Eco-warrior turned anti-capitalist pro-Palestine agitator Greta Thunberg has made an awkward PR blunder on Instagram.
While wanting to attack Israel on the way it handles Palestine prisoners, she mistakenly used an image of an Israeli hostage from a propaganda video published by Hamas.
Rather than pointing to the “the suffering of the Palestinian hostages”, she inadvertently highlighted the suffering of the Jewish hostages in the hands of Hamas for more than two years now and are one of the key reasons the war in Gaza is raging on.
Thunberg shared a post, originally made on October 6 by Yasmin Aker, who also took part in the “Sumud” flotilla to Gaza, showing her more than 16 million followers a collage of three pictures of how the Israeli army allegedly is misbehaving.
The Global Sumud Flotilla, sometimes referred to as the Global Freedom Flotilla, was an international civil society-led maritime initiative launched in mid-2025. It said it wanted to break the Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip but was thwarted in an intercept by Israeli naval forces. It is named for ṣumūd, Arabic for “steadfastness” or “resilience”.
Remarkably, one of the three pictures in Thunberg’s post was of hostage Evyatar David. The Israeli was captured by Hamas at the Nova Festival in 2023 and has reportedly since been held in appalling conditions.
The 24-year-old David is seen crouching in what appears to be a Hamas tunnel. His emaciated body shows clear signs of starvation as he writes on a note attached to the wall.
“The suffering of Palestinian prisoners is not a matter of opinion, it’s a fact of systematic cruelty and dehumanisation,” the post stated.
“Humanity cannot be selective. Justice cannot have borders.”
Thunberg did not appear to have mentioned the attack of October 7 by Hamas, where 1,200 civilians were murdered and more than 250 people were abducted, causing the war in the first place.
Ignorance blinded by hate is trending:
Greta Thunberg posted about “Palestinian prisoners” using the image of Israeli hostage Evyatar David – starved, abused, and forced by Palestinian Hamas to dig his own grave. pic.twitter.com/cR3EalgJks
— Israel Foreign Ministry (@IsraelMFA) October 7, 2025
Today, after a widespread backlash online, the post was no longer visible on Thunberg’s social platforms.
Yeela David, the sister of David, was outraged by the post and called the Swedish activist “stupid”. She said it only “proved how people had no idea what is truly happening”.
“You should [do] research before you post things you don’t understand. In the [post] you put a photo of an Israeli Hostage who Hamas starved on purpose . This is Evyatar David,” she said.
“Every minute you are not deleting the post, you are becoming a bigger joke.”
US President Donald Trump had earlier targeted Thunberg.
“She’s just a troublemaker. You mean she’s no longer into the environment? She’s an anger management problem,” he said.
“I think she should see a doctor. If you ever watched her. For a young person she’s so angry, she’s so crazy! No, you can have her. You can have her. She’s just a troublemaker.”
