As death tolls, displacement rates and risk of famine increase in the Gaza Strip as a result of the ongoing violence against Palestinians from Israeli forces since October 7, 2023, activists continue to work toward change, including humanitarian aid initiatives, economic boycotts and protests.
“If you’re not speaking and doing everything right now to stop the occupation of Gaza City right now, then everything you’ve done in the past two years to stop the genocide has gone in vain and is useless,” said Palestinian journalist and activist Bisan Owda via Instagram. “Close the world, close the streets, block the streets, block the embassies.”
For the last 22 months, at least 61,722 Palestinians have been killed, 154,525 have been injured and approximately 1.9 million have been displaced, according to the most recent report on the crisis published by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). The humanitarian relief agency, alongside other organizations, has not been able to send aid to at-risk Palestinians since March due to Israeli restrictions on international non-governmental organizations’ registration.
This lack of humanitarian assistance has affected not only Palestinian access to medical supplies, but also their access to food. As a result, food insecurity has reached an all-time high in Gaza, as reported by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) in a July 29 alert, stating that famine, or stage five of the IPC’s Acute Food Insecurity Scale, is unfolding and affecting most areas of the Gaza Strip.
“Food consumption has largely deteriorated, with one in three individuals going without food for days at a time,” the IPC reported. “Immediate action must be taken to alleviate the catastrophic suffering of people in Gaza.”
Legacy of Black Support for Palestine Continues in Gaza Solidarity Mission
The Black community has historically stood in solidarity with the Palestinians, activism that has sometimes been met with racism, harassment and violence.
Prominent leaders like Malcolm X regularly spoke out against the Israeli occupation, and the Black Panther Party shared accounts of Palestinians’ struggle in their official newspaper, acknowledging that both communities suffer at the hands of colonialism and imperialism.
Since 2007, Israeli forces have limited Palestinians’ movement, isolating the Gaza Strip’s population from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. As this relentless blockade of land, sea, and air has historically and severely restricted the people and goods allowed in and out of the region, campaigns and initiatives have been launched to take action.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) is a grassroots global solidarity movement that organizes aid missions by sea in an attempt to break through Israel’s naval blockade on Gaza.
The coalition was formed in 2010 after 10 activists participating in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla were killed by Israeli forces in international waters. Since then, the FFC has sent multiple boats with humanitarian aid to Gaza, all of which were seized by Israel.
In July, the FFC sent a group of 21 activists, journalists, lawyers and medics aboard the Handala, embarking from Syracuse, Italy, to try and deliver aid to Palestinians in need.
Activist Chris Smalls, who is most known for his work in unionizing Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, was one of the many people who participated in this particular mission.
“I had to make a decision to go out there in less than 24 hours, and I didn’t hesitate,” Smalls told The Informer. “I knew that it’s important that as a labor leader I go and spread awareness, but also as an American citizen and definitely as a Black man… connecting the struggle was important.”
The 37-year-old said he was the only Black man and one of two people of color on the ship, which he believes fueled Israeli forces to single him out and treat him more aggressively than the rest of the crew when the Handala was seized.
After being detained, Smalls was separated from the rest of the ship’s crew members and brought to another room, where he says he was thrown against the wall face-first. The labor leader was heavily guarded and assaulted, forced to experience the conditions of the Israeli prison away from the comrades he had sailed there with.
“Obviously, the way they treat Palestinians is no comparison to what I experienced, which was just a fraction of that,” Smalls told The Informer. “The amount of hatred and racism I experienced in a few days in Israel, I’ve never experienced in my 37 years in America.”
Although Smalls was aware that his joining the flotilla mission was a dangerous situation that put his life at risk, he wanted to continue the fight toward a more equitable world where everyone, regardless of classification, can live. In so adamantly encouraging global solidarity between marginalized people, Smalls continues the work of leaders before him.
“For me, going on the boat was for a number of reasons, but also to lead by example and show the Black community that this fight is our fight as well,” Smalls told The Informer.
Activists Call for Weekly Economic Shutdowns
Aside from the FFC missions, other initiatives to support Palestinians have transpired, such as economic strikes.
On Aug. 18, Owda posted a call to action on Instagram, urging viewers to refrain from any commercial activity on Aug. 21 in hopes of causing an economic disturbance that cannot be overlooked.
She called for no transactions to be made, a halt to public transportation and for people to close down major streets, especially those that lead to embassies and other government buildings. In response to her call-to-action, the Humanti Project, a coalition of independent activists, declared on social media that every Thursday will be dedicated to a global economic strike in solidarity with Palestine.
“We do what hurts them most– stop the economy,” Owda said in an Instagram reel. “It’s time for us to be loud to the amount that no news outlets or news media can neglect or ignore anything we’re doing.”
Smalls acknowledges that demonstrations like this may not yet have the density needed to create the desired impact, but hopes these boycotts will soon grow to influence people with economic power to join the fight for justice. Until then, he fully supports these initiatives that further raise awareness for the humanitarian crisis Palestinians are facing.
“Despite everything we’re witnessing, we know that inevitably, these people are going to stay and die for their land, and if we don’t do anything about it,” Smalls said, “we’re all going to really suffer the results from dark times in humanity.”
The US refuses to sign a statement that all the other nations of the world, as represented in the United Nations,
that this Gaza famine is manmade.
There is no greatness to ever be achieved again nor ever in the memories of all who will someday testify
to the American participation in this human tragedy.
Like other nations who tries on the cloak of greatness, we as Americans correctly see through
hipocracy as Americans and are now depended upon to do the same by saying nothing about it.
How Russia-like is this administration or even China-like? We see you and are not fooled
despite your machinations. We will not fight for you. We will not pay you for your
shortsitedness as this statement represents the true America that exhibits the values and mores found
in most religions. Respect for your fellow man and the humanity within all not just some.