Looks like they’ll be needing a larger vessel!
The Freedom Flotilla, spearheaded by Greta Thunberg and departing from Barcelona on Sunday for another mission to Gaza, has been engulfed in controversy. Allegations have surfaced accusing one of its progressive leaders of “sexual misconduct” involving at least three volunteers.
A Palestinian organization, Heart of Falastin, shared on social media that “a key figure on the flotilla’s steering committee, the top decision-making body, engaged in sexual encounters with several activists during the voyage to Gaza. Not just one or two, but three individuals,” they reported earlier this week.
The group criticized the actions, stating, “To engage in such behavior on a vessel bound for a region experiencing severe conflict, involving volunteers under your leadership, is a blatant breach of ethical conduct and authority.”
One Brazilian collective identified the accused as activist Thiego Avila.
“On a ship tasked with delivering humanitarian aid, a Brazilian turns up and does nothing but engage in inappropriate activities and get detained,” Anti Esquerda Club, a group critiquing the left from within, posted on X. They attributed the remarks to Avila, referencing the Israeli Navy’s interception of the flotilla and subsequent detainment of its participants.
Avila, 39, sailed to Gaza in June aboard the 12-person Madleen, where he was pictured in many chummy poses with fellow activist Thunberg — arms around each other’s shoulders and looking gleefully at one another — before they were eventually detained by Israeli forces and deported.
He joined the larger 500-activist Global Sumud Flotilla convoy in September, during which infighting among senior leadership led Thunberg to step down from the steering committee and off the main boat. The activist was then seen dragging her suitcase along a Tunisian dock to transfer to a different ship.
That tumultuous trip also saw her vessel’s radio hacked to pump songs from the Swedish pop group ABBA on full blast in a clear troll at Thunberg.
At the time, Thunberg’s decision to step down stemmed from frustration that leadership was spending too much time bickering about “internal affairs” and was not focusing enough on Gaza, according to Italian newspaper Il Manifesto, which had a correspondent on board.
Thunberg did not respond to questions from The Post about the alleged sexual misconduct, and whether it played a role in her own departure.
Avila, who left his wife and two-year-old daughter at home in Brazil to embark on what is now his fourth sailing trip since June — having gone twice to Gaza and once to Cuba — denied the accusations.
“These allegations are obviously not true,” he told The Post on WhatsApp Thursday while sailing off the coast of Spain.
“The ethics committee talked to all three people mentioned and they confirmed that this is just a smear campaign, that we are comrades and nothing ever happened,” he added, before embarking on a bizarre rant about the Epstein files.
The allegations have added fuel to critics’ fire that the flotilla is nothing more than performative activism, with socialists in it for a good time.
“At a time when Palestinians in Gaza are being starved . . . we would expect mobilization to reflect the respect and seriousness this moment deserves,” slammed the group Palestinian Reveals.
“Instead, we are seeing concerts, a large stage, music and celebratory atmosphere,” it added, referring to the flotilla kickoff party last weekend in Barcelona.
The flotilla aims to raise $3.5 million for the current trip, but its donor list is not public, and critics have said little to none of the money actually makes it to Gaza.
“As one resident living in the tents in Gaza said: ‘It would have been better to donate money to Gaza instead of throwing it into the sea without benefit,’” wrote Palestinian journalist Mohammed AbuSalama.
A spokesperson for the flotilla said an investigation into the sexual misconduct allegations against Avila, which first came to light in November, found no evidence of wrongdoing.
“In the absence of any complainant, witnesses or evidence, there was no basis for the matter to proceed,” the Global Sumud Flotilla press team told The Post.
But the organization hinted this wasn’t the only misconduct allegation it dealt with, even revealing it hired an “ethics committee” made up of trained legal professionals after the 2025 trips to keep everyone in check.
“The ethics committee has conducted investigations of this nature unrelated to the current allegations, and disciplinary action has been taken where evidence has warranted it,” it added.
Avila meanwhile didn’t do much to dispel the image about the flotilla’s party-loving socialists in his Instagram stories this week.
“We’re here with 38 boats. Look over there!” he gloated to his 1.3 million followers on video, laughing. “Yesterday we saw dolphins, now there’s a whale right here, look! That’s beautiful,” he exclaimed, before sharing a snap of the sunset along with Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.
