Climate activist Greta Thunberg has replied to President Donald Trump after he suggested the Swedish campaigner should attend ‘anger management class’.
The 22-year-old was expelled from Israel to France today (June 10), where she will subsequently be transported to Sweden, after alleging to have been ‘kidnapped’ by Israeli forces on ‘international waters’ while traveling to deliver aid to Palestinians in the early hours of yesterday morning (local time).
A pre-recorded video was shared on social media of Thunberg asserting that she and a group of 11 other activists had been intercepted on the water; however, Israel’s Foreign Ministry characterized their journey as ‘a media provocation whose sole purpose was to gain publicity’.
She can be heard stating: “If you see this video we have been intercepted and kidnapped in international waters by the Israeli occupational forces – or forces that support Israel.”
After the incident, Donald Trump was questioned about his opinion on the matter. “She’s a strange a person,” the POTUS commented. “She’s a young, angry person. I don’t know if it’s real anger; it’s hard to believe actually.”
“I saw what happened,” Trump continued. “She’s certainly different. Anger management. I think she has got to go to anger management class. That’s my primary recommendation for her.”
He also rejected her kidnapping allegations, stating: “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg.”
After the climate campaigner’s aircraft landed in France, she was questioned about her reaction to the 78-year-old’s remarks.
“Well, I think the world needs a lot of more young angry women to be honest, especially with everything going on right now – that’s the thing we need the most,” she responded.
Thunberg was subsequently asked by journalists if she could confirm whether she signed documents to acknowledge that she illegally entered the country.
She answered: “I did not recognize that I entered the country illegally I made it very clear in my testimony that we were kidnapped on international waters and brought there against our own will in into Israel.”
Thunberg later explained the mission she and the rest of the crew aboard the Freedom Flotilla Coalition’s vessel had undertaken – ‘to break the siege and open up a humanitarian corridor’ to the Gaza Strip.
“Right now [it is] more important than ever because of the siege and because of the the systematic starvation of over two million people, and the and the full-blown live stream genocide,” she stated.
“This was a mission of attempting to once again bring aid to Gaza which is desperately needed and but also to to send solidarity and say that we see you, we see what is happening and we cannot accept just see witnessing all this and doing nothing – that can never be an option.”
Israel continues to condemn and strongly reject any allegations of genocide.