A general strike will paralyze the country for two hours on Sunday, but this time it’s being called by Jews.
The Histadrut has called a general strike to protest rising unemployment and demand the government do something about it.
The trade union federation estimates there are about 140,000 jobless in Israel. The Labor Ministry has put the unemployment rate at nearly 10 percent of the work force, the highest in more than 20 years.
Histadrut Secretary-General Yisrael Kessar warned that unless the government takes immediate measures against unemployment, Histadrut will take stronger steps than a two-hour walkout.
Finance Minister Shimon Peres promised Thursday that the government would allocate funds to create jobs, which he said would require “only a small deviation from the state budget.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
