Thread by @JeffSchuhrke

🧵I've seen no indication that Histadrut's gen strike was intended as an act of solidarity w/ Palestinians experiencing a genocide. The *exclusive* concern was Israeli captives. Any pressure that may stop the genocide- even if only incidentally- is welcome, but let's acknowledge

the implicit dehumanization of this, which fits neatly w/ Histadrut's long history of explicit racism.

Prior to the 1980s/90s Histadrut wasn't just a union federation, but was the 2nd largest employer in the State of Israel after the government. Since it's founding in 1920, it

was an instrument of settler-colonialism/"nation-building," creating a Jewish-only economy in Mandatory Palestine that very intentionally excluded & economically displaced indigenous Palestinian workers.

Prior to 1948, Histadrut established Jewish-only farms & factories,

banking & healthcare systems, transit & shipping lines, etc. to lay the economic groundwork for the establishment of Israel.

With neoliberal reforms under Likud in the 1980s/90s, the companies owned by Histadrut were privatized- leading to Histadrut losing nearly half its

members & becoming more of a traditional labor federation only.

Histadrut didn't allow Palestinian citizens of Israel to be full members w/ voting rights until 1965. In recent decades, it has faced repeated criticisms for discriminating against & refusing to represent

Palestinian day laborers from the occupied territories & migrant workers from abroad.