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Keir Starmer must obey his “legal duty to act to prevent a genocide”, Greta Thunberg has told the Guardian while travelling aboard an aid flotilla heading for Gaza.
The Swedish activist said there was a “huge absence of those whose legal responsibility it is to step up” under international law, and called out the UK prime minister before a potential meeting this week with Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog.
In a message to Starmer, who has been urged by his own MPs not to meet the Israeli head of state on Wednesday, Thunberg said: “The words we will use to describe people who are standing on the wrong side of history, supporting or committing war crimes, those words do not exist yet, those slurs do not exist yet, but we will be using them towards people like [Starmer].”
She said people around the world were “waking up” to what is happening to the Palestinian people and refusing to “watch a livestream genocide” take place.
“We have seen civilians all over the world stepping up but there is a huge absence of those whose legal responsibility it is to step up,” she said. “These governments, these people in power, have a legal duty to act to prevent a genocide and to not support an apartheid regime.”
No 10 has refused to confirm whether the prime minister intends to meet Herzog, who was highlighted by international court of justice judges in a case after he blamed the “entire nation” of Palestine for the attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, when Hamas-led militants killed about 1,200 people and took 251 hostages. Downing Street has been contacted for a response.
Thunberg is joined by hundreds of activists making up the Global Sumud Flotilla on a legal aid mission to Gaza, where civilians were facing “starvation, pure and simple”, the UN warned last month.
It is the second aid mission she has joined, after she was abducted from international waters alongside the rest of the 12-strong crew of the Madleen by Israeli authorities in June, about a day before they were due to reach Gaza.
The flotilla, part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which has been sending aid boats to the territory since 2008, aims to deliver items such as food packages, baby formula and medical supplies, as well as to draw public attention to Gaza, where at least 63,633 Palestinians have been killed by Israel since the start of the war.
Their safety is not guaranteed as at least 10 activists have been killed and many more injured on previous missions.
Yasemin Acar, a German activist who was aboard the Madleen with Thunberg and is part of the current mission, said: “Many people around the world may say that this is a suicide mission and we are going to the belly of the beast, which is true. We are seeing what they’re doing to Palestinians.
“But the question should be, why should we fear for our life while we are carrying nothing but humanitarian aid to a population that is being starved, a manmade starvation supported by so many governments and states around the world?”
Thunberg agreed there was a possibility they might be killed, saying Israel had been empowered to act illegally by the lack of repercussions from the international community.
She said: “If we would base our logic on international law and common sense, and even the most basic humanitarian values, then there is absolutely no reason for Israel to attack us. But again, we have seen that Israel sees themselves as an exemption from international law, and the world to a large extent allows them to act however they want without any major consequences.”
Thiago Ávila, a Brazilian activist who was also aboard the Madleen and is part of the current flotilla, said the missions were not getting safer but that the eyes of the international community were what was keeping them from being killed. “The reason why we ask people to share the mission [on social media], it’s because this brings us visibility, not because Israel does not want to kill us – because they want to do with us the same thing that they do to Palestinians – but because they cannot afford to pay the political cost of that,” he said.
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“We right now see that the world is paying attention to this mission because we know the sense of urgency that they are facing in Gaza, but also the world is sick of seeing children being starved to death, sick of seeing hospitals being bombed, shelters being bombed, schools being bombed, homes being bombed.”
Thunberg, who in 2019 became the youngest Time Person of the Year and has been nominated five times for the Nobel Peace prize for her climate activism, said: “I think it’s been very clear in the words and actions of people all over the world that there is worldwide support for this [movement].
“We know that the world does not stand with war criminals. And we know that by every day when we see more footage coming out of Gaza, we see the incredibly brave journalists who are risking their lives to report the atrocities happening. People are waking up.”
Numerous accusations of war crimes have been made against Israel, such as the starvation and wilful killing of civilians, including aid workers and medics. In addition, at least 248 journalists have been killed in Gaza in the last 22 months.
Thunberg said some people had not known what was happening in Gaza previously but that “we no longer have the privilege to say that we weren’t aware because we are seeing this coming out of Gaza every single day of children being starved, parents looking for missed body parts of their children under the rubble”.
“Anyone who has any sense of humanity and common sense can see that there is absolutely, absolutely no justification for any of this, no matter what absurdly fabricated arguments Israel is using,” she said.
“But as they are escalating the genocide, we are also escalating the resistance. We are not able to just sit and watch a livestream genocide take place.”
Israel does not accept accusations of genocide and says its deadly actions against civilians in Gaza are an attempt to destroy Hamas and rescue Israeli hostages.
