(PatriotWise.com) —Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg found herself in a rising sea of anger last week after posting a pro-Hamas image on social media that featured a well-known anti-Semitic trope, the New York Post reported.
Thunberg posted a photo featuring her and three others holding pro-Gaza messages on poster board, sitting beside a blue stuffed octopus, a symbol frequently used in anti-Semitic propaganda as it is based on a Nazi-era cartoon showing a blue octopus with a Jewish Star of David wrapping its tentacles around the world.
Faced with blowback, Thunberg later deleted the post, replacing it with the same picture cropped to omit the octopus.
In a post on X, Thunberg claimed ignorance, saying that after posting the picture, it came to her “knowledge” that the stuffed octopus “can be interpreted as a symbol” of anti-Semitism.
Thunberg claimed that she was not aware of this and insisted that the stuffed octopus “is a tool often used by autistic people as a way to communicate feelings.”
She said she deleted the post because she is “against any type of discrimination” and condemns anti-Semitism “in all forms and shapes.”
However, even leaving aside the blue octopus, Arye Sharuz Shalicar, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces, was not amused by Thunberg’s “I Stand With Gaza” sign.
Shalicar told Politico that anyone identifying with Greta Thunberg from here on out is, “in my view,” a “terror supporter.”
He said Thunberg is “showing solidarity with Gaza while not saying a word about the massacres of Israelis,” which shows that the climate activist is willing to sweep under the rug the terrorism of Hamas and Islamic Jihad as if it does not exist.
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