Ministers: ‘Strike is illegal, labor union will pay the price’

The strike “is clearly political and lacks any legal basis,” says Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.By World Israel News Staff

Two government ministers urged legal action against the Histadrut, asserting that the strike declared by the labor union, aimed at pressuring the goernment into a ceasefire agreement and hostage deal, is illegal.

“There is no right to strike when it is purely about national security policy, without any relation to the working conditions of the Histadrut employees,” wrote Negev, Galilee, and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf in an open letter to Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee chairman MK Simcha Rothman.

Wasserlauf urged Levin and Rothman to introduce a law that would allow the public to sue the Histadrut over economic harm caused by the strike.

“Along with the expectation that the government will act to prevent the illegal strike and withhold wages from its participants, the public must be allowed to be compensated for [the strike’s] many damages,” Wasserlauf wrote.

Shortly after the strike was declared by Histadrut chairman Arnon Bar-David on Sunday evening, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich questioned the legality of the decision.

The strike “is clearly political and lacks any legal basis,” Smotrich wrote to Attorney General Gali Baharav Miara, asking her to issue an injunction against the measure.

Smotrich said that the strike was “declared to wrongly influence issues that are clearly at the diplomatic level… on matters pertaining to national security. These matters are at the heart of the jurisdiction of the political echelon and are not subject to strikes of workers’ unions.”

Those sentiments were echoed by Ayelet Samerano, whose only son, Yonatan, was murdered by terrorists on October 7th.

He fled the Nova Festival massacre and sought help at Kibbutz Beeri, where he was gunned down by Hamas operatives rampaging through the community.

An UNRWA employee then kidnapped his dead body to Gaza.

“Is this what will bring the hostages back to us? Is this what will make Sinwar want to release them?” asked Samerano, speaking to Arutz Sheva about the strike.

“I really want to understand what you expect to happen after you shut down the entire economy,” she continued.

“While we are looking for the… solution [to the hostage crisis], you have chosen to shut down the economy and say to Sinwar, ‘You succeeded, keep on murdering’. The murder of the hostages has…disabled the State of Israel.

“So here you go, within a short time the whole country will collapse and you can thank Mr. Bar-David, among many others.”