The Israeli Labor Movement: Focus on the Histadrut
30th Anniversary poster of the Histadrut (Israel's General Federation of Labor): "Worker! Immigrant! Your Place is in the Histadrut!" (1950)
"With anti-Semitism rising in Europe, marginalizing and endangering the continent's Jewish population, Zionism took shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its goal was to rebuild the ancient Jewish homeland (then a territory within the Ottoman Turkish Empire known as Palestine) largely as a place of refuge and revitalization for Jews. Beginning with the Balfour Declaration of 1917 and the start of British rule over Palestine as a League of Nations `Mandate' after World War I, the British allowed the Zionist movement to facilitate Jewish immigration and create embryonic national institutions. One of these key institutions was the Histadrut, Israel's democratic, independent labor federation. To date, it remains a rare exception throughout the Middle East."
Our most recent issue paper, The Israeli Labor Movement: Focus on the Histadrut, is online - for a printable copy, just click here.
Koach La'ovdim (`Power to the Workers') union, International Worker's Memorial Day poster, 2012.