Israelis Stage Mass Protests, General Strike as Hostages Laid to Rest

The Washington Post / Steve Hendrix, Shira Rubin

13:41 JST, September 3, 2024

JERUSALEM – Thousands of Israelis over two days staged the largest anti-government demonstration since Oct. 7, taking to the streets and joining a general strike Monday that brought much of the country to a halt as the last of six hostages recovered from Gaza over the weekend was laid to rest.

The killings of Israeli American Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23, and five other hostages sent shock waves throughout Israel, igniting fury among hostage families and their hundreds of thousands of supporters who have for months accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of torpedoing a deal in favor of his political interests.

“Hersh, we failed you, we all failed you,” said Hersh’s father, Jon Polin, at the funeral on Monday, his shirt torn in accordance with Jewish mourning tradition and a sticker bearing the number 332 – the number of days that the remaining hostages have languished in Hamas captivity.

In a rare, hour-long televised news conference Monday evening, Netanyahu said that he was sorry he was unable to bring the six hostages home alive but insisted that the Israeli military would remain along the strategic Philadelphi Corridor on the Gaza-Egypt border, a demand that many say has delayed the conclusion of a deal that would involve the release of hostages.

Netanyahu said an Israeli withdrawal from the area, after the killing of the hostages, would send Hamas a message – “murder more hostages, you’ll get more concessions.”

The prime minister’s comments came at the end of a day of mourning and amid calls for the government to make a deal to bring home the nearly 100 hostages that remain in Gaza. Polin, who with his wife, Rachel, has spearheaded American Israeli hostage family delegations to the United States and recently spoke at the Democratic National Convention, said about Hersh that he hoped that “maybe, just maybe, your death is the fuel that will bring home the remaining hostages.”

Earlier Monday, thousands of workers joined an hours-long national strike that crippled transportation systems, prompted medical staff to reduce hospitals to emergency services, and shuttered businesses across the country in solidarity with demonstrators blocking highways. They called for Netanyahu to step down.

Though President Joe Biden has repeatedly said a deal to secure the release of the hostages was within reach, Netanyahu has insisted on maintaining an Israeli presence along the Philadelphi Corridor, which Israel says is used by Hamas to smuggle weapons. On Monday, when Biden was asked if Netanyahu was doing enough to secure a hostage deal, he replied, “No.”

Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met on Monday with the U.S. hostage team to discuss the best way to move forward on a final “take it or leave it” proposal the United States, Qatar and Egypt plan to present to Israel and Hamas, potentially as soon as this week, according to a senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.

Thousands of mourners, including U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew, turned out for the funeral, with crowds overflowing onto gravesites and adjacent streets. Many wore shirts emblazoned with photos of Hersh, which have become ubiquitous across the country, and the word “sorry” in Hebrew. They chanted Jewish prayers and cried together.

Polin said his son would have demanded that any leader who could not commit to building a “better future for all of us … to step aside.”

Hersh’s mother, Rachel, said she learned in recent days about the five other Israeli hostages who were alongside Hersh in Hamas captivity. “The six of you managed to stay alive for so very long,” she said. “Each and every one of you did everything right in what can only be described as hell.”

“We will save the rest of the hostages,” said Israeli President Isaac Herzog, who called on the international community to make a deal. “It is not a political mission. It is a Jewish mission.”

The strike Monday officially ended hours earlier than expected when Israel’s National Labor Court, responding to government complaints, ruled in the afternoon that the work stoppage was a political activity and not a legitimate labor action.

Arnon Bar-David, the head of Histadrut, Israel’s largest labor federation, said the unions would comply with the court’s ruling but claimed that the curtailed strike was still a success.

“Despite attempts to paint the solidarity in political colors, hundreds of thousands of citizens have made their voices heard,” he said in a post on X.

The demonstrations come as the Israeli military, maneuvering throughout the Gaza Strip, has begun to bring home the remains of hostages – a grim wake-up call, many hostage families say, that their loved ones’ time is quickly running out.

“We need the hostages to come home with a deal; we don’t need the army going to look for them,” said Aviva Siegel, a former Israeli hostage whose husband, Keith, a dual American and Israeli citizen, is still held in Gaza.

“A deal is more important than anything else,” Bar-David said Sunday night in calling the strike.

“The majority of the Israelis believe that the lives of the hostages are more important than the continuations of the war,” said Gil Dickman, whose cousin Carmel Gat was dragged into Gaza from Kibbutz Beeri and was among the bodies returned by the Israeli military on Saturday.

He said he was devastated that it was too late for his cousin, but that he believed public pressure could force Netanyahu to change course and save the lives of the dozens of hostages still alive in Gaza.

Israel and Hamas blame each other for failed cease-fire talks. Netanyahu said Sunday that the killing of the six hostages proved that Hamas “does not want a deal.”

But the largest hostage umbrella group has long accused Netanyahu of catering to his hawkish far-right supporters instead of making a deal happen. Israelis are divided between those who want the war in Gaza to continue until Hamas is “destroyed” – a goal military leaders have said publicly is unrealistic – and those who say getting the hostages home alive should be the first priority.

The government immediately challenged Monday’s strike, arguing that the strike was an anti-Netanyahu political gambit, not a legitimate work action.

Compliance with calls to walk out did largely break along partisan lines, with more right-wing and conservative areas declining to participate. The municipality of Jerusalem, with a mayor aligned with Netanyahu’s political camp, did not join the strike. Tel Aviv and Haifa, more liberal population centers on the coast, declared their governments closed.

Netanyahu’s hard-line finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, accused labor leader Bar-David of playing into Hamas’s hands.

“Arnon is, in practice, making Sinwar’s dream come true,” Smotrich said in a radio interview, referring to the Hamas leader in Gaza, Yehiya Sinwar. “Instead of representing the Israeli workers, he is representing Hamas’s interests.”

Monday’s action – which was backed by several business groups and major retailers – marked the first time a general strike had been deployed in the escalating backlash against the government’s Gaza policy.

The last widespread shutdown in Israel, in the spring of 2023, became a decisive moment in mass demonstrations against Netanyahu’s plans to restructure the country’s judiciary. That strike forced the prime minister to pause the judiciary effort and reverse his decision to fire Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Gallant and Netanyahu have served uncomfortably together ever since, with Gallant emerging as a leading military voice to reach a cease-fire deal. The defense minister called Sunday for the security cabinet to reverse its recent vote to keep troops along the Gaza-Egyptian border – a sticking point in the negotiations. With protesters kneeling on the street outside chanting “Bring them home!” the cabinet refused to take up the matter.

Organizers called for more street demonstrations Monday evening. Sunday’s mass gathering turned violent in places, with police deploying horse patrols, stun grenades and water cannons against protesters who blocked a Tel Aviv highway for three hours. Police said 29 protesters were arrested.

In central Gaza on Monday, a limited pause in fighting held for a second day as health workers continued a mass polio vaccination campaign that aims to reach more than 600,000 children. Fears of an outbreak surged in July, when the poliovirus was found in sewage samples in central and southern Gaza.

Eighty-seven thousand children in central Gaza were vaccinated Sunday, according to Louise Wateridge, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees. Some gunfire was heard early Monday morning in the Nuseirat district, but a “steady stream” of children attended health clinics throughout the day, though not in the same long lines that were seen on Sunday, she said.