Climate change activist group founded by Greta Thunberg splits over pro-Hamas messages on social media

On Oct. 20th, Greta Thunberg posted a photo of herself and others on Instagram holding a sign reading ‘Stand with Gaza’.

By Ben Cohen, The Algemeiner

The high-profile climate change activist organization “Fridays for Future” has split with its German and Swiss sections over the increasingly hostile social media posts directed at Israel from the group’s international accounts.

Founded in 2018 by the Swedish environmentalist campaigner Greta Thunberg, “Fridays for Future” organizes weekly strikes on Friday by school students and others to pressure western governments to act on global warming. However, over the last two weeks, Thunberg has encouraged the group to widen its mandate to include protests against Israel’s defensive war against the Hamas terrorist organization in Gaza, much to the chagrin of many of its leading supporters.

On Oct. 20, Thunberg announced that the strike on that Friday was in “solidarity with Palestine and Gaza,” posting a photo on Instagram of herself holding a sign declaring “Stand With Gaza,” while others in the picture brandished placards saying “Free Palestine,” “This Jew Stands With Palestine,” and “Climate Justice Now.” Last Friday, she shared from her personal X/Twitter account an image of a group of Swedish school students displaying banners that linked the struggle against climate change with the pro-Hamas protest movement burgeoning around Europe, including the tags #ClimateStrike, #StandWithGaza and #StandWith Palestine.

Thunberg’s antics proved too much for the German section of “Fridays for Future,” which is led by the vocal climate change activist Luisa Neubauer. Like Thunberg in Sweden, Neubauer has played a significant part in mobilizing school students around environmental activism.

Interviewed by the German news outlet Spiegel following Thunberg’s most recent posts on the Palestinians, Neubauer stated that “Our full solidarity goes out to Jews worldwide, and we strongly condemn the terror of Hamas.”

She added that the German section 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 have condemned western media coverage of the Israel-Gaza conflict as “imperialist brainwashing” and have described Hamas terrorists as “martyrs.”

Earlier this year, an investigation by the German Jewish Judische Allgemeine newspaper revealed that stridently anti-Zionist posts were appearing with greater frequency on accounts associated with “Fridays for Future International.” The paper said the posts — including accusations that Israel practices “apartheid” and the slogan “Yallah intifada!” — were the work of a handful of activists, none of whom had been elected to their positions, and that Thunberg, who is the group’s most potent symbol, had no direct control over the accounts.

Separately, in a statement issued last week, the group’s Swiss section broke with the messaging promoted by its international accounts.

“We denounce the Hamas attack on Israeli civilians,” the statement said. “The Palestinian and Israeli peoples have the right to self-determination, and to live in freedom and peace.”