Mass struggle needs to continue to end the war and fight the far-right

Israel’s main trade-union federation, the Histadrut, has announced a general strike in the early hours of Monday, September 2. This call is a culmination of months of pressure from protestors, including families of Israeli hostages held in Gaza. 

Arnon Bar-David, head of the Histadrut has, until now, only paid lip-service to the idea of a general strike while pushing back against any real effort. However, popular anger against the Netanyahu regime has reached a boiling point as six bodies of Israeli hostages were retrieved from Gaza.

 It was also recently revealed in a secret “clarifications document” that Netanyahu torpedoed a possible ceasefire deal going back to May, a deal that would have prevented not only the deaths of Israeli hostages, but also of thousands of Palestinians. Families of hostages described the “clarifications document” as “the biggest scam in Israel’s history.”

The strike included workers shutting down Ben-Gurion international airport, kindergartens, universities, post office, banks, government departments, and some of the Palestinian municipalities within Israel and the largest municipalities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. Partial strikes were announced in hospitals, schools, ports, clinics, water and power plants.

By Monday morning, the country’s labor court had declared the strike illegal and called to end it by 2pm local time, a decision fully supported by Bar-David, shamelessly saying that “we live in a country of law and [I] respect the court’s decision”, a tone-deaf statement given the ongoing genocidal war in Gaza, and incursions into Lebanon and the West Bank.

The court’s decision followed an appeal by far-right treasury minister Betzalel Smotrich who appealed against the “illegal” political strike. It is not a surprise that the same forces who are leading the onslaught against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have also been the ones stepping in to crush a mass mobilization by the Israeli population for an immediate ceasefire.

The strike was supported by sections of the capitalist class who see the Netanyahu regime and its ongoing war as an obstacle to the stability of their profit-making and prestige. The Israeli economy is on the verge of a severe crisis. The Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University is predicting a national 8% budget deficit, further danger to the state’s credit rating, and a debt-to-GDP ratio of 70% for 2024. While playing an especially atrocious role in the bloody war, Smotrich has announced a series of austerity measures in order to fund the massacre in Gaza.

These measures highlight the divisions within Israel between working people and the government of war and capitalism as well as the inevitable struggle that develops out of those divisions. We disagree with those on the left who see Israeli society as one bloc of reactionary mass as well as  their right-wing counterparts who see all Israelis as sharing the same interest in spite of their class differences. In contrast, Socialist Alternative thinks that working people on both national divides have a primary role in the struggle against war and occupation. We  support the call for an ongoing and expanded labor general strike and mass protests to bring down the murderous government of Netanyahu, the far-right, and all parties of big business who support the genocidal war in Gaza.

Netanyahu and the far-right’s fear of a general strike goes beyond the threat it poses to their war. An end to the war, or even a ceasefire can cause a significant political crisis for the fragile far-right coalition government and could bring its downfall. Already, disagreements arose between sections of the military elite and defense minister Galant and the far-right sections of the government about the latter’s “irresponsible” handling of the war and the way forward. 

These sentiments, shared by large sections of the population, have also been represented in last year’s mass movement against Netanyahu and his judicial reform attempt. Monday’s protests have seen close to 300,000 people on the streets, the largest protests since the beginning of the war.

None of the current parties of big business, such as Yesh Atid or the National Unity Party, poses a real alternative to the brutal war policy. The whole business and military elite enthusiastically support a regime of national oppression and exploitation. What is needed is the building of a working class political alternative that represents the interests of all workers against war and poverty.

The general strike and mass protests are not primarily directed against the slaughter in Gaza, but are rather an expression of frustration with the government’s unwillingness to reach a ceasefire and retrieve the remaining hostages. Despite that, the mass mobilization is a significant show of force against the right-wing and exposes the rotten role played by the elite against working people throughout the region. Socialists and others are organized within the protests in a bloc against the occupation to raise sharper demands against the war.

Members of Socialist Struggle Movement, our sister organization in Israel-Palestine, are out on the streets alongside hundreds of thousands of protestors. Our members protested in Jerusalem outside a meeting of the war cabinet as the latter announced a continued control over the Philadelphi Corridor in Southern Gaza, a decision that removes any possibility for a deal. They then joined hundreds of thousands at the mass protest in Tel Aviv.

We join our brothers and sisters in Israel-Palestine to call for an immediate ceasefire and an“all-for-all” deal to release Israeli hostages and Palestinian political prisoners; an end to the war and occupation; end mass starvation and destruction in Gaza; for humanitarian aid and mass investment in infrastructure in Gaza on the expanse of the super-rich; an end to political persecution against anti-war protestors; shut down all torture facilities such as Sde Teiman – “the Israeli Guantanamo”; Continue and expand international solidarity, including in schools, communities, and workplaces; for an internationalist new antiwar party of working people as an alternative to the ongoing politics of war, poverty, and misery and for real peace, democracy, and socialism.