Israeli workers across the Jewish state took part in a one-day strike on Monday, throwing their weight behind an economic protest movement that has spread across the country and rattled the government. It was difficult to gauge how many workers heeded the call to stay home, though Shlomo Buhbut, president of the Local Authorities Union, told AFP he expected municipal workers across Israel to join the strike.
"We have called for a one-day strike. The municipalities are closed to the public and rubbish collectors will not be emptying rubbish bins," he said. However several local authorities, including Jerusalem city council, ignored the strike call. Tzvika Bassor, who set up a Facebook page to promote the strike action, said he was "very pleased with the results," after more than 25,000 people signed up to participate.
"It's impossible to know exactly how many people really did strike, but it's just the beginning of a great movement," he told AFP. The strike is just the latest action by a protest movement which has tapped into deep frustration in Israel over the cost of living and income disparity. On Saturday, an estimated 100,000 Israelis took to the streets across the country in some of the largest protests ever seen in the Jewish state.
In Jerusalem on Monday, 41-year-old Noga Stern was spending another day in a protest tent with her husband and eight children. She said she wanted her children to "live with their heads held high."
Her family normally lives in a 54-square-metre (580-square-foot) flat in the northern town of Pardess Hannah. The burgeoning protest movement, which is calling for reductions in the cost of everything from cheese to petrol, appears to have caught the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu off guard. He has pledged to take measures to address protesters' concerns, but warned on Sunday that "hasty" actions could plunge Israel into a "European-style" economic crisis.
But Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer told journalists on Monday that some demands could be met without economic upheaval. "Nobody can get everything they want but there are things that can be attended to," the central bank chief told a news conference in Jerusalem. "The housing problem can be solved. The tax issue...is an issue which can be solved without a great macro-economic cost." The demonstrators, who began their protest in mid-July by pitching tents in one of Tel Aviv's most upscale neighbourhoods, have so far been unmoved by the government's response.
On Monday, protest representative Orly Weissenberg told military radio that the demonstrators wanted public talks with the prime minister, rejecting Netanyahu's pledge to invite protesters to talks with a ministerial task force. But after a meeting later between activist leaders and President Shimon Peres, the president's office issued a statement saying that the protestors declared themselves "ready to sit down immediately at a round table and begin negotiations with members of the government and employers."