Activist Chris Smalls Beaten and Detained by Israeli Forces During Gaza Aid Mission As U.S. Media Remains Silent

People in the Hip-Hop community may not be familiar with the name Chris Smalls, but he’s pretty famous. He’s the Amazon union activist who once stood in the White House alongside former president Joe Biden. That distinction didn’t help him in Israel. Smalls was reportedly beaten and detained by Israeli forces Saturday (July 26) while attempting to deliver aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza. He and others were aboard the Handala, a ship operated by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition. He was the only Black person on the boat. All others were returned unharmed. How?

According to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, Smalls was the only Black activist aboard the ship when Israeli Defense Force troops intercepted it in international waters. They took the 20 activists into custody. By the way, all of it was documented on social media. It was shocking and harrowing. I thought they were going to be taken and held. Graphic images released by the group show the activists with their hands raised as soldiers boarded the vessel.

On Monday (July 28), the organization revealed Smalls was violently assaulted after his arrest.

“The Freedom Flotilla Coalition confirms that upon arrival in Israeli custody, U.S. human rights defender, Christian Small, was physically assaulted by seven uniformed individuals,” the organization wrote on Instagram. “They choked him and kicked him, leaving visible signs of violence on his neck and back.”

Smalls has been featured in The New York Times, CNN, GQ and other major U.S. media outlets. But, it seems most of them have ignored the incident. Smalls linked with Biden in 2022 after his union victory inspired workers across the country. The Times wrote so eloquently about his fashion sense in the style section, but things have changed just a few years later.

These same legacy outlets have remained quiet about the alleged injustice. The IDF must have journalists on the payroll. Only a few reported on this.

“This totally makes sense,” wrote Nathan Kalman-Lamb, a professor at the University of New Brunswick, on Bluesky. “A notable public figure in the US (Amazon labor organizer Christian Smalls) is illegally arrested by Israel and subjected to severe physical violence while on a hunger strike… and not one US media outlet of any type has decided that is news.”

I smell sarcasm.

Organized labor unions have been quiet as well, by and large.

The California Faculty Association isn’t one of them. It represents 29,000 workers. “We further call for an immediate end to the engineered famine and deliberate starving of the people in Gaza, labor complicity with genocide, and all US military aid to Israel,” the union said.

The Teamsters said nothing. In fact, president Sean O’Brien allegedly spent the weekend promoting a chat with right-wing commentator Vivek Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy, who once opposed the president, is a favorite among Trump supporters. Suddenly, it begins to make sense.

The labor unions and the media seems complicit in ignoring Smalls’ beating and detention. They may bash the president or align with him, but they will not cross that invisible line. How long many international human rights violations must occur until we admit that media silence is a powerful form of complicity?

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition has called for the end to the humanitarian blockade of Gaza. And now, the pressure mounts on political and labor leaders to join them.