Update:
The chairman of Histadrut, Israel’s largest trade union, instructed workers to return to their jobs following an order by an Israeli court to end the general strike on Monday afternoon.
Earlier:
Workers across Israel walked off the job and took to the streets on Monday to protest Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s refusal to agree to a cease-fire and hostage-release deal after Israeli forces recovered the bodies of six people who were held captive by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Teachers, local government employees, transit workers, and others took part in the strike, which halted departures from Israel’s largest airport, shut down universities and shopping malls, and disrupted the flow of traffic as outraged Israelis blocked roads.
The strike was called by Histadrut, Israel’s largest trade union. Arnon Bar-David, the union’s chairman, said ahead of the action that “this is not a matter of right or left; it is a matter of life and death.”
“All the heads of the security establishment support the deal, and it is the government’s responsibility to bring our hostages home,” he continued. “It is inconceivable that our children will not return because of narrow considerations and interests.”
Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, expressed support for the strike, saying that “Netanyahu and the cabinet of death decided not to save” the six hostages whose bodies were recovered from Rafah. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said Sunday that Hamas fighters killed the hostages, including Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Hamas said in a statement that “we hold the criminal terrorist Benjamin Netanyahu and the biased American administration responsible for the failure of the negotiations to stop the aggression against our people and to release the prisoners in an exchange.”
“We also hold him fully responsible for the lives of the prisoners who were killed by his army’s bullets,” Hamas added.
The IDF’s announcement Sunday intensified the fury that hostages’ families and much of Israeli society have directed at Netanyahu, who has repeatedly sabotaged cease-fire talks with hardline demands in recent weeks. Israeli officials believe around 100 hostages remain in captivity in Gaza, including roughly 35 who are believed to be dead.
At least some of the hostages have been killed by Israeli forces. In April, Hamas released a brief video in which Goldberg-Polin appealed to the Netanyahu government for a cease-fire agreement and said at least 70 hostages had been killed in IDF attacks.
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets lashing out at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after six hostages were found dead in the Gaza strip.
— Bloomberg (@business) September 2, 2024
Read how the protests and a labor strike are mounting pressure for a cease-fire https://t.co/ffWWk2cmwC pic.twitter.com/uSzeNGam1v
B’Tselem, an Israeli advocacy organization, said in a statement Sunday that “the six Israeli hostages whose bodies were recovered from Gaza this morning could have been saved if the Israeli government had heeded the pleas of their families and the Israeli public to reach a cease-fire and an exchange deal.”
“The Israeli government places no value on human life — whether of its Gazan subjects or of its own citizens,” the group added.
Labor unions in the United States — Israel’s main ally and weapons supplier — expressed solidarity with Israeli workers who walked off the job Monday, with American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten applauding “this action to halt Israel’s economy to send a message to the Netanyahu government to end this war.”
“We are devastated by the murder of the six innocent hostages by Hamas, young people, most of whom were at the Nova dance festival,” said Weingarten. “But it is unconscionable that Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has refused to seal a cease-fire deal with Hamas that would bring the hostages home and end the humanitarian crisis of Gaza. We have called for an end to this war since January. In Netanyahu’s obstinance, he has refused to listen, even to his own military and security experts.”
The strike kicked off amid reports that the U.S. “has been talking to Egypt and Qatar about the contours of a final ‘take it or leave it’ deal that it plans to present to the parties in the coming weeks,” according to The Washington Post.
“Biden officials said it was not immediately clear whether the discovery of the six hostages would make it more or less likely that Israel and Hamas could come to an agreement in the coming weeks,” the Post added.
Drop Site’s Jeremy Scahill noted Sunday that “rather than insisting on upholding what [U.S. President Joe] Biden said was Israel’s own proposal in May, the U.S. has appeased Netanyahu’s efforts to allow an indefinite presence of Israeli forces in Gaza and an open-ended campaign of military attacks.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We’re presently working to find 1500 new monthly donors to Truthout before the end of the year.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy