Employers and employees in Israel join forces in historic strike against controversial legislation.

The chairman of the Histadrut, Arnon Bar-David: “We are on a historic day and nothing less than that. Here today are the workers’ representatives, committee members, the Histadrut leadership members, and the employers in the State of Israel. There are CEOs here, former Shin Bet members, and Generals in the reserves. We all worry about the fate of the people of Israel. Something unclear happens to all of us. We lost our way. Now is the time when together, we will return the State of Israel to sanity and the right path!
“We together will say ‘enough’! It is time to say – and it doesn’t matter right or left – there is no politics here. It is no longer possible to polarize this nation and divide it sector by sector. We must return to sanity!
“On 1/11, there were elections in the State of Israel. My father, the late Lt. Col. Pinchas Bar-David, went to vote in the morning. In the evening, we evacuated him to Ichilov, and there we tried for half a year to rehabilitate him and were unsuccessful. He did not see what was happening to his beloved country. He didn’t see the rift. The country he fought for in all Israel’s wars – and I’m glad he didn’t see it. But we see and can’t believe where we have come to. Where are we leading our beloved State of Israel? Into the abyss? So before that happens, we stop today the descent into the abyss of all of us.
“I am a man of peace, of negotiations. I am against wars. I know how to close many things behind the scenes, and even here, I thought we would succeed without reaching these moments. But, in the last 12 weeks, I did everything possible with the leadership to stop it. Mediate, Calm down. We kept thinking it would stop, but it didn’t stop. There is a limit to how far you can stand back. I didn’t want us to get to this confrontation, and I tried to avoid a strike and shutdown, but you can’t stand up to the division tearing our society apart from the inside.
“We are facing a historic strike in which employers and employees are joining hands. All of us, across the length and breadth of the country, are stopping the legal revolution and the madness. All of us, right and left, stand here as one front. Do you know why? Because we are soldiers of the democratic state of Israel. Our country And no one else’s! This is not the country of Kohelet – this is a country that belongs to all its citizens! Citizens who lost their families so that this country could be established. I met people last night crying. Really crying. “They took the country from us,” they said. Netanyahu, you are the prime minister Of all of us, just as I am the head of everyone in the Histadrut, without prioritizing one political way or another.
“I call on the Prime Minister – stop this legislation before it’s too late!
“Last night, what turned on a red light for me was the dismissal of the Minister of Defense. A Minister of Defense stands up and warns of security dangers. This is his duty, a brave Minister of Defense! And they fire him with a wave of the hand. What are we, a banana republic? Sitting in rooms and firing a Minister of Defense? Does this make any sense? Last night all red lines were crossed. Prime Minister, reconsider the dismissal of the Minister of Defense.
“I am very friendly, know how to speak, and have patience. But when there is a decision, the story ends. We are going from here to a general strike in the economy as soon as we finish this historic event here. We fought together against Corona. We fought together, you and us, to save the State of Israel for what? For this or that judge? Why were there elections here? For peace. For security. For the cost of living. And for the promotion of the State of Israel.
“Have we gone off the rails? I ask myself every day. To destroy an entire country over two judges? We will continue to fight together. There is a task to stop this wave of legislation, and we will win this battle to return the State of Israel to sanity.
“I call on the Prime Minister – my friend, my fellow ministers, and all members of the Knesset – to stop a moment before the abyss. Stop! There are economic and security considerations, and we are on the edge. The stock markets are going down, the money is going out. The enemies are at the gates, and we are fighting among ourselves over something Kohelet said should be done.
“As soon as we finish the conference here, the State of Israel stops. Stopped! Cooperation between the trade unions, the committees, and the heads of the business sector.
“We have one mission – to stop the madness and put the State of Israel back on track with a locomotive driver who leads us safely. We want to be safe in the State of Israel. We fought together, and we want to continue fighting for it, knowing that we are in good hands.
“We ask the Prime Minister to come to his senses and be the prime minister of all. Right-wing, left-wing, ultra-Orthodox, and religious. It’s in your hands! Bring the country back to sanity. If you don’t announce in the media that the legislation is stopped, we’ll go on strike.
The decision I made was not easy, and after much consideration. I tried everything I could to stop it, and I couldn’t. So we will turn to the way we all know to stop these crazy moves. Together we are bringing Israel back to normal and the peace we all want! We want to live quietly and provide for our families with dignity! We want equality and democracy without firing ministers in the middle of the night. We want logic in things, and currently, there is no logic in what is happening.