Greta, Gaza and the peril of performative activism
Greta Thunberg won’t watch Hamas footage - because truth risks shattering the narrative she performs.
Greta Thunberg, the climate crusader who demands we “listen to the science,” won’t watch the 47 minutes of Hamas GoPro footage from October 7. She’s happy to call for ceasefires, to chant for Palestine, to repost slogans, and to accuse Israel of genocide — but when asked to look at what Hamas actually did that day, she declines. She “doesn’t do politics.”
But here’s the thing: you can’t call for justice while shielding yourself from truth. That’s simply performative moralism.
Hearing Einat Wilf, a former Israeli Knesset member and brilliant intellectual, last night confirmed for me that anti-Zionism is a campaign not of policy critique, but of identity erasure. Its goal isn’t two states or peace agreements — it’s to sever the Jewish people from history, homeland, and legitimacy. That’s why anti-Zionist protest art now includes a placard of the Star of David — not the Likud logo or the IDF emblem — being thrown into a garbage bin, captioned “Keep the world clean.”
This isn’t protest. It’s a dangerous purification.
And Thunberg’s refusal to witness the truth of October 7 — where Israelis were butchered, raped, and burned alive — is part of this. Because if she did watch, her narrative might shatter. She might confront a reality that resists hashtags: that the victims of October 7 weren’t soldiers, but festival-goers, toddlers, breast-feeding mothers, Holocaust survivors.
To watch is to break the paralysis of pre-judgment. And that, in the world of moral performance, is an unbearable risk.
It’s easier to chant for Gaza than it is to watch Hamas drag a naked, bleeding woman by the hair through the streets. Easier to parrot slogans than to reckon with their implications.
When Greta covers her eyes, she’s not protecting herself — she’s protecting a lie.
A movement that claims moral clarity but refuses factual clarity is not progressive. It is propaganda. And when the Star of David is tossed into the bin while the truth is tossed aside, we should be clear-eyed enough to see what this really is.
You cannot demand the world “wake up” while choosing to sleep through atrocities you don’t want to see.
Truth is not optional.
Especially not when people are dying because of the lies.
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