Benjamin Netanyahu He is living one of his worst moments. The Israeli prime minister lives immersed in a roller coaster in which some weeks the polls put him up and other weeks, like this one, they lower him again. According to 69% of Israelis, Netanyahu should withdraw from politics, 55% believe that it only serves his personal interests and 62% consider that the situation is “bad or very bad.”
This, on a Monday when there was a general strike who seeks to demand an agreement for the release of the hostages. Hundreds of people across the country, but particularly in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, have taken part in rallies and traffic shutdowns to demand that the prime minister sign a ceasefire agreement in Gaza.
However, late in the afternoon, the Israeli Labor Court ordered an end to the general strike that was called, which aims to pressure the government to reach a hostage deal, and agreed with the state prosecutor that it was a political strike and not caused by a “collective labor dispute.”
Some of the transport-related companies that supported the strike include the Israel Airports Authority and the Ports of Haifa, Ashdod, Eliad and HaderaThe same applies to the Israeli Electric Company and the postal service. In addition, the Hebrew University, the University of Haifa, the Open University and Ben-Gurion University are among the 17 centers that have confirmed their participation, as well as six of the country’s major banks.
The strike was called in solidarity with the families of the hostages, at a time of growing discontent in the country following the discovery Saturday night in Gaza of the bodies of six hostages who were, according to the army, assassinated by Hamas between Thursday and Friday, after surviving nearly 11 months of captivity.
The three lawsuits against Netanyahu
For his part, the state prosecutor asked the Israeli labor court on Monday to rule against the Histadrut strike, assuring that “this is not a strike due to a collective labor dispute” but rather a political one. This request comes after the Minister of Finance, the far-right Bezalel Smotrich, contacted the attorney general on Sunday to request precautionary measures regarding the strike.
“This is a political strike that does not fall under the authority of the Histadrut,” Smotrich wrote on the social network X. Among the 251 people abducted on October 7, 97 captives remain in the enclave -some 33 confirmed dead, according to the army-, while there were already four other hostages in the Gaza Strip for years, including two dead soldiers.
It should be remembered that in the meantime, it has to deal with the three legal cases who are weighing on him for corruption. The accusations range from fraud to corruption aimed at benefiting his government, which experts say motivated his controversial reform aimed at weakening the judiciary in the face of his executive.
Also the orthodox They expressed anger at Netanyahu’s efforts to call them out, not forgetting that the conflict in the Gaza Strip is the costliest battle in Israel’s history.
