Greta Thunberg and three other activists hold protest signs into the camera on Instagram. A completely normal Friday for them in times of looming climate catastrophe. At least that’s how it appears. But this time something is different. Although one of the signs says “Climate Justice Now!” – Climate justice now. But next to it is a Palestinian flag and a fist painted in black, green and red. And the other signs say “Free Palestine,” “Stand with Gaza,” and “This Jew stands with Palestine.”
At first glance, this seems like a show of solidarity with the suffering population in the Gaza Strip. But Thunberg hasn’t said a word about Hamas’ terrorist attacks since October 8th. And at the same time she shared a call for a general strike on Instagram, which spoke of the “repressive state terror of many Western countries” that one would be exposed to if one showed solidarity with Gaza. The call comes from the pro-Palestinian group “Palestine Speaks”. In an earlier Instagram post, she had spread the slogan “Free Palestine from the river to the sea” – in German: “Freedom for Palestine from the river to the sea”. A slogan that questions Israel’s right to exist. Because the river means the Jordan and the sea means the Mediterranean, the eastern and western borders of Israel.
A game with anti-Semitic symbolism?
The outcry on X, formerly Twitter, followed immediately and was huge. “Greta Thunberg is on the wrong side of history this time. Completely lost!” wrote the Green Finance Minister of Baden-Württemberg, Danyal Bayaz. “Greta Thunberg” landed at number one in the X-Trends. Second place: “Octopus”. Because in the picture on X there is a stuffed octopus lying on the knee of one of the other activists. Many users recognized anti-Semitic symbolism in it. The National Socialists already used the octopus as a symbol of the supposed Jewish world conspiracy, which encircles the entire world with its tentacles.
“Anyone who ignores the Hamas terrorist attack has also lost their credibility on other issues,” wrote CDU politician Ruprecht Polenz on X.
Thunberg later deleted the photo and uploaded a picture without an octopus. In the new post she explains that she was not aware of the anti-Semitic symbolism of the octopus. The toy in the picture is used by autistic people to communicate their feelings. She writes: “We condemn anti-Semitism of any form.” However, she left the call from “Palestine Speaks” on Instagram online.
The X account “Fridays for Future international” also shared the strike call. In the past, he has often attracted attention with posts that question Israel’s right to exist. You can also read the slogan “Free Palestine from the River to the Sea” in a post from May 25th. A research of the Jewish general revealed in August that anti-Israel sentiment was dominant in the group running the account.
“Fridays for Future Germany” said in a press release on the day of Thunberg’s posts: “We stand in solidarity with the victims of Hamas’ violence, condemn the terror and hope that all hostages will return safely.” It continues: “We see the suffering of the civilian population and especially the children in Gaza. (…) These are not contradictions. Our hearts are big enough to be able to feel all of this at the same time.” And finally: “Israel’s right to exist is non-negotiable.”