Israeli Forces Allegedly Detained And Beat Labor Activist Chris Smalls During Attempt To Bring Food To Gaza
The news of Israel’s reported starvation of the people of Gaza is so unpopular that even MAGA-fied congressional leaders like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene are taking a break from their usual deplorable Christian nationalist rhetoric to call what Israel is doing a “genocide” and “humanitarian crisis.”
According to Axios, “Children are starving in Gaza today as a direct result of the Israeli government’s decision four months ago to suspend all aid into the enclave.” The actions of the Israeli government have been met with widespread global outrage, which is likely to be amplified by the news that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) intercepted a ship that was trying to reach and bring food and supplies to Gaza. Not only that, but several IDF soldiers allegedly beat and choked the American labor activist Chris Smalls, who was reportedly the only Black man aboard that ship. Smalls is most known for helping to lead a victory for the Amazon Labor Union in 2022, after he was fired from the company’s Staten Island fulfillment center in 2020, immediately after he led a group of co-workers in a walkout in protest of the company’s failure to keep workers safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.
From The Guardian:
The Handala, which carried food, baby formula, diapers and medicine, was attempting to breach Israel’s blockade of Gaza, as Palestinians there continue to starve in what UN-backed hunger experts have called a “worst-case scenario of famine” that is unfolding.
“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, US human rights defender Chris Smalls was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals. They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition wrote in a statement posted on Instagram on Tuesday morning.
“When his lawyer met with him, Chris was surrounded by six members of Israel’s special police unit. This level of force was not used against other abducted activists. We condemn this violence against Chris and demand accountability for the assault and discriminatory treatment he faced.”
Smalls, the only Black person onboard the boat, was one of 21 members of the group who were detained. Others included 19 civilians, including parliamentarians, medics and engineers, and two journalists. Jacob Berger, a Jewish American actor who shared on Instagram that Smalls was in “great spirits” after his detention – everyone else who was detained, he said, should be released on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is described on its website as a “grassroots people-to-people solidarity movement composed of campaigns and initiatives from different parts of the world, working together to end the illegal Israeli blockade of Gaza.”
During a Monday interview with Democracy Now, Palestinian American attorney Huwaida Arraf said Handala’s attempt to deliver aid to Gaza was not the first effort launched by the FFC. In fact, in June, Israeli forces seized a ship carrying aid for Gaza and detained well-known (and well-hated by the MAGA world) Greta Thunberg, along with other activists. The Guardian noted that in 2010, Israeli commandos killed 10 activists on a ship bound for Gaza called the Mavi Marmara.
“We are calling on others around the world, definitely our countries, to live up to their obligation of enforcing international law, of protecting human rights, but also other institutions that are founded to do the same,” Arraf told Democracy Now. “We should not be waiting for Israel to give permission for food or other humanitarian aid to enter … we need to be breaking, challenging and breaking the blockade.”
Arraf also criticized the U.S. government for “legitimizing Israeli piracy on the high seas,” arguing that America’s blind support for Israel, especially at this time, “is unacceptable” for nations that are trying to bring aid to Gaza.
“And that is the kind of impunity that our governments, all governments, really, have been allowing Israel to just violate international law,” she said.
As for Smalls, days before his detention and alleged beating, he spoke from the ship with the Real News Network about the Handala endeavor and why he decided to get involved.
“As a labor leader…as a tax-paying U.S. citizen whose tax paying dollars is going towards the slaughtering of nearly half a million people in less than two years, I can no longer be complicit,” he said, adding that he was aware of the risks involved in the mission.
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