Adam York

Zack Polanski observes that early on the response from the media was positive, but as soon as Greta Thunberg started talking about Palestine, "they either ignore you or are quite vicious" Greta Thunberg, "Yeah. I got into activism because of my basic human values: every human is equal, we should be kind to each other" "Then I grew up and realised that putting those values into practice is seen as radical" "In every children's book, the person who oppresses people is obviously the villain" "How do we grow up up and like, this villain, he has to make compromises - at what age does that happen?" "Whether it's Palestinians being killed or people being killed by carbon emissions, whatever the source of that human suffering, we have to go to the source" "I grew up in a very white privileged background and didn't experience the dehumanisation the Palestinians were experiencing" "It was overnight how the establishment turned against me for saying genocide is bad" "I went from all the big people in power wanting to pose with me for selfies, to, overnight, it was a complete slander campaign because now she's radicalised" "Then I'd be invited to events where they say you can talk about climate but you can't talk about politics" "They would physically remove my keffiyeh (the scarf worn in the middle east and north Africa), or remove my microphone away from me" "It really shows the selective solidarity people have, especially in the west" "When I talk to people in the global south, for them it is so much more clear" "We have reached a point of the dehumanisation of Palestinians, where speaking up for their basic human rights is seen as controversial" My view: Greta Thunberg tells Zack Polanski that the values behind her activism have never changed: every human being is equal, and suffering should be challenged at its source, whether caused by climate change or violence against Palestinians. What changed, she says, was the establishment’s response. Leaders who once queued for selfies turned against her when she spoke about Palestine, portraying her as radicalised for applying the same principles consistently. She describes invitations to discuss climate while being forbidden from discussing politics, alongside attempts to remove her keffiyeh or microphone. For Thunberg, this exposes the selective solidarity of powerful Western institutions: celebrating human rights when convenient, then treating their defence as controversial when Palestinians are involved. Her central question is simple: children recognise oppression as wrong and oppressors as villains. At what age do adults start excusing them as people making necessary compromises, and why does basic humanity suddenly become a radical position?