Greta Thunberg's latest pro-Palestinian 'freedom flotilla' to Gaza has been plunged into controversy after a senior organiser was accused of sexual misconduct with at least three volunteers while at sea, according to campaign groups involved in the mission. The claims centre on Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila, a key figure in the Global Sumud Flotilla, which left Barcelona on 12 April with hundreds of participants on board.
The news came after months of simmering tensions inside the flotilla coalition, where Greta Thunberg has become the most recognisable face of a sprawling, loosely organised protest fleet attempting to reach the besieged Gaza Strip. In June, she first sailed on the 12-person vessel Madleen alongside Ávila, before joining larger missions later in the year. Those earlier voyages ended with the boats intercepted by the Israeli navy, activists detained and deported, and a wave of celebratory images shared online by participants portraying the trips as both political and communal adventures.
The latest allegations surfaced from Palestinian group Heart of Falastin, which claimed in a social media post that 'a senior leader within the flotilla — a member of the steering committee, the highest governing body of the organisation — engaged in sexual relations with multiple activists while on the boat heading to Gaza. Not one person. Not two. Three different individuals.'
The group framed the alleged behaviour as an abuse of power, arguing that 'to do it on the boat, while heading to a nation undergoing genocide, with volunteers who are under your authority... is a clear violation of ethics and power.' They did not publish names, but a Brazilian collective soon did.
A self-described left-wing critics' group, Anti Esquerda Club, publicly identified the man as 39-year-old Brazilian activist Thiago Ávila. In an expletive-laden post on X, the group accused him of turning a humanitarian trip into a sexual escapade and noted that he was among those detained when the Israeli navy intercepted an earlier flotilla.
Num barco levando ajuda humanitária e levantando bandeiras das mais nobres causas da nossa atualidade, um brasileiro chega de pica ereta e a única coisa q consegue fazer é transar e ser preso. Mas me desculpem, o casamento dele é aberto.E é essa ex querda q vai fzr a revolution
Ávila has travelled repeatedly with the missions, leaving behind his wife and two-year-old daughter in Brazil to join four separate voyages since June, including two attempts to reach Gaza and a trip to Cuba. Photographs from the Madleen voyage showed him in relaxed, affectionate poses with Greta Thunberg, arms around each other and apparently at ease as they sailed towards the eastern Mediterranean.
By September, Ávila had become a coordinator of the larger Global Sumud Flotilla, a convoy that expanded to about 40 boats and 500 activists. That trip was already marked by internal rows. According to Italian newspaperIl Manifesto, Thunberg resigned from the steering committee mid-voyage, frustrated that senior figures were obsessed with 'internal affairs' rather than the situation in Gaza. She left the main boat altogether, dragging her suitcase along a Tunisian dock to board another vessel.
The mood on board was far from uniformly solemn. One ship's radio was hacked to blast ABBA songs at full volume, in what participants interpreted as a pointed jibe at the Swedish climate activist.
Thiago Ávila flatly rejects the sexual misconduct claims, describing them as politically motivated. Speaking to theNew York Postvia WhatsApp while sailing off the coast of Spain on the latest mission, he said: 'These allegations are obviously not true.' He insisted that the flotilla's own ethics panel had already handled the matter.
Source: International Business Times UK
