Editor’s note: This article has mentions of violence and racism.
On Nov. 4, NC State’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a conversation between assistant professor of African American History and Public History, Ajamu Dillahunt-Holloway, and Chris Smalls, an American labor organizer and crew member aboard the July 2025 Gaza Freedom Flotilla, the Handala.
Moderated by Dillahunt-Holloway, the discussion covered the labor movement’s relationship to the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the intersections between Black and Palestinian communities and the failures of the two-party system. A full crowd attended the event, located in the 1911 Building lobby.
“I think the NC State community is concerned about, has an interest in and are active participants in issues around labor and international issues,” Dillahunt-Holloway said in an interview the following day. “Over 100 students and community members that were there. You could tell the NC State community is concerned about the world and its problems and thinking about solutions to those things. … I recognize there was a serious level of engagement, of focus, paying attention to almost every word Chris Smalls was saying.”
In July, Smalls was one of 21 members aboard the Handala, named after a Palestinian national symbol of resistance. The flotilla mission, organized by the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, intended to break the Israeli naval blockade of Gaza and to deliver humanitarian aid.
Aboard the ship were journalists and activists, including community organizers, lawyers, teachers, engineers, health professionals and medics. Smalls said he only told his children of his plan.
The flotilla set sail from Syracuse, Italy, on July 13. On July 26, the Israeli military intercepted the ship, towing it to Ashdod and detaining passengers.
“I was the only Black volunteer on board. … During our trainings and during our preparation, my crew knew how I was going to be considered one of the most vulnerable, along with our Arab brother, Hatem from Tunisia, he was going to be faced with violence as well,” Smalls said. “We sailed for seven days on the Mediterranean, an open graveyard that’s claimed millions of people’s lives.”
Smalls said the Israel Occupying Force dropped Smalls and Hatem Aouini off at the border of Jordan, separate from the rest of the 19 crew members. While committing to a hunger strike, he said he was imprisoned for five days, the longest of the entire crew.
“We were being called off the boat one by one, and I was one of the last to get off. … I pointed at them and I said, ‘Without them guns, without them weapons, you ain’t shit.’ … I told them that as an American, whose tax paying dollars are paying for all that, without it, you’re nothing,” Smalls said. “They definitely heard me, because after that, I was thrown to the ground by seven authorities, choked with my chains, slammed on the ground, concrete face first and carried off like an animal, separated from the rest of the crew. They said some racist thing, saying they’re nothing like me, they’re not my brothers, talking about my skin color.”
Smalls said the prison warden kept him on 24/7 lockdown, with no outside communication. He was not released by authorities until July 31.
“The whole time, I can hear my crew members, but I couldn’t see them. I knew they were with me. We were raided twice by the raid unit, stripped naked, humiliated for no reason. We were lied to every day,” Smalls said. “From the very beginning to end, from them assaulting me, to being punished for being on a hunger strike, everything they’ve done to me, it’s just a fraction of what Palestinians have to go through, and I can confirm for you that Israel is a racist, apartheid state.”
Smalls, a former Amazon supervisor, founded the Congress of Essential Workers after his termination for organizing a COVID-19 walkout. In 2021, he established the Amazon Labor Union, and the following year, Amazon’s JFK8 warehouse in Staten Island, N.Y., became the first to unionize, leading Time Magazine to name him one of its 100 most influential people.
Smalls said his support for Palestinian resistance began after 9/11, during a climate of intense Islamophobia. Despite backlash for his current activism from his followers he gained from his work in unions, Smalls insists labor and Palestinian liberation are intertwined.
“Palestinian liberation is our fight, and if you look at our history from the trade union movement, trade unions have always been a part of Palestinian’s resistance,” Smalls said. “You can say trade unions were humanitarian aid organizations before they were a real thing. That history is there.”
Smalls said the same tactics being used against labor organizers and marginalized communities echo broader systems of oppression rooted in capitalism and racism.
“Y’all remember five years ago, with George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, we were in the streets. What did they tell Black people to do? ‘Sit this one out, it’s time for white people to step up,’” Smalls said. “In the words of Malcolm X, ‘You can’t have capitalism without racism.’ When you break down capitalism, what is that? It’s the same tactics Amazon used in Bessemer, Alabama, creating fear, power and division.”
Smalls said that, whether it be through Amazon’s contract with the Pentagon or through Project Nimbus, the company engages in support of Israeli occupation, perpetuating the military industrial complex, in addition to their continued unfair labor practices and union-busting efforts.
“If you’re supporting Amazon, you’re supporting this genocide. Amazon Web Services is essentially the Iron Dome,” Smalls said. “That’s the platform they’re using, along with Starlink, along with Google. These corporations have invested $7.2 billion dollars into Project Nimbus, which is a system that’s going to be used to target and surveil innocent Palestinians.”
Connecting these dots, Smalls said, is why he decided to participate in the flotilla mission.
“I’m trying to carry on the torch of our ancestors, but also show our Black community that this is our fight,” Smalls said. “There’s no way in hell I’m going to sit back as a labor leader and not do everything in my power to amplify and connect these struggles. You’re looking at the only labor leader in this country that’s banned from Israel for 100 years.”
Dillahunt-Holloway emphasized the importance of education in creating change and fostering community engagement.
“Campus is a place where thought is supposed to be challenged, embraced and debated. Continuing to have conversations about what students feel and are impacting them in this world is big. It’s important. This is a place for it, for students to think and to thrive. We have to provide that opportunity, no matter how difficult,” Dillahunt-Holloway said.
A union campaign at Amazon’s Garner facility failed by a 3-to-1 margin in mid-February. Organizers launched a second campaign to unionize four Durham-area facilities in early November.
Students for Justice in Palestine will hold a bake sale Monday in Talley Student Union, aiming to raise funds for relief efforts in Sudan, Congo and Palestine.
