Greta Thunberg Rules
Her commitment to Palestine in the face of unhinged rancor proves that she’s a real one through and through.
Sometimes I forget that Greta Thunberg is still only 20 years old. You might not remember, because time feels completely meaningless these days, but the Swedish climate activist first became globally famous back in 2018 for staging school walkouts to protest inaction on climate change, and for her address to the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Now, 2018 isn’t that long ago really, but let’s be honest: those five years might as well have been 15. We’ve all lived several lifetimes since then and her presence has been so constant around the escalating climate crisis that she might as well be 55. But she’s not, she’s freaking 20.
In other words, we most likely have many, many years left of Thunberg fighting the good fight in the public eye. That was already a positive thing, but Thunberg has recently illustrated that she's worth her salt in the progressive movement beyond environmental issues. She’s now using her enormous platform to show support for Palestine and essentially wave a huge middle finger at the virulent haters who are telling her to sit down and shut up.
Most of Thunberg’s posts to her millions of followers are about climate demonstrations. That makes sense, the brand is strong. But on October 20, she posted photos to Instagram and Twitter holding a sign that read, “Stand with Gaza.” She captioned the photo: “Today we strike in solidarity with Palestine and Gaza. The world needs to speak up and call for an immediate ceasefire, justice and freedom for Palestinians and all civilians affected.”
As you can imagine, the response to this post was insane. Everyone absolutely flipped the fuck out on social media, in public statements, in the pages of newspapers, and everywhere else people have been flipping out about Thunberg for years. Part of the outrage involved a now-deleted version of the post that included an octopus stuffed animal, which Thunberg, who is autistic, later described as “a tool often used by autistic people as a way to communicate feelings.” Unbeknownst to her, it has also been used as a symbol for antisemitism. Let’s be real, it was never really about the octopus though. Cephalopod or not, Thunberg would have been—and was—loudly and viciously accused of antisemitism. I do not suggest looking at the replies ever, but I really do not suggest looking at the replies to that post. It’s its own circle of hell.
Since that post, Thunberg has continued to support the people of Gaza on social media and on the streets, and people are continuing to lose their minds both virtually and right to her face. At a climate protest in Amsterdam last month, a grown, middle-aged man literally rushed the stage and tried to take Thunberg’s microphone from her hands, saying he "came here for a climate demonstration, not a political view” after the crowd chanted “Palestine will be free.” The line “came here for a climate demonstration, not a political view” is so incongruous it actually makes me feel like the lobes of my brain are scraping past each other. Just fully painful to process. Anyway, that man clearly has a solid grip on reality, good luck to him!
Of course, nothing has been more extreme than the response to Thunberg from Israel itself. The very same day her posts went up, a spokesperson for the Israel Defense Forces told Politico: “Whoever identifies with Greta in any way in the future, in my view, is a terror supporter.” He later retracted those comments, but I don’t really know why because they’re fairly on par with what Israel’s official Twitter account posted:
Days later, the foreign press coordinator for Israel's Education Ministry told Newsweek that the country plans to remove Thunberg’s name from its curriculum in schools, that "her character cannot serve as a model for our students,” and that "It is important to emphasize that [we] are not erasing her contribution to the history of the global environmental movement, but we will provide a factual account of her contributions, alongside those of numerous other activists."
There’s that incongruity again. They are actually editing state-sanctioned educational materials (while simultaneously bombing libraries in Gaza) because she said “free Palestine,” and are treating it as if that’s an entirely normal response and not at all authoritarian. Got it, okay. The education ministry representative also noted Thunberg’s "statements in support of Gaza without condemning Hamas,” which was already a tired, ineffectual sticking point to begin with, but is becoming astonishingly absurd in record time. Thousands of children have been brutally murdered by the Israeli military. The horror, atrocity, and blood on their hands is staggering. All done in service of a lie.
Others have tried to float the bizarre argument that Thunberg’s support for Palestine detracts from her ability to be an effective climate activist, which is really a funny and quite effortful way to dance around what’s really irking them. Single-issue activism clearly isn’t Thunberg’s thing, which makes sense, as it isn’t really anyone’s thing. That’s not how the world works. These issues are connected, and only willfully obtuse people would argue otherwise. Thunberg’s not sticking to climate change because climate change isn’t the only thing that infuriates her about our world. And that’s good, because Thunberg’s anger is her most powerful weapon—and the most powerful weapon of activists everywhere.
Just yesterday in The Guardian, Thunberg and three members of the Fridays for Future climate crisis movement wrote an op-ed further elaborating on their activism for Gaza. The piece, headlined, “We won’t stop speaking out about Gaza’s suffering – there is no climate justice without human rights,” is a full-throated commitment to continued action and support of Palestinians, and a direct pushback on all those who are mischaracterizing that support (emphasis mine):
Contrary to what many have claimed, Fridays for Future has not “been radicalized” or “become political”. We have always been political, because we have always been a movement for justice. Standing in solidarity with Palestinians and all affected civilians has never been in question for us.
Advocating for climate justice fundamentally comes from a place of caring about people and their human rights. That means speaking up when people suffer, are forced to flee their homes or are killed – regardless of the cause. It is the same reason why we have always held strikes in solidarity with marginalized groups – including those in Sápmi, Kurdistan, Ukraine and many other places – and their struggles for justice against imperialism and oppression. Our solidarity with Palestine is no different, and we refuse to let the public focus shift away from the horrifying human suffering that Palestinians are currently facing.
The piece is measured and strategic, but it’s also angry as hell. Here’s how it ends:
Demanding an end to this inexcusable violence is a question of basic humanity, and we call on everyone who can to do so. Silence is complicity. You cannot be neutral in an unfolding genocide.
And that, really, is what it all comes down to.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the anger-despair continuum, and in particular, my own anger-despair continuum in response to the genocide happening before our eyes in Gaza right now. When I was in a particularly dejected place recently, Jack said, “There has never been more support for Palestine than there is right now” and “that is a big deal.” He’s right. That’s something. In my most despairing moments, it’s helpful to remember my own anger and the anger of others like Thunberg—and to remember its propulsive force. It’s very hard to turn despair into action, but anger is different. Anger is already well on its way to putting on some shoes to go fuck shit up.
People have been furious at Thunberg—and her anger—since she appeared in the global spotlight roughly five years ago. She hasn’t once relented. The haters haven’t either, and they certainly never will. But it rules to see her continue to fight for the planet, and for Gaza. In a time when people everywhere are revealing who they really are, Thunberg is revealing herself to be a true comrade in the fight for a better world, both now and in the years to come. For the people of the future, and for the ones who are here with us. And for the ones we’re losing.
The work of progressive activism often means you probably won’t live to see the society you’re trying to build. In fact, much of the work involves tearing the current one down so that others down the road can create something new. Thunberg has a lot of years left, so she might actually have a decent shot at witnessing a bend toward justice. I don’t think she spends a lot of time thinking about that though, or about how she’s fitting into textbooks or government-led curriculums. She’s too busy being angry. She’s too busy fighting.
Wait, Hamas doesn't used sustainably sourced rockets? CONDEMNATION INCOMING.
Beautifully written, couldn’t agree more.