New York, New York - Amazon Labor Union co-founder Chris Smalls has announced he will join the next Freedom Flotilla bound forGaza.
Amazon Labor Union co-founder Chris Smalls has said he will join the Freedom Flotilla aiming to bring life-saving aid to Palestinians in Gaza. © Arturo Holmes / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP
"I'll be joining the Freedom Flotilla set for Gaza," Smalls posted on Xon Tuesday.
The 36-year-old labor organizer helped win Amazon's first US unionat the JFK 8 warehouse on Staten Island. He previously served as president of the Amazon Labor Union and was named one of Time's 100 most influential peopleof the year in 2022.
Smalls has spoken out against Israel's atrocities in Palestine, which include a brutal blockade on humanitarian aid entering Gaza.
Last month, a Freedom Flotilla boatset sail from Italy bearing food and other life-saving assistance. On board were Swedish climate and human rights activist Greta Thunberg, French member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan, and other public figures and activists.
Israeli forcesseized the boatin international waters on June 9 – just 100 miles away from Gaza – in a move the Council on American-Islamic Relations slammed as "a blatant act of international piracy and state terrorism." The crew members were reportedly taken to Israel, interrogated, and then deported.
Undeterred, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition announced another civilian boat, the Handala, will set sail on July 13 out of Italy on a similar mission.
"The children of Gaza – who make up over half the population – have been living under a brutal blockade and siege for their entire lives," the coalition said in a press release.
"Since October 2023, over 50,000 have been killed or injured, tens of thousands orphaned, and nearly a million forcibly displaced and homeless. All now face famine, disease, and trauma few of us can imagine. This mission is for them."
