Palestine Ep. 15: The Gaza Freedom Flotilla w/ Chris Smalls & Huwaida Arraf

In this episode we've invited on two guests for a wide-ranging conversation around the Gaza Freedom Flotilla and the movement it's part of: Chris Smalls and Huwaida Arraf.

Chris Smalls is a labor organizer, founder and former President of the Amazon Labor Union, and was a member of the most recent Freedom Flotilla voyage to Gaza. In this conversation, Chris shares about his experience on the Handala—the boat that sailed from Italy to the coast off of Gaza in an attempt to break Israel's illegal siege and blockade of food, medicine, and other lifesaving necessities in Palestine. We talk about the IOF's siege of the Handala in the waters of the Mediterranean just off the coast of Gaza and Chris's treatment after being kidnapped by Israel. We also explore the connection between working class politics in the United States and the struggle for liberation in Palestine, the complicity of the Western labor movement and the Democratic Party in the Palestinian genocide, the need for a labor party in the US, and what's next for the Freedom Flotilla missions.

Huwaida Arraf is a Palestinian-American human/civil rights attorney, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement, and organizer with the Freedom Flotilla. In this conversation, Huwaida tells us about the history of the Freedom Flotilla and the various voyages to Gaza from 2008 to the present. We discuss the framework of international law, whether or not it still exists in a meaningful way, and how Israel and the US routinely violate it. Finally, we talk about a possible future where those responsible for the Palestinian siege and genocide, from Israeli leaders to IOF foot soldiers, are held accountable for their war crimes and crimes against humanity, and what the future holds for more freedom flotillas defying the brutal and illegal siege on Gaza.

Although the episodes in our series build on each other in certain ways, all of our series are designed so that each episode can be listened to as a standalone.

Further resources:

• Donate to ANERA (American Near East Refugee Aid)
• Donate to MECA (Middle East Children's Alliance)
• Freedom Flotilla
• Amazon Labor Union
• International Solidarity Movement
• The Hind Rajab Foundation
• Taxpayers Against Genocide
• Global Sumud Flotilla
• Thousand Madleens to Gaza
• US Boats to Gaza

Related episodes:

• Listen to our ongoing Palestine series
• From the Frontlines: Organizing Against Amazon w/ Chris Smalls and Mars Verrone
• What Is To Be Done? with Breht O'Shea and Alyson Escalante

Intermission music: A section of "Deepwater Horizon Dream" by Robert Raymond

Covert art: Palestine Poster Project, Abel El Hameed

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