The call for a strike for Gaza on Monday 11 December was made by Palestinian, Arab, and Islamic activists on various social media venues less than 48 hours ago.
Israel’s 66-day war on Gaza has killed more than 18,000 Palestinians and wounded more than 50,000 – mostly women and children – while displacing most of the strip’s 2.4 million residents and leaving them on the verge of starvation.
Social media users and influencers pushed the hashtag #strikeforgaza to the top of the most popular hashtags globally, according to Euronews.
The campaign comes on the heels of nine weeks of massive regional and international demonstrations calling for an immediate ceasefire.
It also comes days after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Occupied Palestinian territories
In the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, life came to a standstill as the local strike paralyzed all aspects of life, including public transportation, education, the financial sector, shops, and other businesses, the Palestinian WAFA news agency reported.
On Saturday, the National and Islamic Forces, a coalition of major factions in Palestine, called on the public across Palestine to take to the streets and public squares across the country in an expression of national unity.
“We expect the entire globe to join the strike, which comes in the context of a broad international movement involving influential figures. This movement stands against the open genocide in Gaza, the ethnic cleansing, and the colonial settlement in the West Bank,” the coalition said in a statement.
The Fatah movement, led by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also called on Saturday for a general strike in Ramallah and Al-Bireh governorate in response to the US veto in the UNSC.
East Jerusalem. AFP
Ramallah. AFP
Jordan
A general strike spread across Jordan, home to several million Palestinian refugees, on Monday in solidarity with Gaza, according to Jordanian media reports.
The majority of shops were closed and streets were empty of cars as employees refrained from going to work and students stayed home from school.
According to Jordan 24, more than 90 percent of shops in the country participated in the strike.
Lebanon
In Lebanon, home to an estimated 500,00 Palestinian refugees, the general strike paralyzed all facilities, including government offices, schools, and companies.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati's announced Sunday that all public departments and facilities in the country would close to participate in the global strike.
Burg Al-Bureij refugee camp in Lebanon. AFP
International Union of Muslim Scholars
The International Union of Muslim Scholars announced its participation in the strike and called for broad participation to demand an immediate ceasefire.
The union called on the peoples of the world, especially in the Islamic world, to participate, and urged institutions, parties, movements, and influential figures globally to continue the strike until its goals of stopping the “unjust” war and saving innocent lives are achieved.
Economic boycott
A pair of Palestinian media personalities moved to globalize the strikes, by declaring Monday a day of economic strike and boycott, according to US CNBC news network.
Filmmaker Wizard Bisan and journalist Motaz Azaiza, two Gen Z Palestinians – the latter of whom was named “Man of the Year” by GQ Middle East – called for their followers to spread the message over the weekend.
"Remember, tomorrow 11th Dec. is a global strike day,” Bisan wrote in a post on her Instagram page.
“If the politicians do not hear us, then we can strike from economic life and daily movement and we can boycott everything, we can put pressure on them to stop supporting and blessing the massacre that is happening in Gaza,” she added.
Others on social media called on participants to not go to work (or school) and refrain from using social media accounts.
While not explicitly tied to the larger Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) campaign – which seeks to get consumers to stop buying Israeli products and or to not buy products from companies accused of aiding Israel in repressing Palestinian rights – it is another example of how that 18-year-old movement has been gaining greater traction since the outbreak of the Israeli war on Gaza.
In recent days, the movement’s official organizers have pushed for things like a permanent ceasefire, sanctions against the Israeli state, and for the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders.
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