{"id":13511,"date":"2014-03-24T08:45:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-24T08:45:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13511"},"modified":"2014-03-24T08:46:03","modified_gmt":"2014-03-24T08:46:03","slug":"strike-shuts-down-israeli-embassies-worldwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praag.org\/?p=13511","title":{"rendered":"Strike shuts down Israeli embassies worldwide"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"strike\"<\/a>Israel has closed its embassies around the world as about 1 200 foreign ministry employees declare a strike over low salaries.<\/p>\n

The strike by Israeli diplomats has affected Israel’s 102 missions abroad.<\/p>\n

Israeli diplomats launched an unprecedented strike on Sunday, forcing the complete closure of embassies around the world as they escalated a dispute over pay, officials said.<\/p>\n

The industrial action has already threatened to postpone a visit by Pope Francis to Israel planned for May \u2013 one of 25 trips by foreign officials affected by a work slowdown the diplomats began on March 5 when wage talks broke down.<\/p>\n

By escalating the action to a full strike \u2013 the first by the diplomatic corps since the country’s establishment in 1948 \u2013 the diplomats will close all of Israel’s 102 missions abroad, paralysing most diplomatic work with other countries and the United Nations.<\/p>\n

“We are completely shutting down the [foreign ministry] office and missions abroad. This is the first time ever,” ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor said.<\/p>\n

Another ministry official said: “As of now, the foreign ministry doesn’t exist. It’s not possible even to submit complaints”.<\/p>\n

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called the strike “irresponsible” and “a wretched decision and a display of a loss of control on union’s part.”<\/p>\n

“We shall do whatever possible to minimise the damage to the country and its citizens,” Lieberman said.<\/p>\n

Diplomats said the strike \u2013 involving around 1 200 foreign service employees \u2013 was open-ended and had been called after the treasury failed to present any acceptable proposals.<\/p>\n

They are demanding an increase in monthly salaries, which they put at 6 000 to 9 000 shekels (R18 800 to R28 200), and want compensation for spouses forced to quit jobs owing to foreign postings. They say about a third of their number has quit in the past 15 years because of poor wages.<\/p>\n

Yacov Livne, spokesperson for the diplomats’ union, said: “the treasury is determined to destroy the foreign ministry and Israeli diplomacy.” \u2013<\/p>\n

Source: Reuters<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Israel has closed its embassies around the world as about 1 200 foreign ministry employees declare a strike over low salaries. The strike by Israeli diplomats has affected Israel’s 102 missions abroad. Israeli diplomats launched an unprecedented strike on Sunday, forcing the complete closure of embassies around the world as they escalated a dispute over … Continue reading “Strike shuts down Israeli embassies worldwide”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,123],"tags":[4725,178,4162,243],"class_list":["post-13511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-world","tag-embassies","tag-israel","tag-pope-francis","tag-strike"],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/praag.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/strike.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13511"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13513,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13511\/revisions\/13513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praag.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}