Greta Thunberg | Tech for Palestine Brussels Conference 2026

Well, in what way are they not connected? I would ask. It is the very same values that are driving my activism for the climate that are driving my activism for other issues like Palestine, social justice in general. I personally became an activist when I was maybe 12, and the first protests I went to were for migrant justice, and then I went to some other protests for all kinds of things because these issues are very much connected. We are fighting against the same system. It is the same system that is exploiting people, that is exploiting nature and the climate. It is a logic that doesn't make any sense where a very fortunate few people are allowed to exploit the vast majority of the world's population and sacrifice people and planet just for them to keep making profit and maximize geopolitical power. And that is the same logic that we are fighting against, whether we are climate activists, anti-fascist activists, or gender equality activists. And if you are a climate justice activist, you should not be able to call yourself a climate activist if you are not also fighting for justice for people today. Even if you are so selfish, so incredibly selfish that you are not moved to action to see, for example, Gaza being turned to rubble, to see parents looking for their children's body parts under rubble, even if that doesn't move you to action, how can you expect a world that is allowing this to happen to stand up for you when you need it? And how do you expect that world to take a few steps back and care about ecology? We know we are heading towards a future full of genocides, ecocide, increased inequality, which is what we are seeing. And if we don't make a stand against this, then we are living in a world that has lost all its sense of humanity. And then why should we care about saving the climate? If we are only caring about saving the future for our rich, white, privileged children but ignore the suffering of the vast majority of people today, if that's not racism, I don't know what is. And that cannot be applied to a climate justice movement. It's just unacceptable. Which is why we have to be morally consistent. And then there is also the fact that we know that ecocide and genocide go hand in hand. Environmental destruction is a way of warfare, a way of oppressing people, which the Palestinians know probably better than anyone. So I don't see how they are not connected.

I think climate activists, and I think most of us in this room in general, are very clear that when it comes to the planet, it is not dying. It is being killed, and it is being killed by people who have names, and we know who these people are. It is the people often running the multinational corporations, it is politicians, people in media. And of course, when we talk about issues like climate, genocide, inequality as too big problems, too big to understand, too big for us to influence, that's their biggest currency because that means that we feel not empowered to do anything. That means that we can't see our role in that, which of course is what they want because then we won't do anything about it. And there are so many things happening at the same time, so many parts of the world where things are just collapsing, rise of fascism, which just makes us feel defeated. And if we instead talk about the problems and the people who are causing them, because we can in most cases name them even though they are hiding behind all kinds of things, that makes it much more tangible for us. And I think it's very important that we do that, that we name the companies, we name the CEOs, we name the systems and the countries who are causing it. I know for example in Sweden, where I come from, we often say that it's too big for us to tackle, we're too small of a country. But when we actually look at Sweden's emissions per capita, we are among the highest in the world when we include all our actual emissions. And we are supplying, we are complicit in the genocide in Palestine financially, politically, materially, and also culturally. So I think that has a lot to do with why people don't see their own role in it, because we aren't talking about it as a concrete thing. But I would also love to ask you, how did you come into this movement?

No, not really. No.

But I think what you're saying, you end up in places you don't expect. When I grew up, honestly, I didn't have a clue of what was happening in Palestine. Of course, I was very shielded from that. To a certain extent, you can hide behind that, but we are at a point now where so clearly you cannot use the excuse 'I did not know' because we know, and we're seeing a genocide being live streamed on our phones as soon as we open our phones. And for me, that was like we have a responsibility, especially since I happen to have a platform which I must use. And during these extremely decisive years that we are living in, whether it is inequalities, fascism, climate crisis, genocides, what we are doing now is going to determine so much of the rest of, to be frank, human history, because everything more or less is at stake. And if you have a platform, especially if you as me happen to belong to one of the demographic groups who are benefiting from today's system, you have a damn responsibility. You are part of these political systems whether you like it or not. You can either choose to take the side of the oppressor, because there's no neutrality in the face of inequality and genocide, or you can actively take a stand. And I have been so incredibly upset with so-called famous people or people who have a platform, also people in the climate movement, who have been too comfortable to say anything. And if you as an activist are being guided by people's perception of you and what is acceptable to say, rather than being morally consistent and applying the values that got you into this activism, then why are you even an activist? Then you're just a political pawn.

