In the play “Woe From Wit” (Gore ot uma) by the Russian playwright Aleksandr Sergeevich Griboedov (yes, he has the same name and patronymic as Pushkin) the character Repetilov says to the play’s protagonist Chatsky “Vri, da znaj zhe meru,” which means “Lie, but know when to stop.” That line came immediately to mind when I read the pack of lies the flotilla flotsam and jetsam have been spreading in the media about how the Israeli sailors mistreated the Gaza Sumud Flotilla’s participants when they boarded their 47 boats and then put the pro-Hamas demonstrators on dry land, to be briskly processed and deported. More on those lies can be found here: “‘They dragged little Greta by her hair,’ Turkish flotilla activist claims – report,” Jerusalem Post, October 5, 2025:
Environmental and social activist Greta Thunberg accused Israel of subjecting her to harsh treatment following Israeli forces’s interception of the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla, according to a report by The Guardian.
An official who visited Thunberg in prison said she claimed that she is being held in a cell infested with bedbugs, with little food and water, the Swedish foreign ministry said in an email.
The email, which was disclosed by The Guardian, read, “The embassy has been able to meet with Greta. She informed of dehydration. She has received insufficient amounts of both water and food. She also stated that she had developed rashes which she suspects were caused by bedbugs. She spoke of harsh treatment and said she had been sitting for long periods on hard surfaces.”…
The Swedish author of this email simply accepts Thunberg’s charges as true, when he ought to have said “Thunberg claimed….Thunberg claimed,” and not “she informed” and “she stated,”
Really, how likely is it the Israelis would have mistreated Greta Thunberg or any of the other flotilla participants? The international media were right there to record the moments when the boats, one after the other, were boarded. They filmed the proceedings; I saw myself a video on Italian television showing a sailor doing nothing more than placing a blanket on Great’s shoulders to keep her warm. The Israelis also could be seen distributing food and water. As to the bedbugs that Greta says “she suspects” caused her rashes, this is calumny. No evidence of bedbugs were presented by her or anyone else, and no other flotilla participants complained of them. It’s a story made up out of whole cloth for the media.
“Another detainee reportedly told another embassy that they had seen her [Thunberg] being forced to hold flags while pictures were taken. She wondered whether images of her had been distributed,” the email added.
The accusations were confirmed by at least two other flotilla members, according to The Guardian.
Ersin Çelik, a Turkish activist who was also onboard the flotilla, told Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu that “They dragged little Greta by her hair before our eyes, beat her, and forced her to kiss the Israeli flag. They did everything imaginable to her, as a warning to others.”
If Greta had been “dragged by her hair” by Israeli sailors’ who then “beat her” and “forced her to kiss the Israeli flag,” as Ersin Çelik claims, wouldn’t you think that Greta Thunberg herself would have mentioned such mistreatment? But she didn’t. And why would they have dragged her by her very short hair (hard to hold onto) when they could just as easily have picked her up and carried her off the boat if she proved recalcitrant about disembarking? And do you think the Israeli sailors would, with the media all around, have “forced her to kiss the Israeli flag”? Thunberg never mentioned that. Why not? Because it never happened. Thunberg and several others are feeding us one preposterous lie after another by, and they do not corroborate one another’s fictions.
Remember, the Biggest Lie of all in this whole Gaza Sumud Flotila farce was the claim, that the world believed, that these blockade runners were bringing food and other humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza. But it turned out that there was no such aid. That is why, when Israel, Italy, Greece, and the Catholic Church’s Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem all offered to distribute the aid the flotilla claimed to be bringing, their offers were turned down flat. Now we know why: there never was any aid aboard the 47 boats that made up the flotilla; it was all a lie.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
What the Israelis should have done this time was shave her head, so that she’d think 70 times before embarking on such an adventure again. Seems like she was smart enough not to try & go through Egypt
Joe1 says
By her own admission, she has a serious mental condition. Do you think that in her disturbed state, that she would care that someone shaves her head? It is not like she has a boyfriend. No, the shaved head would be proof to Europe that Israel mistreated her.
