Lindsey Graham Fantasizes About Sinking Gaza Aid Ship Carrying Greta Thunberg

Senior Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (South Carolina) openly fantasized about sinking a civilian ship staffed with activists aiming to deliver humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, where Israel is targeting and killing Palestinians trying to reach food and water.

In a post on X on Sunday, Graham shared an article about the ship bound for Gaza, operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. The article reports that Greta Thunberg is on the ship, with the climate activist vowing to deliver the aid “no matter what odds we are against.”

In a heinous comment, Graham said: “Hope Greta and her friends can swim!”

The post is a clear incitement of violence from the senator — who has a reputation for being a warmonger, especially with regards to the Middle East — against a civilian ship attempting to peacefully break Israel’s humanitarian aid blockade to deliver much-needed supplies to a starving population. In that vein, it is also a clear call for Israel to continue blocking aid to Gaza, which experts have repeatedly said is a war crime.

“This is [what happens] when you sell your soul to Zionism,” said Palestinian journalist Abubaker Abed in a reply to Graham. “What a cowardly and despicable creature you are to wish death upon a girl! One day, all of you will collapse like smelly mosquitoes. You are a cancer to the earth.”

“Strange for a U.S. Senator to wish for what would be a terrorist attack on a civilian aid vessel,” said Dylan Williams, vice president for government affairs for the Center for International Policy.

Graham’s comment is especially disturbing considering that a previous Freedom Flotilla ship with 16 activists on board was indeed bombed last month off of the coast of Malta. The group said that the Israeli military was responsible for the attack. Nobody was hurt, but the ship was severely damaged, and the aid mission failed. Thunberg was supposed to be on that ship, but wasn’t.

Thunberg acknowledged the danger of the mission in a press conference before the activists set sail.

“We are doing this because, no matter what odds we are against, we have to keep trying, because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity,” she said. “Because the moment we stop trying is when we lose our humanity. And, no matter how dangerous this mission is, it’s not even near as dangerous as the silence of the entire world in the face of the livestreamed genocide.”

The ship is staffed by 12 volunteers from several different countries, according to the group, carrying aid like baby formula, basic foods, and sanitary and medical supplies. Along with Thunberg, “Game of Thrones” actor Liam Cunningham and French member of Parliament Rima Hassan are on the ship.

UN experts have called for the safe passage of the ship to deliver “desperately needed” aid.

“Aid is desperately needed for the people of Gaza to forestall annihilation, and this initiative is a symbolic and powerful effort to deliver it. Israel should remember that the world is watching closely and refrain from any act of hostility against the Freedom Flotilla Coalition and its passengers,” experts said in a statement on Monday.

Israel has been allowing a small trickle of aid into Gaza for the past two weeks, after a nearly three-month total aid blockade on the region. However, Israel is still severely obstructing aid delivery by humanitarian groups, blocking the vast majority from reaching Palestinians.

Meanwhile, Israel’s supposed aid operation with the U.S. has led only to more death so far. The operation, carried out by the so-called Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and guarded by U.S. military contractors, has lured dozens of Palestinians to their deaths as Israeli forces open fire on crowds gathering in hopes of obtaining the paltry aid packages. This includes 31 Palestinians killed and over 170 wounded by Israeli forces on Sunday.

Even before it was set up, that operation was boycotted and shunned by every humanitarian group operating in Gaza, who say that the only way to stave off yet more starvation and death in Gaza is for Israel to allow aid into Gaza through established routes. The UN warned on Friday that Gaza is the “hungriest place on earth” and that 100 percent of the population is facing a risk of famine.

The U.S.-Israeli operation “is a deliberate strategy — aimed at masking atrocities, displacing the displaced, bombing the bombarded, burning Palestinians alive and maiming survivors,” said UN Special Rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories Francesca Albanese in a statement Friday. “All camouflaged behind the language of aid, to divert international attention from legal accountability, in Israel’s attempt to dismantle the very principles upon which humanitarian law was built.”