Histadrut coordinated nationwide strike with PM's office - coalition member

The strike on Monday of Israel's largest worker's union, the Histadrut Labor Federation, was coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's inner circle, a senior member of the coalition confirmed on Thursday.

The story was first reported by Kan on Tuesday evening. According to the report, one of Netanyahu's spokespersons, Yonatan Urich, contacted senior Histadrut officials on Monday morning urging them to launch a strike, in order to give the prime minister a decisive reason to announce that he was postponing the legislation, against the wishes of Justice Minister Yariv Levin.

Similar contacts were made by Sara Netanyahu, Kan reported on Wednesday. The senior coalition member confirmed this.

The Histadrut, officially called the General Organization of Workers in Israel, is Israel's national trade union center and represents the majority of Israel's trade unionists. A Histadrut strike is therefore a doomsday weapon, members span many sectors of Israel's public service. The Histadrut leaders' press conference announcing the strike was set for 9:45 a.m. on Monday, and Netanyahu's announcement that he was freezing the legislation was initially scheduled for 10:00, meaning that the strike was only intended to last for 15 minutes. 

However, the plan went awry when National Security Minister MK Itamar Ben-Gvir threatened that if Netanyahu announced a freeze, he would quit the government. This was unexpected and took the entire day to work out. Ben-Gvir eventually agreed to receive a National Guard under his control in exchange for not quitting the government. The strike thus ended up dragging on for hours. It included the Israel Airport Authority, local authorities, preschools, the Israel Medical Association and most of Israel's universities. Hundreds of other public and private companies joined the strike throughout the day.

The strike also included a halt to all departing flights from Ben-Gurion Airport for approximately two hours. This was illegal, Israel Airport Authority's Histadrut leader and Likud stalwart Pinchas Idan admitted in a phone conversation with Kan's Michael Shemesh on Thursday. But Idan agreed to do so on the premise that the delay would only be for an hour. He acted on Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David's orders, he said during the conversation.

The Likud denies the claim

The Likud at first denied the report that the prime minister's office had coordinated the strike with the Histadrut, saying on Tuesday that it was "fake news on steroids."

However, on Thursday it put out a clarification statement: "Not only were Prime Minister Netanyahu and his wife Sara uninvolved in the Histadrut strike, they opposed it forcefully and made this clear to the Histadrut chair and his wife in telephone conversations they held after the strike erupted. They said that the strike was a severe mistake that damages Israeli citizens and must stop immediately.

Bar David also denied the report.

"For over three decades I have dedicated my life to public service, and what always guides me in my decisions are the good of the country," he said to Kan. "The decision I made to shut down the economy was one of the hardest I made – even just out of the recognition of the responsibility on my shoulders. The fable that the strike was planned or coordinated with the prime minister's office is baseless," he said.

A number of law proposals were put forward this week in order to prevent similar moves in the future. A bill by Religious Zionist Party MK Ohad Tal proposed to reduce unions' ability to announce labor disputes, give the Knesset power in exceptional circumstances to cancel strikes in essential services, toughen the conditions to unionize and open up competition in workers' representation.

"It is time to take apart the Histadrut's monopoly," Tal wrote.

The strike broke out on Monday after Netanyahu on Sunday night announced that he had decided to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who had called for a halt to the legal reform legislation. Netanyahu’s decision sparked massive unrest among the Israeli populace, who took to the streets in historic numbers in order to protest the seemingly dictatorial move.

Zachy Hennessey contributed to this report.