Hostage families ask Histadrut head to call strike for hostages

• Published date: 18 April 2024
• Author: EVE YOUNG
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

Demonstrators at the march chanted, "Bar David, wake up. Everything is crumbling around you!"

Danny Algrant, whose brother was kidnapped to Gaza, said during the march to the Histadrut, "We are marching to Arnon Bar David to say that if the hostages do not return, there will be no farm. If the 133 hostages do not return, it will be the destruction of a third home."

Concurrently, thousands joined a rally in Hostage Square, which was defined as a "unity rally." Israel's Ashkenazi chief rabbi, David Lau, family members, and artists, including Shuli Rand and Yonatan Razel, as well as the secretaries of the youth movements, will attend the rally, according to Israeli media.

Rabbi David Lau said at the rally, alluding to the divide in Israeli society, "There is no right, no left, no religious, traditional, secular—we all want to see everyone at home."

Earlier, family members of hostages held by Hamas sent a letter to Histadrut labor federation chair Arnon Bar-David, asking him to call for a strike that would shut down Israel's economy and apply "any pressure possible" to return the hostages.

The hostage families also announced that they intended to gather outside the Histadrut Thursday evening to call for the release of the hostages and invited Bar-David to join them.

A letter signed by over 100 family members

"We, families of the hostages signed...