29/07/2025
Union activist and Amazon Labor Union (ALU) founder Chris Smalls was brutally attacked while in the custody of the Israeli Army. He was detained alongside 20 other activists leading the Handala Freedom Flotilla to the shores of Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid and break Israel’s blockade and starvation of the Palestinian people.
According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), Smalls was “physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals. They choked him and kicked him in the legs [...] This level of force was not used against other abducted activists.”
International pressure and the attention on the civilian-led attempts to break the blockade has forced Israel to quickly release and deport the Handala’s activists, but the violence used against Smalls — the only Black activist on the ship — shows how the racist and Zionist state of Israel treats those who stand up for Palestinian lives and against the genocide. Even as it claims to “pause” its attacks on Gaza to allow aid to enter the strip, the Israeli army continues its assault, killing dozens of people a day and targeting those who come to collect aid. For its part, the Trump administration gives cover to the brutality of the IDF, refusing to comment on Smalls’s detention after calling the aid effort a “selfie flotilla.”
While the U.S. media stays quiet on Smalls’s beating, the California Faculty Association — a union of 29,000 educators in the California State University system — has denounced the attack, calling on other unions and workers to stand up for Smalls and against the genocide.
As Smalls and the remaining activists await deportations from Israel, we demand that they are immediately and safely delivered home and denounce this violent attack on Smalls and all those who fight for an end to the genocide.
Release all political prisoners! Down with the blockade and Israel's genocidal assault on Gaza! Free Palestine!