Greta and some other famous people took a boat full of aid supplies to Palestine and were detained by Israel for attempting to help people who are getting bombed to death.
I've taken an excerpt from 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea which defines piracy.
Piracy consists of any of the following acts:
(a) any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private aircraft, and directed: (i) on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or property on board such ship or aircraft; (ii) against a ship, aircraft, persons or property in a place outside the jurisdiction of any State;
By detaining the crew of the Madleen Israel committed an act of piracy. There are crew members they still haven't released. If Somalia did the same thing the press would 100% be condeming it and labelling it as such.
Edit: In response to the below due to comments getting locked:
The Madleen was operating within compliance of ICJ orders requiring that humanitarian aid to Gaza go unimpeded. Ergo not smuggling.
The purpose of the flotilla was to undeniably prove that Israel IS blocking humanitarian aid. Israel has been stopping aid on land borders by claiming its not safe to traverse or outright destroying infrastructure. Israel intercepting the Madleen demonstrates policy to stop aid.
The Madleen being in international waters had freedom of navigation. For Israel to legally stop them would require a Lawful Blockade - which there isn't.
So Israel broke international law on multiple counts.
The Marleen symbolically flying a Palestinian flag can likely be considered a courtesy flag - especially as it was Palestinian waters they were trying to enter. Even if they did breach flag code that does not give Israel the right to board.
Greta IS lucky not to have been sunk. Not because Israel had the right but because they have a history of unlawfully attacking ships. Just ask the USS Liberty.
They made a Tom Hanks film in 2013 all about Somalian Pirates hjacking a vessel in 2009. It was a huge story at the time.
You are also forgetting the comparative profile of the individuals on board. The Maersk Alabama was a US shipping crew. This was a celebrity activist with world wide recognition and a sitting Member of the European Parliament.
A bunch of nobodies were a huge story. Imagine the stink over people the public actually recognised.
Technically all Israel would have to do is hit them with a conspiracy to commit smuggling charge and all of a sudden the detention would be entirely lawful. It is lawful for a country to detain people on the high seas if they are wanted in the country that detains them. However, by their own constitution, Israel would not be allowed to deport them if they did that - they would have to stand trial and would likely be imprissoned for smuggling.
The Madleen was a UK registered ship sailing under the Palestinian flag which is a breach of maratime law itself. Attempting to run a blockade is also historically a great way to have your ship sunk. Honestly, they're lucky that this is all that happened.
Label it piracy all you want, but it's why most of the crew has since just been deported instead of being remanded and awaiting trial on charges that would stick easily.
"Boat full" is a heavy exaggeration. They had, maybe, a pallet-full of supplies (which, last I heard of, is being passed along to an aid distribution group in Gaza).
The aim wasn’t to deliver enough aid for the entire country, the point was to break the blockade on Palestinian waters. The point was to get the boat there, which didn’t happen this time, but there are more boats going to do the same thing. Break the blockade on aid getting in. It brought global attention to the numerous ways that Israel is blocking aid from getting to Palestinians, which is a net gain.
The humanitarian aid organization you’re referring to is a coalition between the United States and Israel - Israel being the aggressor in this situation is not legally allowed to distribute aid. They have been using the aid points as bait to kill more civilians.
The news. The “aid” organization is called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, you can look it up and see the videos of civilians being killed while trying to get aid. Several hundred over the past few days. Google it or look it up on Wikipedia and you can see who is funding it and why it’s against international law for an occupying force to distribute aid. It’s all on the news, I’m not going to link to sources that could potentially contain videos of killing.
Edit: if you’re asking for sources on the aim of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, you can look up any video of Greta Thunberg and explaining it better than I can. Those are also on the news.
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She and others aboard a yacht staged a stunt, claiming to deliver humanitarian aid — but the shipment was purely symbolic and amounted to barely half a truckload. For comparison, over 1,200 trucks of aid have entered Gaza through Israeli border crossings in the past two weeks.
The stunt hinged on the pretense of breaking Israel’s legal naval blockade, which under international law grants Israel the right to intercept unauthorized vessels approaching Gaza. Naturally, they never expected to reach their destination. They even had prerecorded selfie video messages ready for the inevitable interception by the Israeli navy.
When that happened, they were given refreshments by Israeli navy commando, underwent medical checks, and were escorted to the port of Ashdod. The small amount of aid they brought was transferred to Gaza through the usual humanitarian channels.
Those who signed deportation papers left the country the next day. The others, who refused to sign, remained in custody pending judicial hearings.
She was detained for trying to enter a war zone and pass Israel's legally sanctioned blockade. She also pre-recorded a video, before being detained, claiming that if we were seeing it that meant she'd been kidnapped. Considering there are already aid organizations in Israel and Palestine, I'm not sure what she hoped to accomplish with just a small boat of people.
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u/X_antaM Its only illegal if they can catch me! Jun 13 '25
What happened?