This is unprecedented in the country’s history. Israel is paralyzed. This Monday, March 27 in the morning, no plane took off from Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv. Shopping malls were closing one after another. The general strike was decreed by the secretary general of the Histadrut, the great trade union federation, and extremely rare, with the support of the employers. Imagine the French unions and the bosses of the CAC 40 jointly proclaiming the strike.
This quasi-insurrectionary movement was triggered very quickly after Binyamin Netanyahu announced that he was dismissing Yoav Gallant, the Minister of Defense. The latter had, twenty-four hours earlier, taken a stand for the end of the reform of the judicial system “because of the immediate dangers that Israel faces, in terms of security, externally but also internally”.
Thousands of reservists announced weeks ago that they would no longer volunteer to wear uniform if the government completed its judicial reform. Some 60% of army pilots are reservists. Some had already assured that they would refuse to participate in a strike on nuclear centers in Iran. For Benjamin Netanyahu, Yoav Gallant’s position was unacceptable, and in the early evening, Sunday March 26, he announced his dismissal.
For the pro-democracy movement, this announcement was the spark that ignited the powder. Within an hour, thousands of Israelis interrupted the evening meal to take to the streets and vent their anger. In Tel Aviv, 100,000 people blocked the ring road for more than six hours.
In Jerusalem, thousands of people broke through the police roadblocks, which, on Azza Street, prohibited the approach to the home of Benyamin Netanyahu. There too, the police, overwhelmed, took long hours to clear the road, despite the intervention of water cannons and mounted police.
One more mobilization which seems to have borne fruit since, in the evening, Benyamin Netanyahu announced a “pause” in the process of adopting the reform under consideration in Parliament. In an address to the nation, after political consultations with some partners in the ruling coalition, the Prime Minister announced that the final adoption of the various reform bills was postponed until the next parliamentary session to open after the Jewish Passover holidays, from April 5 to 13.
Reserve generals, military experts, former heads of Mossad, Shin Bet (domestic intelligence) and military intelligence have for some time been sounding increasingly strong warnings that Binyamin Netanyahu is leading the country into the abyss. For their part, the governor of the central bank and the big bosses of financial institutions and high-tech had warned of the risks of economic catastrophe.
Benyamin Netanyahu is fighting, for his part, for the survival of his coalition, but also for his political future. In the protests, two slogans appeared: “Netanyahu resign!” and “We want a constitution!” The Prime Minister seems to have yielded in part to the demands of opponents who announced, for their part, the end of the general strike.
