Local weather activist-turned Gaza protestor Greta Thunberg has struck up an in depth friendship with a younger photographer who has change into her fixed companion on a few of her current demonstrations.
Lengthy-haired Chris Kebbon, 22, rushed ahead to provide Greta a lingering hug when she arrived bedraggled at Stockholm Airport on Tuesday after being arrested and deported by the Israeli authorities.
The photographer and videographer has been at Greta’s facet for a lot of the final 18 months and was snapped swimming within the sea off Catania, Sicily along with her and others, shortly earlier than she set sail on her disastrous ‘Freedom Flotilla’ mission to Gaza.
Chris, who, like Greta herself, lives in a leafy middle-class suburb of Stockholm, is a gifted surfer, who says on-line that he has lived in Syria, Lebanon and Morocco along with his household.
His Titanic-style picture of Greta, draped within the Palestinian flag on the prow of the Barcarole, renamed Madleen for the journey, which was intercepted by the Israeli Navy in worldwide waters, has change into the image of her ill-fated journey.
Together with 11 others, she was arrested and regardless of her much-mocked claims to have been ‘kidnapped’, she was detained by the Israeli authorities and placed on an El Al flight to Paris, regardless of her ‘no fly’ coverage due to the injury to the surroundings.
The 22-year-old regarded dishevelled and drained as she sat in the back of the El Al jet from Ben Gurion to Paris, with an image displaying her protecting her head with the hood of her anorak.
In a separate clip shared on social media, the pilot may be heard praising the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
Local weather activist-turned Gaza protestor Greta Thunberg has struck up an in depth friendship with the long-haired photographer Chris Kebbon. Pictured collectively swimming on Might 31 within the sea in Catania, Sicily, shortly earlier than she set sail on her ‘Freedom Flotilla’ mission to Gaza
The photographer and videographer has been at Greta’s facet for a lot of the final 18 months
Chris Kebbon, 22, rushed ahead to provide Greta a lingering hug when she arrived bedraggled at Stockholm Airport on Tuesday after being arrested and deported by the Israeli authorities
‘We need to thank our safety forces and the IDF for safeguarding our homeland and need for the swift return of all hostages,’ he says, to applause and cheers from different passengers.
When Greta lastly arrived again in Stockholm, Chris, wearing a inexperienced Palestinian Keffiyeh on his shoulders, sprang ahead to embrace her in an extended hug as quickly as she got here into sight within the arrivals corridor or Arlanda Airport.
After a number of exchanged phrases, he ushered her in the direction of the ready media and acted as an impromptu safety guard, preserving over-enthusiastic supporters again.
Kebbon was Greta’s co-defendant at Westminster Magistrates’ Courtroom in February 2024 the place the pair had been cleared of a public order offence after protesting outdoors a London resort the place the Vitality Intelligence Discussion board was internet hosting oil and fuel trade leaders.
He describes himself as a photographer for social and local weather justice actions. He remained with Greta in Sicily till she set sail and took dozens of images of her, together with these during which she is seen on the prow of the Barcarole.
Different snaps present her donning a lifejacket, finishing up an emergency evacuation and joking round contained in the boat. He wrote on Instagram that they had been ‘final calm moments collectively earlier than departure full of love, care and foolish moments.’
Chris Kebbon advised Swedish newspaper Vi after the pair had been first arrested in London that his fearful dad and mom did not sleep again house within the Stockholm suburb of Liljeholmen once they heard nothing from him.
He, however, thought that having seen the information that Greta had been arrested, they need to have put two and two collectively and realised the identical destiny had befallen him.
Chris, who, like Greta herself, lives in a leafy middle-class suburb of Stockholm, is a gifted surfer, who says on-line that he has lived in Syria , Lebanon and Morocco along with his household
Kebbon was Greta’s co-defendant at Westminster Magistrates’ Courtroom in February 2024 the place the pair had been cleared of a public order offence after protesting outdoors a London resort the place the Vitality Intelligence Discussion board was internet hosting oil and fuel trade leaders
He describes himself as a photographer for social and local weather justice actions
Greta Thunberg enjoys a second of refreshment and enjoyable within the waters of San Giovanni Li Cuti harbor, in Catania, with Chris
He confided that earlier than the pair left, his father had advised him to do no matter he needed ‘so long as you aren’t getting arrested.’
Yesterday, Chris’s mom Sara politely refused to reply questions on her son and Greta Thunberg when MailOnline referred to as on the household’s giant imposing indifferent home, the place his father Erik, 54, is registered as boss of an online manufacturing firm.
Chris, who attended the celebrated Lycée Français St-Louis in Stockholm, which unusually in Sweden, fees a nominal annual tuition payment of round £1,200, focussed on movie and images, in line with his on-line CV.
Greta’s one-girl protests and Friday faculty strikes outdoors the Swedish Parliament grew into the Fridays For Future motion, which has been replicated in lots of different nations.Â
Chris Kebbon has been a long-term member of the group and commonly demonstrates with others within the Mynttorget, a public sq. close by.
When Greta and the others had been arrested by the Israelis on Monday, he staged a spontaneous demonstration there with different supporters.
Chris stayed with Greta in Sicily till she set sail and took dozens of images of her, together with this one during which she is seen on the prow of the Barcarole
The local weather campaigner-turned-Palestine freedom fighter, secure in an orange life jacket and a inexperienced frog-shaped solar hat, gazing on the Israeli sandwich with a hungry smile
His Instagram posts give the air of an activist simply as dedicated as his good friend Greta, and whose rhetoric gave the impression to be advocating greater than mere peaceable protests.
He wrote of the Mayfair motion: ‘A number of months in the past, we had been a whole bunch of people that gathered in London to protest, disturb and block fossil gasoline conferences.
‘Regular demonstrations are usually not sufficient to get the individuals in energy to behave anymore. If we do not bodily battle towards these companies they’ll exploit the whole lot they will, and squeeze the final drop of revenue from the individuals and the planet.
‘Many people had been then arrested as a result of we had been stopping these oily assholes from getting into their greenwashing conferences.’
