A controversial trade union boss whose term had expired but was renewed because of his political connections.
An Israeli transport minister who had flown to Morocco a day earlier, her bags reportedly nearly delayed by the trade boss seeking to prove a point with national elections just two months away.
And a critical shortage of baggage handlers at Israel’s main international airport during the busy summer travel season.
Politics, labor conditions and peak summer travel fused Thursday afternoon into a wildcat worker’s strike at Ben-Gurion International Airport, forcing tens of thousands of passengers to wait in line for hours as staff walked off during the illegal work stoppage, catapulting Israel’s main gateway to the world to the top of the listing of the most delayed airports in the world for the day due to the rolling delays caused by the backlog.
The fallout from the two-hour strike, which was the timed for a day when more than 100,000 passengers were passing through the airport and cost the economy some $10 million, continued over the weekend with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicking the trade union boss, Pinhas Idan, out of the ruling Likud Party amid calls for his outright dismissal, and two probes into the cause of the travel mayhem launched.
Opposition lawmakers were quick to criticize the government and the vacationing Transport Minister Miri Regev, with some, including former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, racing to the airport to talk to stranded passengers (and the press).
Reports later emerged that Regev had nearly been delayed on her flight after her bags were only loaded thanks to the intervention of senior airport and airline officials.
(Idan previously made headlines by launching a short-lived airport strike during the 2023 judicial reform protests, in a move lauded by opposition lawmakers.)
Amid escalating public fury over Thursday’s airport strike, news came that the 70-year-old trade union chief had had his term extended after it was set to end in May, reportedly amid pressure from senior Likud politicians for the votes he was bringing them in local party primaries.
A Channel 12 TV report earlier this year also alleged that numerous relatives of Idan were employed at the airport without actually working.
Idan, who insisted he was only relieving exhausted baggage employees who had completed 12-hour shifts because of a shortage of hundreds of workers, ditched a morning meeting Thursday with the head of the Israel Airports Authority.
Hours later, the chaos began.
