BY the end of the day this past Thursday, Israeli forces had intercepted all the boats that were a part of the Global Sumud Flotilla. The 450 activists, which included Pakistanis, in the flotilla of over 40 boats were headed to the coast of Gaza to break the 18-year-long naval blockade of the occupied Strip.
They were bringing baby formula, humanitarian supplies and medicines to Gaza’s starving people of whom many are children. In a world which has stood by as new tribulations have been visited upon the hapless Palestinians at the hands of Israeli authorities, the flotilla hoped to bring the message that the international community had not forgotten them.
One of the people, who was detained by Israeli authorities, was Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, a vociferous advocate for the people of Gaza. In an interview before joining the flotilla, Greta said that her “mission should not have to exist” because it was the job of governments to follow international law and provide humanitarian aid. The flotilla mission obviously exists because governments have stood by and watched as over 65,000 civilians have been killed by Israeli forces while hundreds of thousands are being starved. Her statement brings into question the value of international law in a world where such suffering is allowed to exist.
Greta Thunberg is set to be deported. It is almost certain that she will continue her activism on behalf of the Palestinian people, forcing governments to accept accountability for their inaction.
Her work is worth recounting because it shows how the tremendous platform that comes with being an international celebrity can be used to push for transformational change in the world. A young white woman who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, Greta has no personal, ethnic or religious connection with the Palestinians. However, in empathising with their suffering she shows that humanity still exists and that a massive platform can be used to guide young people to the cause of truth and justice opening their eyes to Palestinian suffering.
Another young woman who also commands celebrity status on a mega scale is the youngest Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
However, unlike Greta, her engagement with Gaza has been perfunctory. Yousafzai spent last year producing an Off-Broadway show with former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who has not only failed to call what has been taking place in Gaza a genocide but has also been a supporter of Zionism.
When young American college students took to protesting against Israel’s attacks on the hapless civilian population of Gaza, Hillary Clinton suggested they were uneducated and had been fed propaganda. To put it in simple words, there is no confusion about where Hillary Clinton, who has taken millions of dollars from Zionist donors in her political career, stands on Gaza.
Greta has shown that humanity still exists.
Malala and Hillary Clinton’s Off-Broadway project Suffs focused on the women of the American suffrage movement. She told AP that she “still had no idea about the US side of the story”. But she would be aware that South Asian women were fighting British colonialism and laying down their lives against European aggression long before the US-based suffrage movement which celebrates itself as one of the first examples of women’s political activism in the world.
So just as the Israeli government was bombing hospitals in Gaza, with Hillary Clinton refraining from any condemnation of this grotesque action, Malala was eagerly collaborating with the former secretary of state on the show as a producer. Nor were there any suggestions to introduce any changes to it, for instance, the insertion of corrections that would show black and brown women’s pioneering activism against colonialism long before the US suffrage movement. In her interview, Malala noted that the show helped her view “activism from a different lens”.
The words are ironic. As a global celebrity, Malala could not be oblivious to the cataclysm that is being brought down on an innocent civilian population. Activism, indeed, is the answer, but Malala’s choice was not to opt for it. In the months since her debut as a producer, Malala has suddenly discovered the Palestinian cause — only after she faced public criticism.
In Greta and Malala are two models of how power, whether one is a small-scale influencer or an international celebrity, can be used. With all power comes scrutiny and responsibility. Greta Thunberg reminds us that there are causes bigger than oneself than the details of one’s own desires. Sadly, Malala — whose latest book about finding her way will be released next month —illustrates the opposite.
The writer is an attorney teaching constitutional law and political philosophy.
Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2025
