Climate and political activist Greta Thunberg returned home to Sweden on Tuesday after she was deported from Israel.
Thunberg was deported after Israeli security forces intercepted a boat carrying her and 11 other activists attempting to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza and break the Israeli blockade on the Palestinian territory.
Asked in Stockholm if she was scared when the security forces boarded the Madleen sailboat, Thunberg deflected attention away from herself to the situation in Gaza: “What I’m afraid of is that people are silent during an ongoing genocide”.
“What I feel most is concern for the continued violations of international law and war crimes that Israel is guilty of,” Thunberg told reporters.
She accused Israel of carrying out a “systematic genocide” and “systematic starvation of over two million people” in Gaza.
“We must act, we must demand that our government acts, and we must act ourselves when our complicit governments do not step up,” the 22-year-old said.
Of the 12 people on board the Madleen carrying food and supplies for Gaza, eight were taken into custody after they refused to leave Israel voluntarily.Â
Four others, including Thunberg, were deported.
All of them have been banned from Israel for 100 years, according to the rights group that legally represents some of them.
Several rights groups including Amnesty International have accused Israel of genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza but Israel vehemently rejects the term.
