without glorifying those who massacre innocents.

I once interviewed the mayor of Ashkelon Benny Vaknin about a peace initiative he launched nearly 15 years ago. His city borders the Gaza enclave, and he had developed a plan to offer sewage treatment technology—freely—to the people of Gaza. He had secured funding and partners in Brazil, and was prepared to meet the then-mayor of Gaza Maged Abu Ramadan in a neutral location to start the work. But when the Gaza mayor requested permission to travel, Hamas shut it down. Shutting it down by Hamas doesn’t mean they lock your office, it means they threaten your life. That’s the reality: you cannot negotiate with terrorists.

Any form of cooperation with Israel, even for humanitarian projects, is branded as “normalization”—a dirty word in the vocabulary of extremists. It’s not about peace. It’s about control, suppression, and sustaining conflict. Hamas—and the activists who blindly support them—aren’t interested in building a future. They thrive on perpetual division and chaos.

When I called out the so-called “Freedom Flotilla” for what it really was, I was immediately blocked by its organizers. They know that when a white, liberal woman from Europe sees through their narrative and speaks out, it deflates the entire performance. Because that’s what this flotilla was: a performance. Not for peace, but for provocation.

This boat wasn’t hijacked. It hijacked the truth.

Read all our coverage of the Gaza Freedom Flotilla here.

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This premise was explored at a spirited conference held earlier this month at Oxford University, attended by prominent policy makers including former Cabinet Ministers from Palestine, Jordan and Israel. Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan sent the panelists a message urging consideration of water as a Regional Common in the Middle East, calling it “essential for improving the atmosphere in the region.” Green Prophet also participated and we will bring you a series of reports on the problems and projects tabled at this important round-table of ideas.

Published in 2013, Water Cooperation for a Secure World – Focus on the Middle East  defines water cooperation as an active commitment between riparian countries, underpinned by detailed action plans to be realized within agreed time-frames. This cooperation is formalized by legal agreements and entails joint management of decision-making, flood control, investment, and environmental protection. The SFG report concludes, “Any two countries engaged in active water cooperation do not go to war for any reason whatsoever.” A tantalizing concept in this region ringed by civil unrest.

Water bodies do not respect political boundaries and are highly vulnerable to sociopolitical events such as over-development, populations shifts, lax environmental stewardship and war. Recognizing shared water resources as a regional commons and collaborating in prudent management could play a significant role in fostering peace and avoiding war.

According to SFG,  of the 148 countries sharing water resources, 37 (many Middle Eastern) do not engage in active water cooperation and any two or more of those 37 face a risk of future war.  In addition to exposing populations to water shortages, this also increases the likelihood that key water bodies will experience serious ecological decline due to mismanagement or exploitation.

Water cooperation is not only about human health and development, it is also about security of nations and wider civilization. Strong evidence correlates water cooperation to a general atmosphere of peaceful collaboration between nations, yet it is largely absent in the Middle East.

Jordan and Israel have a water cooperation agreement, which was revised in 2013 to enable a higher outflow of water from Lake Tiberius (Israel’s largest freshwater lake) to the Lower Jordan River. These two nations also enjoy relative peace. By comparison, Israel has no agreements with Syria or Lebanon, and the water use in the Palestinian Territories is hotly disputed.

SFG convened this roundtable (against the volatile backdrop of Israel/Gaza conflict and civil war in Iraq and Syria) with a simple goal to kick-start communication between the parties and find specific ideas for a positive
forward movement. Three initiatives were identified representing immediate to long-term goals:

1. Commence Gaza reconstruction and development, inclusive of a) replacement of water supply systems destroyed during military confrontation and construction of a freshwater pipeline from Ashkelon to Gaza on an urgent basis; b) protection and restoration of the overburdened coastal aquifer and creation of a waste water treatment plan to mitigate increasing salinity and contamination of fresh water sources causing public health problems; and c) development of a sizable desalination plant taking advantage of its favorable geographic location to create a new water source for the long-term. Solicit agreement that future conflict will not target these facilities.

2. Restructure the existing Joint Water Commission, a trilateral commission between Israel, Palestine and Jordan for the sustainable management of shared water resources. An efficient functioning mechanism of resource management protects water resources in times of political discord and crisis, builds trust and contributes to wider confidence and cooperation.

3. Engage civil society and use the media as active participants in water conservation practices, and to raise awareness of  water cooperation as a peace and confidence building measure.

Strategic Foresight Group expertly crafts new policy concepts that enable decision makers to prepare for a future in uncertain times. Founded in 2002 by Sundeep Waslekar, Ilmas Futehally and Shrikant Menjoge, their body of work includes over 30 research reports on the subjects of water diplomacy and peace, conflict and terrorism. In 2010, they began work on trans-boundary water issues and conceptualized the Blue Peace framework to transform water into an instrument of peace, security and cooperation in 2011. The following year, a High Level Group composed of former cabinet ministers from Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq, and chaired by Prince Hassan bin Talal, was created to steer the Blue Peace process in the Middle East.

The full conference report can be downloaded (link here) and the immensely readable Water Cooperation for a Secure World – Focus on the Middle East  can also be downloaded (link here).

Images from Strategic Foresight Group

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