Climate activist-turned Gaza protester Greta Thunberg has developed a close friendship with a young photographer who has been accompanying her to recent demonstrations.

Chris Kebbon, a 22-year-old with long hair, warmly greeted Greta with a hug when she returned to Stockholm Airport after her arrest and deportation by Israeli authorities.

For the past 18 months, the photographer and videographer, Chris Kebbon, has been by Greta’s side, even joining her in activities like swimming in the sea off Catania, Sicily, before her ill-fated ‘Freedom Flotilla’ expedition to Gaza.

Chris, who, like Greta herself, lives in a leafy middle-class suburb of Stockholm, is a talented surfer, who says online that he has lived in Syria, Lebanon and Morocco with his family.

His Titanic-style photo of Greta, draped in the Palestinian flag on the prow of the Barcarole, renamed Madleen for the trip, which was intercepted by the Israeli Navy in international waters, has become the symbol of her ill-fated trip.

Along with 11 others, she was arrested and despite her much-mocked claims to have been ‘kidnapped’, she was detained by the Israeli authorities and put on an El Al flight to Paris, despite her ‘no fly’ policy because of the damage to the environment.

The 22-year-old looked dishevelled and tired as she sat at the back of the El Al jet from Ben Gurion to Paris, with a picture showing her covering her head with the hood of her anorak.

In a separate clip shared on social media, the pilot can be heard praising the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).

Climate activist-turned Gaza protestor Greta Thunberg has struck up a close friendship with the long-haired photographer Chris Kebbon. Pictured together swimming on May 31 in the sea in Catania, Sicily, shortly before she set sail on her ‘Freedom Flotilla’ mission to Gaza

The photographer and videographer has been at Greta’s side for much of the last 18 months

Chris Kebbon, 22, rushed forward to give Greta a lingering hug when she arrived bedraggled at Stockholm Airport on Tuesday after being arrested and deported by the Israeli authorities

‘We want to thank our security forces and the IDF for protecting our homeland and wish for the swift return of all hostages,’ he says, to applause and cheers from other passengers.

When Greta finally arrived back in Stockholm, Chris, dressed in a green Palestinian Keffiyeh on his shoulders, sprang forward to embrace her in a long hug as soon as she came into sight in the arrivals hall or Arlanda Airport.

After a few exchanged words, he ushered her towards the waiting media and acted as an impromptu security guard, keeping over-enthusiastic supporters back.

Kebbon was Greta’s co-defendant at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in February 2024 where the pair were cleared of a public order offence after protesting outside a London hotel where the Energy Intelligence Forum was hosting oil and gas industry leaders.

He describes himself as a photographer for social and climate justice movements. He remained with Greta in Sicily until she set sail and took dozens of photographs of her, including those in which she is seen on the prow of the Barcarole.

Other snaps show her donning a lifejacket, carrying out an emergency evacuation and joking around inside the boat. He wrote on Instagram that they were ‘last calm moments together before departure filled with love, care and silly moments.’

Chris Kebbon told Swedish newspaper Vi after the pair were first arrested in London that his worried parents didn’t sleep back home in the Stockholm suburb of Liljeholmen when they heard nothing from him.

He, on the other hand, thought that having seen the news that Greta had been arrested, they should have put two and two together and realised the same fate had befallen him.

Chris, who, like Greta herself, lives in a leafy middle-class suburb of Stockholm, is a talented surfer, who says online that he has lived in Syria , Lebanon and Morocco with his family

Kebbon was Greta’s co-defendant at Westminster Magistrates’ Court in February 2024 where the pair were cleared of a public order offence after protesting outside a London hotel where the Energy Intelligence Forum was hosting oil and gas industry leaders

He describes himself as a photographer for social and climate justice movements

Greta Thunberg enjoys a moment of refreshment and fun in the waters of San Giovanni Li Cuti harbor, in Catania, with Chris

He confided that before the pair left, his father had told him to do whatever he wanted ‘as long as you don’t get arrested.’

Yesterday, Chris’s mother Sara politely refused to answer questions about her son and Greta Thunberg when MailOnline called at the family’s large imposing detached house, where his father Erik, 54, is registered as boss of a web production company.

Chris, who attended the prestigious Lycée Français St-Louis in Stockholm, which unusually in Sweden, charges a nominal annual tuition fee of around £1,200, focussed on film and photography, according to his online CV.

Greta’s one-girl protests and Friday school strikes outside the Swedish Parliament grew into the Fridays For Future movement, which has been replicated in many other countries. 

Chris Kebbon has been a long-term member of the group and regularly demonstrates with others in the Mynttorget, a public square nearby.

When Greta and the others were arrested by the Israelis on Monday, he staged a spontaneous demonstration there with other supporters.

Chris stayed with Greta in Sicily until she set sail and took dozens of photographs of her, including this one in which she is seen on the prow of the Barcarole

The climate campaigner-turned-Palestine freedom fighter, safe in an orange life jacket and a green frog-shaped sun hat, gazing at the Israeli sandwich with a hungry smile

His Instagram posts give the air of an activist just as committed as his friend Greta, and whose rhetoric seemed to be advocating more than mere peaceful protests.

He wrote of the Mayfair action: ‘A few months ago, we were hundreds of people who gathered in London to protest, disturb and block fossil fuel conferences.

‘Normal demonstrations are not enough to get the people in power to act anymore. If we don’t physically fight against these corporations they will exploit everything they can, and squeeze the last drop of profit from the people and the planet.

‘Many of us were then arrested because we were stopping these oily assholes from entering their greenwashing conferences.’