Israel’s Histadrut union announces general strike over hostage deal failure
Histadrut chairperson Arnon Bar-David tells press conference ahead of Monday's strike that 'a deal is more important than anything else'
Lee Harpin is the Jewish News's political editor
The head of Israel’s Histadrut labour union has announced a general strike on Monday in an attempt to pressure Benjamin Netanyahu ‘s government into agreeing a deal to return Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza.
Arnon Bar-David, whose union represents hundreds of thousands of workers, called on all civilian workers to join the strike and said Ben Gurion Airport, Israel’s main air transport hub, would be closed from 8 a.m.
With anger mounting across Israel over the failure to release hostages held in Gaza, Bar-David said that “a deal is more important than anything else.”
The powerful Histadrut labour federation represents hundreds of thousands of public sector workers in Israel.
Bar-David told a press conference in Tel Aviv:”Jews are being murdered in the tunnels of Gaza. It is impossible to grasp and has to stop.
“We are getting body bags instead of a deal. I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention might move those who need to be moved,” he declares.
“I call on the people of Israel to go out to the streets tonight and tomorrow and for everyone to take part in the strike.”
The union leader said a hostage deal was being put off “because of political considerations”.
He said the deadlock now meant “we are no longer one people; we are camp against camp” and “we need to bring back the State of Israel.”
A dozen bodies of hostages have been brought back to Israel in the past week, including the bodies of six young Israeli hostages who had been abducted alive by Hamas on 7 October have been discovered in a tunnel in southern Gaza.
They were found a few days after they were killed by the terrorists, the Israel Defense Forces said on Sunday.
Some 101 still remain, although Israel believes one-third of them are no longer alive.
“The neglect of the economy must be stopped,” Bar-David also said at a news conference.
“Israel must be returned to a reasonable routine… We must reach a deal. A deal is more important than anything else.”
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid had earlier called for a strike to shut down the economy in order to pressure the government to reach a deal to release the remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Lapid, who is also a former prime minister, called on every Israeli “whose heart was broken this morning” to join a major protest in Tel Aviv later in the day.
He also called on Israel’s main labor union, businesses and municipalities to go on strike.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum also called on the public “to join a massive demonstration, demanding a complete shutdown of the country.”
The Israel Business Forum, consisting of 200 business leaders, employing most of Israel’s non-unionised workers also “joins the protest of the hostages’ families and called on the entire public “not to remain indifferent in the face of the daily loss of life and the betrayal of the hostages when, according to the entire security system, they could have been saved.”
Huge anti-Netanyahu demonstrations took place across Israel at the weekend with loud calls for a hostage deal.
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