Palestinians in Israel and beyond stage historic strike over abuses and Gaza bombing
Doctors, bank clerks, builders and teachers abandon work to join demonstrations against Israeli violations and air strikes
Lubna Masarwa, Shatha Hammad, Latifeh Abdellatif
18 May 2021
photo: MEE/Latifeh Abdellatif)
The stone streets of Jerusalem’s Old City are silent. Shutters with peeling paint are firmly rolled down.
In Haifa, Jewish cafes are serving coffee. Beside them, Palestinian-run businesses have their lights turned off.
Across Israel, the clanking, sawing and drilling sounds from construction sites have disappeared. There are no Palestinian labourers manning the scaffolds now.
Millions of Palestinians have gone on strike.
In Israel, occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank, Palestinians have downed tools or stayed away from their desks in just the latest example of pan-Palestinian solidarity following days of Israeli crackdowns and ferocious bombing on Gaza.
“I cannot recall, for years, Palestinians of all backgrounds, factions, Muslims, Christians, atheists, being united under one goal,” Inas Abbad, a political science researcher and activist from East Jerusalem, told Middle East Eye.
“This is the first time since the Second intifada that Palestinian parties, together with all Palestinians of the occupied territories of 1948, have issued a joint statement and a unified call for a strike.”
Shutdown in Israel
Schools, businesses, shops and official institutions have heeded the call, first raised on Sunday by the Arab Follow-up Committee, which coordinates between political parties inside Israel.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) in the occupied West Bank, too, encouraged participation in the action, labelled the Karameh (Dignity) Strike.
Around 1.93 million Palestinians are citizens of Israel, a fifth of the country’s population. In the West Bank and East Jerusalem are some three million, some of whom travel over to Israel every day to work on construction.
Though the strike has shut down large parts of all of their economies, there is no quietude.
Thousands of Palestinians are protesting in cities and towns across historic Palestine, raging against Israeli raids in al-Aqsa Mosque, attempted expulsions in East Jerusalem’s Sheikh Jarrah, deadly far-right violence in Israel and a punishing bombardment in Gaza that has killed 212, including 60 children.
In Haifa, a northern Israel city known for its mix of Jewish and Palestinian citizens, the Palestinian flag has been raised on several buildings, and residents have taken to the streets chanting in solidarity.
“My feeling is that this strike is important to each and every one of us, so that we can put a stop to this brutality and the constant assault on us in all walks of life,” Hazar Hijazi, a 45-year-old education therapist, said in Haifa.
“Enough attacks on people in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem, Lod, everywhere. Enough attacks on our homes, our daily life and displacement. The displacement and erasure of our existence on our land needs to stop, we’ve experienced enough repression, arrests and threats to our homeland and our futures.”
Israeli forces have violently cracked down on Palestinian protests in Jerusalem, both inside the Old City and around the Damascus Gate.
Israeli police beat, pepper sprayed and removed the hijab of MEE correspondent Latifeh Abdellatif while she was filming the detention of a young boy.
Palestinians on the scene stepped in to protect Abdellatif, scuffling with the Israeli officers. A number of them were arrested as a result.
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