Date: 2025-10-05 Page is: DBtxt003.php txt00028936
THE TRUMP AGENDA
ISRAEL ... TRUMP ... AND PRO-SEMITISM
Israel Detains, Chokes, and Beats Up Amazon Union Leader Chris Small
Meanwhile, there’s not a peep from mainstream media in the U.S.
ISRAEL ... TRUMP ... AND PRO-SEMITISM
Israel Detains, Chokes, and Beats Up Amazon Union Leader Chris Small
Meanwhile, there’s not a peep from mainstream media in the U.S.
Chris Smalls, then president of Amazon Labor Union in the U.S., takes part in a pro-Palestine march in London on June 8, 2024. Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
Original article: https://newrepublic.com/post/198550/israel-detains-beats-amazon-union-leader-chris-smalls-flotilla-gaza
Meanwhile, there’s not a peep from mainstream media in the U.S.
Written by Malcolm Ferguson
July 29, 2025 / 10:41 a.m. ET
On Saturday night, the Israeli Defense Forces surrounded, beat, and choked American labor leader Chris Smalls as they unlawfully boarded the Handala, the most recent aid ship trying to reach Gaza as part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. Smalls was the only Black person on the flotilla and was punished much more severely than any of the other 20 members detained.
“When he reached the Israeli prison, U.S. human rights defender Chris Smalls was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,” the Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced Tuesday morning. “They choked him and kicked him in the legs, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back. 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.”
“Pretty hard to believe that the particularly heinous and brutal treatment Christian Smalls was subjected to by Israeli authorities was not a function of racism given it was not inflicted on other Handala detainees,” University of New Brunswick professor Nathan Kalman-Lamb wrote on Bluesky. “And the US media dgaf.”
Smalls entered the public eye in 2022 after successfully founding a labor union at a Staten Island Amazon factory, garnering national praise and even a White House invitation from President Biden. Now he remains beaten and battered in IDF custody.
The IDF targeting the one Black man on the aid ship is sadly unsurprising, as is the lack of uproar from U.S. politicians and large media outlets. Yet another U.S. citizen assaulted and detained by the IDF, yet not a peep from either side of the aisle because Smalls is a Black American leftist who was standing up to Israel’s campaign of mass starvation and trying to deliver baby food and flour to suffering Palestinians in Gaza.
“I’m thinking of Chris Smalls. And about how, because he’s Black, no Greta Thunberg, no celebrity, no darling of the liberal class, he might not make it out alive,” author Camonghne Felix wrote on X. “Blackness, when vulnerable and on its knees, is a white supremacist fantasy.”
While smaller unions have spoken up to condemn Smalls’s arrest, Teamsters—which worked with Smalls on the Amazon Labor Union—has yet to make a statement on his violent detainment, failing spectacularly to meet the moment.*
While Smalls and other flotilla members remain in IDF custody, the coalition plans to send another aid ship very soon, yet another direct challenge to the Israeli government.
“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,” said Huwaida Arraf, a Palestinian American attorney and Handala member who was released from IDF custody due to her Israeli citizenship. “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.”
“And our governments not only have not been doing anything about it … the U.S. government did not make contact with any of the seven American citizens on board, but the [others], like France, Spain, Italy, contacted their citizens on board and told them that they are ready to provide consular services when Israel kidnaps us, which we found to be completely obnoxious,” she added. “They were legitimizing Israeli piracy on the high seas. And that is unacceptable to us. And that is the kind of impunity that our governments, all governments, really, have been allowing Israel to just violate international law.”
*This piece has been updated to correct a description of Teamsters.
Peter Burgess COMMENTARY
This piece of news is very disturbing ... but fits into a pattern.
This pattern is unacceptable to me ... but seems to be becoing more the norm for Israel and the United States.
I have spoken out about the horror of the holocasut ... embraced the concept of 'never again!'.
On October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorists waged the deadliest attack on Jews since the Holocaust — slaughtering more than 1,200 Israelis and taking 240 civilians hostage.It is totally justified for the Hamas killings and hostage taking of October 7th 2023 to be avenged.
But what has been happeneing for the past few months goes well neyond what was justified, and in my view, should be the stopped by any and every means. The death that has been caused by Isreal since October 7th has been reported to be something like 60,000 with more than half women and chilred. This is genocide.
And now the lack of food in Gaza because of choices made by the Israel Defense Fooce (ODF) and Israeli leadership os causing starvation and death. The crisis is escallating and leadership in Israel has failed ... and to a considerable extent the Trump administration is complicit.
I am furious ... but cannot do much about it. I will 'speak out' but the key actors are not listening and seem intent on with their obnoxious operations no matter what!
Peter Burgess