The arrest and assault of Chris Smalls is about more than the repression of any effort to subvert the genocidal blockade on Gaza; it exposes Israel’s attempt to sever Black and Palestinian solidarity in the struggle against capitalism and empire.
Originally published in the Black Alliance for Peace.
The Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) unequivocally denounces the brutal assault and abduction of Amazon Labor Union co-founder Chris Smalls, who was detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Though he is now released, the exceptionally heinous treatment of Smalls by the Zionist state forces demonstrates the historical neurotic fear of any interconnection between Black / African resistance to white supremacy and resistance to capitalist exploitation.
As part of the 21-member international collective aboard the aid ship Handala, a flotilla that was headed to Gaza to protest and break the blockade on the Palestinian people collectively being starved to death, Smalls was the only member of the group beaten and choked by IDF agents. He was also the only Black person aboard the ship. While the IDF stopped, boarded, and abducted all the activists on board, they did not use the same level of force against the other passengers or crew that they brutally applied against Smalls.
The special brutality meted out to Smalls is another example of the racist, white supremacy at the core of Israeli settler colonialism and explains both their genocide against Palestinians and the relative silence and support for it by the West. This racist violence reflects the reality of how African Jews from various countries are viewed and treated in Israel. Even as we have seen African Jews in the IDF carrying out unconscionable violence upon Palestinians, they are subjected to the forms of racist hatred that the same IDF meted out to Smalls, and worse. The lack of response from the U.S. government regarding the treatment of Smalls also reflects the way this state views Black/ African residents in the country, and highlights the continuity of white supremacist settler colonialism across both of these violent and genocidal nations.
For some time now, Small's example has highlighted a vital understanding that the liberation of any domestic working class is inextricably linked to the defeat of U.S.-led Western imperialist domination. This attack on a working-class, anti-imperialist leader further highlights the connection between domestic oppression and Western imperialism, where the U.S. and its allies— including Israel— act with impunity.
This lack of meaningful action against the zionist occupation and genocidal acceleration of the state of Israel, as well as the U.S.’s consistent support and own human rights violations, motivates BAP’s call to ban the United States and Israel from hosting or participating in international sporting events. While this is but one strategy, what is clear is that more efforts toward anti-imperialist multilateralism are needed, represented through movement efforts like the Friends of The Hague Group (FOTHG), state-based support by The Hague Group, and consistent solidarity with the Axis of Resistance. It is this impunity that has allowed this genocide in Gaza to continue unabated for almost two years, that has contributed to the deepening siege and theft of the West Bank, and that has permitted the brutalization of Chris Smalls to occur with little uproar from so-called progressives and liberal elites.
The capture, brutalization, and imprisonment of Smalls by the fascist and racist IDF underscores the urgent need for solidarity between African/Black and Palestinian struggles. The lack of consequences for Israel reflects not only the hypocrisy of so-called democratic nations but also the complicity of the U.S.’s own Black Misleadership Class, which too often aligns with sustaining pan-European, capitalist, patriarchal interests.
Justice for Chris Smalls!
Smash Zionism!
Rev. Keyanna Jones is an Atlanta based minister and an organizer with Community Movement Builders.
Samah Sisay is a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights.
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