However displaying Oct 7th videos non-stop in her cell would have been appropriate. After all, those videos of babies being raped and so forth were about and taken by her heroes.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I wonder how many more trips she’ll take. Someone should put her out of everyone’s misery – including her own
Kosh's Shadow says
I say that Israel should use the flotilla to pay for aid to Gaza. Sell the ships and use the proceeds for the aid they are already giving.
Losing the ships will also make any future flotilla unlikely.
somehistory says
If she ‘sat on hard surfaces,’ and was ‘bitten by bugs’ that’s still much better than her hamas friends treated the young women they kidnapped.
The idiot was not ‘kidnapped,’ nor ‘taken hostage,’ but freely went where she was not invited. She went where she had gone before and was sent home. She should not have returned.
Perhaps if any of what she *claims* is actually true, she might learn not to go to Israel uninvited.
rick says
Look at Greta Thunberg. Physically. This is someone who never misses a meal in her whole life. And she is not going to let politics get in the way. She may put up for one day with what she sees as an “incomplete” meal ( meaning only one dessert) but not two days when she would lead a deportees riot against the “starvation tactics” of Israel. Whether she is removed with the others by plane or ship you can be sure the meal on their way back to Europe will be appropriate for a normal Carnival Cruise dessert buffet. But if no Napoleons are on the menu, of course, there may be a riot.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
She certainly has model parents 👿
John Smith says
She comes from a show business family, her father is an actor and her mother was a singer who represented Sweden in the 2009 Eurovision song contest. Her sister believes she is also a singer, and there are several videos of her on youtube. Seems to me that her parents are trying to push them into the limelight that they themselves craved for.
John Smith says
Greta Thunberg and her cohorts were working hand in hand with the muslim brotherhood and hamas, who they were being paid by, and who had sponsored the whole event. There is video evidence of them throwing their phones over board as soon as the IDF boarded the flotilla, Why? It also emerged that an undercover agent infiltrated Greta Thunberg flotilla and secretly recorded what they were up to.
Westman says
It was a propaganda show built around Thunberg. They weren’t carrying food for Palestinians on the largest boat.
Greta may now be a legal adult yet she is being used and sometimes acts as if a child. She was a student at Stockholm University, yet may have burned a bridge there with demonstrations.
From WIKI: “Thunberg, along with five others, was detained after blocking the entrance to a building at the University of Copenhagen. Less than a week later, she was “carried out” from the library of Stockholm University by Stockholm police after she participated in an encampment inside the library. She characterized the police response as a ‘repression’. Following those incidents, she was labeled ‘antisemite of the week’ by StopAntisemitism.”
She has received several honorary degrees from world universities, unusual for someone only age 22 with no credit for developments in a field.
Frankly, the outcome on climate and environment she wants is beneficial in the long run, yet the method of hurredly forcing it on citizens won’t work. It didn’t take demonstrations to leave the Steam Engine behind. Where is that $8 Billion that was going to build out charging stations across the US?
Replacing fossil fuels is good for Israel because the oil money would no longer be available to support terrorist groups and current oil-rich nations, like Iran would be required to spend less time and money plotting against Israel and more being productive.
tgusa says
Replacing oil could very well start a great big war.
gravenimage says
Flotilla Falsehoods, Or Lie, But Know When to Stop
……………………………………..
Good piece, Mr. Fitzgerald.
tgusa says
She complained that was held in a cell infested with bedbugs but it could have been the crabs she picked up from the other guests along the way.
Rufolino says
I understand Thunberg’s mother is a raving Leftist who prepared her own child for her current role, which is built on publicity and lies. A shameful dynamic. Thunberg’s face speaks volumes.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
I read that it was Greta who forced her mom to reduce her flying, and limit her appearances to Stockholm. Prior to that, she’d perform in a lot of other cities, and make a lot more money
OLD GUY says
Greta crawl back under the rock, please. “I don’t want to offend her”