I think it was only a couple of years ago. I knew more and more, but I never had enough time to actually understand it. And of course, when the genocide escalated, that's when I found out more and that's when I more vocally took a stand, as many people did, way too few but still. And as you're saying, as everyone here knows, talking about Palestine is often very different from talking about other social justice issues. And I'm far from the only one experiencing this, but it was very much like overnight I was canceled. Which was so fascinating because I kept being invited to events every day when people were like, 'Oh yeah, you can come and talk about things, but don't talk about politics.' What? Don't talk about politics? What do you think activists are doing? How can Palestine be political but climate not be political? What kind of cognitive cartwheel is that?

All the time. But usually when I got invited to those things, I was like, well, it's either that or nothing. You can't pick and choose which human rights to support. And also, I just kept going to these events where I thought, okay, we need to keep bringing this up. And then when I spoke about it, sometimes I would be dragged off stage.

Sometimes I would just be like, hey, I was brought here to talk about climate, but climate cannot be talked about without also talking about justice in general, and there's a genocide, so that's why I'm going to talk about this instead. And I don't know, you just have to let yourself not be silenced, because as I'm sure all of you here in the audience know, we can't say that we support human rights and then not be morally consistent. And when people are talking about, 'Oh well, we should stick to the facts,' what facts? The fact that there is a genocide, even the world's least radical institutions are now saying it's a genocide. Is that not a fact? I don't know. I'm also very autistic, so that might also be a fact.

We have to be adult enough to handle the truth. And that's also when I started the school strike for climate. I was a child, I was incredibly nerdy. And I tried to get active in different movements talking about climate and so on. And I was like, 'Oh, let's do a school strike, let's tell it how it is because we can't pretend that everything is fine.' And then I tried to get people to join, but I was way too socially awkward to do that. And what I was met with was adults who were like, 'No, I've been involved in NGOs for decades and I've studied movements. Being alarmist is never good, you always end up losing people, people lose hope and they just go into apathy. Let's have a picnic, be inspirational, talk about motivating each other.' And I was so angry. I was like, 'You guys have clearly not understood these crises. This is not something that you can like on social media. I'm going to do this whether you like it or not. You are welcome to join, but I'm not going to adapt this message because we have to tell the truth. We have to be adult enough to tell the truth.' Otherwise, people are just living in this false sense of hope where they're not doing anything because they think someone else is taking care of it. And that's how I entered activism. So we have to not adapt our message to whatever is most convenient, but tell the truth. And that's why I'm so glad that you guys are also doing that.

It's incredible. It's incredible.

I mean, of course, why wouldn't I? I don't remember. But as important as it is that we name Israel and directly call them out for their blatant human rights violations, which has been going on for many decades as we know, it's also, I would say, as important to name those who are enabling and fueling the genocide, which is our own governments, our own institutions, our own companies that are supposed to represent us. And I think we are seeing, as we are all doing here, civil societies are trying to act to compensate for the inactions of our governments and institutions who are failing to uphold even basic human rights and failing to act in line with international law. Because according to international law, states have a legal obligation to act even when there's a risk of genocide. That means ending arms transfers, cutting ties, imposing sanctions, which they are embarrassingly failing to do. And unfortunately, as well as when it comes to the climate crisis and so many other crises that we are facing, it falls on us to be the adults in the room and to compensate for their inaction. So it's important to name them too and to make clear where this complicity is happening, whether it's funding, whitewashing, pinkwashing, or just political legitimization of Israel's genocide.

If I'm going to start naming people, we're going to have to be here all day, I'm afraid. But of course, our prime minister Ulf Kristersson. Our vice prime minister Ebba Busch has said Israel is doing the world a favor.

Yeah. Of course, Elbit Systems also operating in Sweden. Spotify, a big company that we should boycott, and things like that. Daniel Ek, who's the founder of that, if we're naming people. But I like even the very top, also Yimokason, of course. I don't know if any of you guys know who these people are, but memorize. But yeah, there are countless. And people see Sweden as a kind of progressive, sustainable country that is fighting for human rights. Well, that picture is at least 50 years outdated. Now, as I said, representatives of our government are saying that Israel is doing the world a favor and they are defending Israel. They are sending weapons to Israel, they're sending money to Israel, and our institutions are still collaborating with Israel. So yeah, Sweden has a lot to do as well.

Thank you.