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“Black and Brown [people] always stood together in struggles from the beginning of time,” said Christian Smalls, explaining his pro-Palestinian activism. The Amazon Labor Union leader spoke to me on July 24, 2025, from the Handala, a ship bound for Gaza bearing medical supplies and baby formula.

“Palestinians, they are right in our communities. They are our brothers and sisters, they are our neighbors, and we love one another … we [are] standing together side by side in this struggle to end this illegal siege that Israel has imposed,” Smalls said. His goal in sailing to Gaza was to highlight Amazon’s cloud computing contracts with Israeli weapons manufacturers, as well as to urge labor unions in the United States to block arms shipments to Israel, as Greek dockworkers recently did.

Unlike many who, after nearly two years of silence, are now speaking up against Israel’s forced famine in Gaza, Smalls has been committed to Palestinian liberation for years. Just after Israel began its latest genocidal chapter in Gaza in October 2023, the labor activist posted a message of solidarity on social media saying, “The people united will never be defeated so yes it’s Free Palestine because we’re not Free until we’re all Free from the river to the Sea!”

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And when college students across the U.S. launched powerful Gaza-solidarity campus protests in 2024, the New Jersey-based Smalls showed up at Columbia University’s campus, giving speeches and supporting students. “I visited many campuses across the world,” he said. “The younger generation is not going to give up.”

Within days of our conversation, Israeli forces boarded the Handala and seven of them assaulted Smalls — the only Black activist on board. According to the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, “They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back … This level of force was not used against other abducted activists.”

While horrific, Smalls’s assault was not surprising. “As a Black man in America, I guess I’m born with a target on my back,” he said. “This is not my first rodeo going up against the status quo.”

Black people in the U.S. and Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank face similar tactics from armed agents of the state. That’s no coincidence. There is a long

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