{"id":401610,"date":"2025-09-06T03:19:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T03:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401610\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T03:19:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T03:19:11","slug":"standing-up-for-palestinians-why-greta-thunberg-wears-a-bohemian-fc-shirt-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/401610\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Standing up for Palestinians\u2019: why Greta Thunberg wears a Bohemian FC shirt | Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"

The humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza is a serious mission with an incongruous detail: Greta Thunberg<\/a> sporting a jersey of the Dublin football club Bohemians.<\/p>\n

The Swedish activist wore the pale blue shirt during an earlier flotilla in June and again this week as vessels prepared to leave Barcelona.<\/p>\n

However, the garment does not necessarily signify interest in football or support for the club, currently second in the League of Ireland<\/a> Premier Division. It is a limited-edition jersey intended to rally funds and solidarity for Gaza.<\/p>\n

Bohemians<\/a>, a north Dublin side better known as Bohs, collaborated with the Dublin rock group Fontaines DC<\/a> to make the jersey. It mixes Irish and Palestinian motifs and has raised more than \u20ac200,000 (\u00a3173,000) for the UK-based charity Medical Aid for Palestinians.<\/p>\n

A veteran Irish activist, Caoimhe Butterly<\/a>, gave the shirt to Thunberg on the flotilla that sailed in June. Israeli forces intercepted the vessels<\/a> before they could deliver aid to the besieged Palestinian territory, where nearly 65,000 people have died and famine is spreading.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Irish activist Caoimhe Butterly with Greta Thunberg, who is wearing a Bohemians shirts, on a flotilla to Gaza. Photograph: Caoimhe Butterly<\/p>\n

Thunberg wore the shirt again in interviews before the latest flotilla<\/a> departed on Monday, after delays caused by bad weather. After a stopover in Tunis, it is to resume its journey and try to circumvent the Israeli blockade.<\/p>\n

\u201cStanding up for Palestinians in the face of Israel\u2019s genocide is of great importance to so many Bohemians<\/a> members and supporters, so we are grateful to see the club represented in this small way by Greta wearing our jersey as she travels on the flotilla,\u201d Bohemians said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe commend Greta, and all those travelling on the latest flotilla, for their courage in standing up for the rights and dignity of Palestinians in the face of Israel\u2019s unimaginable heights of brutality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Israel<\/a> rejects accusations of genocide and says its war in Gaza<\/a> is an attempt to free hostages and crush Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023, killing about 1,200 people and abducting 250 others. This week, the world\u2019s leading genocide scholars\u2019 association issued a resolution<\/a> saying Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza meet the legal definition of the crime. The UN secretary general, Ant\u00f3nio Guterres<\/a>, has said the Gaza famine is a \u201cman-made disaster\u201d.<\/p>\n

Thunberg\u2019s wearing of the jersey has delighted Irish activists and will probably bolster Israeli perceptions that Ireland \u2013 its government, artists and at least one football club \u2013 are hostile to Israel.<\/p>\n

Bohemians is a fan-owned club<\/a> that has acquired a reputation for social advocacy by championing marginalised groups in Ireland<\/a> as well as Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank. Last year, it hosted a friendly with the Palestine national women\u2019s team at Dalymount Park.<\/p>\n

Fontaines DC, like the Irish rap trio Kneecap<\/a>, have drawn controversy by using chants and banners to denounce Israel during concerts. The band made a limited-edition shirt with Bohemians to raise funds for a West Bank sports project in 2023 and launched the second shirt this summer.<\/p>\n

An embroidered hem tag features a Palestinian flag and the phrase Saoirse don Phalaist\u00edn, which is Irish for \u201cFree Palestine\u201d. The words \u201cI thought it was love\u201d \u2013 a lyric from one of the group\u2019s songs \u2013 is printed around the neck.<\/p>\n

The club also recently released a shirt honouring Suleiman al-Obeid, a footballer known as the \u201cPalestinian Pel\u00e9\u201d who was killed while seeking food aid<\/a>. Profits will go to his family.<\/p>\n

Israel closed its embassy<\/a> in Dublin in December 2023, alleging that Ireland pursued \u201cextreme anti-Israeli policies\u201d. Pro-Israelis coined the term \u201cPaddystine\u201d to disparage Ireland, prompting Irish activists to embrace the term Paddystinian<\/a> as a badge of honour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The humanitarian aid flotilla to Gaza is a serious mission with an incongruous detail: Greta Thunberg sporting a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401611,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-401610","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-news","9":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115155197267230211","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}