“Netanyahu Didn’t Save Them” –

A call for a general strike has been launched for Monday, September 2, and has been welcomed by the Histadrut, the powerful workers’ union. “From Monday at 6 a.m. the entire labor sector will strike. An agreement is more important than anything else,” warned the head of the union, Arnon Bar-David, claiming to have spoken to many members of the security apparatus and to believe that the agreement is blocked “due to political considerations.” “We are receiving body bags instead of an agreement,” he added, “I have come to the conclusion that only our intervention can convince those who need to be convinced.” Among those who had already announced their participation in Monday’s initiative is the mayor of Tel Aviv, Ron Huldai. Opposition leader Yair Lapid is also in favor of a general strike to “stop the country,” and in a video he urged the population to join the protests, starting with the evening vigil in Tel Aviv at the headquarters of the Forum, followed by a demonstration. “They were alive. Netanyahu and his cabinet of death have chosen not to save the hostages. I call on the Histadrut union, big businesses and local authorities to stop the economy,” the Yesh Atid leader said, stressing that “this cannot go on.”

This is a very strong decision, never taken since the massacre of October 7 and the beginning of the war in Gaza. The last time a general strike was called by the Histadrut was at the end of March 2023, after Netanyahu announced the dismissal of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for having publicly called for a halt to the controversial justice reform that had sparked mass protests and a rift in society. Faced with the harsh popular reaction, the head of government was forced in mid-April to review his decision on Gallant. It was with the latter that Netanyahu once again had a very tough clash on Thursday evening regarding the fate of the hostages. The prime minister insisted on the need to keep Israeli troops in the Philadelphia corridor, on the border between Gaza and Egypt – one of the main issues blocking negotiations for an agreement with Hamas – and acknowledged that he preferred this to the fate of the kidnapped. A decision that according to the Minister of Defense undermines the ongoing talks, effectively preventing an agreement to bring the hostages home, abandoning them to their fate. Saturday night, the recovery of the bodies of the 6 young people, killed with a shot to the head less than 48 hours earlier.