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Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg Meets Storm of Criticism in Germany Over ‘Antisemitic’ Comments on Gaza Conflict
Dutch climate change activist Erjan Dam attempts to grab a microphone from Greta Thunberg at a climate change rally in Amsterdam. Photo: Reuters/Piroschka van de Wouw
The outspoken Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg has encountered a storm of criticism in Germany over a speech she delivered to a rally in Amsterdam last weekend that sought to insert opposition to Israel’s defensive war in Gaza into the environmentalist movement’s agenda.
Thunberg’s statements on the war are being closely watched in Germany, following the decision last month of the German section of the “Fridays for Future” green movement she launched to suspend ties with its international organizers over a series of anti-Israel statements. Luisa Neubauer, the head of the German section, said that her group would have no interactions with the the global social media accounts of “Fridays for Future” until “we can be sure that a single group can no longer use global Fridays for Future accounts for disinformation and hate.” Recent posts from the account condemned Western media coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict as “imperialist brainwashing” and described the Hamas terrorists who carried out the Oct. 7 pogrom in southern Israel as “martyrs.”
In the interim, Thunberg has doubled down on her statements. With a Palestinian keffiyeh scarf draped around her neck at the rally in Amsterdam on Sunday, she introduced a Palestinian speaker — Sarah Rachdan, a doctoral student — by claiming that “as a climate justice movement, we have to listen to the voices of those who are being oppressed and those who are fighting for freedom and for justice. Otherwise, there can be no climate justice without international solidarity.”
Rachdan has justified the Oct. 7 atrocities in social media posts that praised the “Palestinian resistance.” And in an earlier post last April, she mocked the Holocaust by commenting on a story about Israeli soldiers “gassing” Palestinian demonstrators by asking, “I wonder where we’ve seen that before?”
Rachdan’s speech was received critically by many climate activists frustrated by Thunberg’s insistence on linking Palestinian solidarity with climate change. Erjan Dam — a Dutch activist who attempted to seize the microphone from Thunberg’s hand before being bundled off the stage — told the Suddeutsche Zeitung news outlet that he and others present at the Amsterdam rally had felt “abused” by her actions.
“The climate protection movement should concentrate on its core issue: climate protection,” Dam said. “When Greta Thunberg or other leading activists constantly talk about the Palestine issue, it creates disunity.”
German politicians and Jewish leaders also expressed anger with Thunberg following the scenes in Amsterdam. Ricarda Lang — a German parliamentarian and the co-leader of the left-wing Green Party — said that Thunberg’s comments were “not only depressing, but absolutely indecent.” Thunberg had “brushed aside the question of Israel’s right to exist” and was guilty of “swapping the victim with the perpetrator,” Lang continued.
Martin Huber — the secretary-general of the center-right Christian Social Union (CSU) — went even further, calling Thunberg an “antisemite who supports Hamas and stirs up hatred of Israel.”
In a separate TV interview, Josef Schuster — president of the Central Council of German Jews — said he was reaching the conclusion that Thunberg was motivated by anti-Jewish bigotry.
“There is no doubt that she is very, very naive,” Schuster remarked in the Monday night interview. “Assuming antisemitism is always a serious accusation. But what I am seeing here — I am very close to that on this accusation.”
Schuster urged the German section of “Fridays for Future” to sever all ties with Thunberg, expressing concern that impressionable young activists with little knowledge of the Middle East would be influenced by her statements to adopt anti-Israel positions.
The post Climate Change Activist Greta Thunberg Meets Storm of Criticism in Germany Over ‘Antisemitic’ Comments on Gaza Conflict first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel to Send Delegation to Qatar for Gaza Ceasefire Talks
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem, Sept. 2, 2024. Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg/Pool via REUTERS
Israel has decided to send a delegation to Qatar for talks on a possible Gaza hostage and ceasefire deal, an Israeli official said, reviving hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations to end the almost 21-month war.
Palestinian group Hamas said on Friday it had responded to a US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a “positive spirit,” a few days after US President Donald Trump said Israel had agreed “to the necessary conditions to finalize” a 60-day truce.
The Israeli negotiation delegation will fly to Qatar on Sunday, the Israeli official, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter, told Reuters.
