The mammoth Israeli Cellcom telecom company announced a one-hour work break Tuesday “to promote coexistence and solidarity” during the Arab strike supporting the Palestinian Authority’s “Day of Rage” against Israel.
It’s not really clear with whom the union and company management were promoting solidarity.
Cellcom, one of the largest telecom companies in Israel, announced a one hour work stoppage during the Palestinian strike today, to promote coexistence and solidarity. A very moderate message.
In response, settlement municipalities are announcing cutting ties with the company pic.twitter.com/1gvqhpofn0— Haggai Matar (@Ha_Matar)
However, it certainly appeared to many in Israel that the company was showing solidarity with the Israeli Arab sympathizers who are currently engaged in showing their solidarity with the full-scale intifada-like series of attacks (pogroms) against Israelis, as well as the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorists attempting to annihilate the State of Israel through rocket fire and mortar shells.
One Twitter user commented that “the main reasoning behind this campaign is that the Arab workers of the company will not go on a full day strike, but only on a symbolic strike for an hour – an hour scheduled on their lunch break.”
There has been a nationwide call to fire workers who do not come to work in order to participate in the “strike,” which could account for the workers’ decision to strike for only one hour, at their Cellcom offices.
In response, numerous Israeli municipalities – particularly in Judea and Samaria – announced they were severing ties with the cellular service provider, including the Mount Hebron Regional Council, the Gush Etzion Regional Council and the Binyomin (Benjamin) Regional Council. Likewise, the Samaria Regional Council also announced it is severing ties with the telecom giant.
Thousands of customers called the company after the hour-long work stoppage to support “peace and coexistence,” and reportedly its stock shares plunged in response to the news.
“Cellcom is disconnecting from the people of Israel; [so] the people of Israel are disconnecting from Cellcom,” MK Bezalel Smotrich commented in a Hebrew-language tweet.
סלקום מתנתקת מעם ישראל, עם ישראל מתנתק מסלקום. pic.twitter.com/NVhklFndwF
— בצלאל סמוטריץ’ (@bezalelsm)
Ironically, Cellcom appears on the UN’s BDS (boycott, divest, sanction) blacklist of companies operating in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.