Israel’s leading labor federation, the Histadrut, on Monday ruled out the possibility of backing a general strike called for Aug. 17 in protest against the government’s plans to intensify the war against Hamas in Gaza.
“Unfortunately, and although my heart is bursting with anger,” said Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David, “it has no practical outcome.”
“If I knew that a strike—not just for one day, but longer—would end the matter, stop the war and bring back the hostages, I would go for it with full force,” he said following a meeting with those behind the initiative.
Although the Histadrut will not join the strike as an organization, Bar-David urged employers to allow workers to participate in the anti-government protest on Aug. 17 without harming their rights.
In September, an Israeli labor court cut short a general strike called by the Histadrut in protest against the government’s failure to secure a ceasefire deal.
It came after the military announced that the bodies of six hostages had been recovered from a tunnel in southern Gaza, sparking anti-government protests and calls by left-wing political leaders for a general strike.
Judge Hadas Yahlom, president of the Labor Court in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv, said in her decision that “the strike is political; there is no connection between the killing of the hostages and the economy.”
The latest calls for shutting down the Jewish state’s economy came from groups representing families of some of the remaining hostages, slain Israeli soldiers and victims of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023 massacre.
The goal, they announced on Sunday, is to “save the lives of hostages and soldiers, and prevent further families from joining the bereaved.”
Representatives of the country’s high-tech sector have declared they are joining the general strike next week, as has the Israel Bar Association.
“We are at a fateful moment in the story of the nation of Israel, and we don’t intend to resist,” a group of anti-government tech leaders stated, denouncing a Cabinet decision on Friday to take control of Gaza City.
“We are sending our soldiers into a death trap and are endangering lives of hostages,” they said. “Time is running out, and we hope and expect full attendance by all the country’s sectors on the side of the families.”
Meanwhile, Bar Association head Amit Becher urged large law firms to allow their employees to miss work without having their salary slashed.
“Act for the freedom of the hostages and reach a deal to free them now, before it’s too late,” he said in a statement directed at the government.
Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on Tuesday called on all Israelis, including supporters of the government, to join the Aug. 17 protest.
“Go on strike so that for at least one day, it’s clear that we still have a shared good. That being Israeli means, first and foremost, having a heart,” the Yesh Atid Party leader wrote in a post on the X platform.
“Go on strike because you may have been upset here and there about things that were said, but you know not to judge a person during their moment of grief, especially when their moment of grief has lasted for 676 days already,” he added.
The sentiment, however, is not shared by all families of fallen IDF soldiers and Gaza hostages.
“Clarification: Our family has not declared any strike,” Laly Derai, whose son, IDF Sgt.-Maj. (res.) Saadia Yaakov Derai, 27, was killed in the Strip in June 2024, tweeted on Monday. “I assume we are not the only ones.”
Also on Monday, Yossi Cohen, whose son Amit was murdered on Oct. 7, 2023 at the Supernova music festival near Kibbutz Re’im, denounced the strike as “sowing destruction in the country and in Israeli society.”
“Will this strike bring the hostages back? No. It will only harm us, the people of Israel, and ultimately the hostages themselves,” Cohen told Israel National News, adding: “There were hostage-release deals only because of military pressure that forced Hamas to raise the white flag.”
According to official Israeli figures, 50 hostages remain in captivity in the Strip, around 20 of whom are believed to be alive, 676 days after Oct. 7.