But in a sign of the potential challenges still facing the two sides, a Palestinian official from a militant group allied with Hamas said concerns remained over humanitarian aid, passage through the Rafah crossing in southern Israel to Egypt and clarity over a timetable for Israeli troop withdrawals.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is due to meet Trump in Washington on Monday, has yet to comment on Trump’s announcement, and in their public statements Hamas and Israel remain far apart.
Netanyahu has repeatedly said Hamas must be disarmed, a position the terrorist group, which is thought to be holding 20 living hostages, has so far refused to discuss.
Israeli media said on Friday that Israel had received and was reviewing Hamas’ response to the ceasefire proposal.
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Tucker Carlson Says to Air Interview with President of Iran
Tucker Carlson speaks on July 18, 2024 during the final day of the Republican National Convention at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Photo: Jasper Colt-USA TODAY via Reuters Connect
US conservative talk show host Tucker Carlson said in an online post on Saturday that he had conducted an interview with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, which would air in the next day or two.
Carlson said the interview was conducted remotely through a translator, and would be published as soon as it was edited, which “should be in a day or two.”
Carlson said he had stuck to simple questions in the interview, such as, “What is your goal? Do you seek war with the United States? Do you seek war with Israel?”
“There are all kinds of questions that I didn’t ask the president of Iran, particularly questions to which I knew I could get an not get an honest answer, such as, ‘was your nuclear program totally disabled by the bombing campaign by the US government a week and a half ago?’” he said.
Carlson also said he had made a third request in the past several months to interview Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who will be visiting Washington next week for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Trump said on Friday he would discuss Iran with Netanyahu at the White House on Monday.
Trump said he believed Tehran’s nuclear program had been set back permanently by recent US strikes that followed Israel’s attacks on the country last month, although Iran could restart it at a different location.
Trump also said Iran had not agreed to inspections of its nuclear program or to give up enriching uranium. He said he would not allow Tehran to resume its nuclear program, adding that Iran did want to meet with him.
Pezeshkian said last month Iran does not intend to develop nuclear weapons but will pursue its right to nuclear energy and research.
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Hostage Families Reject Partial Gaza Seal, Demand Release of All Hostages
Demonstrators hold signs and pictures of hostages, as relatives and supporters of Israeli hostages kidnapped during the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas protest demanding the release of all hostages in Tel Aviv, Israel, Feb. 13, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Itai Ron
i24 News – As Israeli leaders weigh the contours of a possible partial ceasefire deal with Hamas, the families of the 50 hostages still held in Gaza issued an impassioned public statement this weekend, condemning any agreement that would return only some of the abductees.
In a powerful message released Saturday, the Families Forum for the Return of Hostages denounced what they call the “beating system” and “cruel selection process,” which, they say, has left families trapped in unbearable uncertainty for 638 days—not knowing whether to hope for reunion or prepare for mourning.
The group warned that a phased or selective deal—rumored to be under discussion—would deepen their suffering and perpetuate injustice. Among the 50 hostages, 22 are believed to be alive, and 28 are presumed dead.
“Every family deserves answers and closure,” the Forum said. “Whether it is a return to embrace or a grave to mourn over—each is sacred.”
They accused the Israeli government of allowing political considerations to prevent a full agreement that could have brought all hostages—living and fallen—home long ago. “It is forbidden to conform to the dictates of Schindler-style lists,” the statement read, invoking a painful historical parallel.
“All of the abductees could have returned for rehabilitation or burial months ago, had the government chosen to act with courage.”
The call for a comprehensive deal comes just as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares for high-stakes talks in Washington and as indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas are expected to resume in Doha within the next 24 hours, according to regional media reports.
Hamas, for its part, issued a statement Friday confirming its readiness to begin immediate negotiations on the implementation of a ceasefire and hostage release framework.
The Forum emphasized that every day in captivity poses a mortal risk to the living hostages, and for the deceased, a danger of being lost forever. “The horror of selection does not spare any of us,” the statement said. “Enough with the separation and categories that deepen the pain of the families.”
In a planned public address near Begin Gate in Tel Aviv, families are gathering Saturday evening to demand that the Israeli government accept a full-release deal—what they describe as the only “moral and Zionist” path forward.
“We will return. We will avenge,” the Forum concluded. “This is the time to complete the mission.”
As of now, the Israeli government has not formally responded to Hamas’s latest statement.
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