Israel’s largest trade union leader called for a large-scale strike on Monday, September 2nd, to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to rescue all Israeli hostages still held captive by Hamas in Gaza. The call for the strike came amidst ongoing protests in which thousands of people have taken to the streets.
According to Reuters, Arnon Bar-David, chairman of Histadrut, Israel’s largest trade union representing hundreds of thousands of workers, urged for a one-day strike on Monday, garnering support from major Israeli manufacturers and high-tech industry entrepreneurs.
This call for action and the street protests currently taking place in Israel were sparked by the recent discovery of the deaths of hostages. The Israeli military announced on Sunday that six bodies of slain hostages were found in a tunnel in Rafah in southern Gaza. These individuals were among the approximately 250 hostages abducted by Hamas militants on October 7th last year.
The new hostage killings have incited public outrage in Israel, including among some of the most influential figures in the Israeli economy.
“We must reach an agreement (for the release of surviving hostages). An agreement is more important than anything else,” Bar-David stated at a press conference on Sunday. “What we are receiving are body bags, not agreements.”
In an attempt to prevent the strike, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich wrote a letter to Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, requesting an emergency injunction to prohibit the strike from the Israeli Labor Court.
Smotrich believes that the strike will harm the economy and lacks legal basis, as its main purpose is to influence significant government decisions on national security issues.
In his letter to Baharav-Miara, Smotrich wrote, “These issues… are not the subject of labor organization strikes and have no connection to labor relations in Israel.”
Earlier, Israel said the six hostages found were killed shortly before the Israeli military arrived.
The Manufacturers’ Association of Israel expressed support for the strike and criticized the government for failing to fulfill its “moral responsibility” to bring the hostages back alive.
Yair Lapid, opposition leader and former Prime Minister of Israel, expressed his support for the strike earlier.
Meanwhile, as Bar-David called for the strike, thousands of protesters blocked roads in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv on Sunday, demonstrating outside Netanyahu’s residence.
The “Hostages and Missing Persons Families Forum,” established after the attack on October 7th last year, represents the majority of the families of hostages held in Gaza. The organization stated that the deaths of the six individuals were a direct result of the Netanyahu government’s failure to reach an agreement to end the fighting and bring their loved ones home.
Currently, there are approximately 101 hostages still detained in Gaza, although Israel believes that a third of them are no longer living.