Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) Condemns Attack on Chris Smalls by Israeli Government

We Stand with Black Workers Under Attack — from the U.S. to Palestine

Los Angeles, CA – Chris Smalls — a Black American labor organizer and Amazon Labor Union president — was harassed, assaulted, and detained by Israeli authorities on July 26th, 2025. We are enraged. And we are not surprised.

Chris Smalls, who has become a global symbol of working-class Black resistance, was the only Black man aboard the Handala Flotilla — a peaceful delegation of international organizers attempting to deliver food aid to starving Palestinians in Gaza. He was brutally attacked and detained by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), a military apparatus known globally for its violence, apartheid, and impunity.

We are relieved to share that Chris Smalls has now been released and is on his way home. But we should not have to breathe sighs of relief for Black freedom fighters simply surviving the systems that aim to crush them. His detainment was not just an attack on one individual — it was an attempt to intimidate a global movement.

Let us be clear: Chris was not just physically assaulted — there was an attempt to politically silence him and others. These are the same tactics used by all settler colonial regimes. The same tactics used to disappear Black asylum seekers, jail migrant organizers, repress Black autonomy, criminalize labor leaders, and repress those who dare to challenge oppressive systems. This is what happens when a Black man puts his body on the line for liberation — not just for us here in the U.S., but for people across the globe.

As BAJI, we name this clearly: this is not an isolated incident. This is part of a global pattern of anti-Blackness, militarism, and retaliation against those who organize for dignity, safety, and liberation. There is a direct link between worker power, the communities we deserve, and the systems aligned against us. It is no coincidence that U.S. police departments train with the Israeli military and share tactics steeped in anti-Blackness and racialized state violence. The repression of Black freedom movements, labor justice movements, and Palestinian liberation are deeply interconnected. From Cop City in Atlanta to checkpoints in the West Bank, we are witnessing an international alliance of repression — and we must respond with an international alliance of resistance.

Chris Smalls is courageous and a model for our movements of how we should fight for all marginalized people. He helped build the Amazon Labor Union from the ground up. He challenges police associations and white supremacist corporations with the same fire. He organizes for a world where his own children — and everyone else’s — can live with dignity, safety, and freedom.

We demand that the US government facilitate and require that Israel allow food and humanitarian aid into Gaza. We continue to demand that the US government stops being complicit by funding the genocide in Palestine.

We will not be silent.
We will not be intimidated.
We will not back down.

We stand with Chris Smalls.
We stand with Palestine.
We stand with all Black people including Black migrants.
We stand with all people resisting empire and organizing for justice.