Summary
The largest and most dramatic episode of joint action between Arab and Jewish workers in the history of Palestine: a strike begun by postal, telephone and telegraph workers on April 9, 1946 which spread to the railway workers, the civil servants, Public Works and port workers, so that by April 15 some 23,000 employees of the government of Palestine were on strike; it paralysed the mandatory administration and won increases in basic wages and the cost of living allowance and improvements in the pension system (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3985-3999).
Details
- Sami Taha of the Palestine Arab Workers Society and Yehezkel Abramov, secretary of the International Union of Railway, Postal and Telegraph Employees in Eretz Yisra’el, planned a limited strike of mainly Jewish postal and telephone workers in Tel Aviv for April 9, 1946, delayed until after the departure of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3987).
- Thirty or forty Arabs employed at the Tel Aviv post office joined; by the following day all the postal workers in Palestine had stopped work; postal officials quickly made far-reaching concessions and the Histadrut recommended acceptance, but the rank and file postal workers voted overwhelmingly to reject the offer and continue (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3989).
- On April 14 the Arab and Jewish railway workers, members of both the IU and the Arab Union of Railway Workers, also went on strike, paralysing the country’s railway system; the middle- and lower-level white-collar government employees of the Second Division Civil Service Association joined, as did Public Works Department and port workers (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, lines 3989-3991).
- The refinery and camp workers did not join: both the Histadrut and the PAWS had reason to oppose expansion of the strike, the Histadrut fearing it would paralyse the economy and interfere with the Yishuv’s immigration struggle; Hushi insisted it was Taha who had kept the oil workers out, after an alleged Arab League headquarters telephone call — Lockman notes Hushi was never renowned for his truthfulness, even to his own comrades, while allowing Taha may also have used his influence (see the source page’s Open questions) (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3995).
- The National Liberation League and Palestine Communist Party’s April 18, 1946 leaflet called on the refinery, military base and municipal workers to join, castigating the government for allocating more than one-fifth of its budget to police and prisons but only 8 percent to health, education and social welfare combined (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3993).
- By the end of April all the strikers had returned to their jobs; the NLL and PCP declared the strike “a blow against the ‘divide and rule’ policy of imperialism”, Mishmar acclaimed it, Davar blew hot and cold, and Filastin criticised the PAWS for colluding in a politically motivated, Zionist-orchestrated movement (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3997).
- Whatever the various forces made of it, the strike proved an isolated incident, and the hope for Arab-Jewish cooperation it evoked soon dissipated as Palestine sank deeper into political crisis (Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, line 3999).
Related pages
Comrades and Enemies: Arab and Jewish Workers in Palestine, 1906-1948, Palestine Arab Workers Society, Histadrut, Second Division Civil Service Association, National Liberation League, Sami Taha