JERUSALEM, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The head of Israel’s biggest labour union called for a general strike on Monday to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to bring back Israeli hostages still held by Hamas in Gaza, as thousands of protesters took to the streets.

The call for a one-day general strike by Arnon Bar-David, whose Histadrut union represents hundreds of thousands of workers, was backed by Israel’s main manufacturers and entrepreneurs in the high-tech sector.

The alliance of some of the most powerful voices in Israel’s economy reflected the scale of public anger over the deaths, announced on Sunday, of six hostages among some 250 people seized by Hamas militants on Oct. 7 last year.

“We must reach a deal (on the return of the surviving hostages). A deal is more important than anything else,” Bar-David told a press conference. “We are getting body bags instead of a deal.”

  • @[email protected]
    8•2 months ago

    The whole country was founded on the ideal that they have an entitlement to the land regardless of the native population. There’s no doubt that some Israelis are kind and compassionate towards the Palestinian population, but they were always the minority.

    • @TropicalDingdong
      5•2 months ago

      Whoever is downvoting you is an idiot because:

      the ideal that they have an entitlement to the land regardless of the native population

      is literally the foundational idea of the political movement Zionism, which led to the founding of Israel.

      Its an ethnostate based on the colonial idea that one race or religion should be above others, in a legal/ political sense. In its foundation, Zionism advocated for and conducted violence against Arabs, Europeans, and Jews who resisted the idea of a Zionist ethnostate.

      King David Hotel bombing, 1946

      • @[email protected]English
        -7•2 months ago

        Never let liberals gaslight you into their fucked up “beliefs”.

        I remember when every lib on Lemmy was justifying the genocide, how self defense is a right.

        I remember when Biden said there was no genocide in Gaza.

        I remember when libs here got their new brain chip and pivoted to “well (((Hamas))) was in that hospital and school”.

        I remember when libs finally turned to “genocide? So what? You’re just a tankie, BLUE MAGA!”.

        I will never vote for a fucking liberal.