Strike - no spares

One would think that Palestinian Arabs would know by now that their oft-declared "general strikes" hurts no one but themselves.

I have referred a number of times to the strike of 1946-47 when an Arab boycott of Jewish goods ended up hurting many Arab shopkeepers - while the Jews increased their marketing to other countries, ending up making more money and being less dependent on the Arabs.

The 1936 strike, which Arab historians generally consider to be the high point of Palestinian Arab unity and resolve, resulted in the Jews building a port in Tel Aviv to work around the Jaffa port that was closed by the strike. The consequences for the Arab economy were severe.

A two-hour strike in 1947 to protest the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration resulted in Jewish shops and cafes being busier than ever, serving Arab customers.

And yet these strikes continue as a major rallying factor by the so-called Arab "leaders." Each strike throughout history was roundly ignored by many of the people whose lives were directly affected by these calls. And each time - in the 1936-39 "Great Revolt", in the 1946-47 strike, in the December 1947 strike in response to the partition plan - self-appointed, self-righteous Arabs would decide to "enforce" the strike, if necessary by murdering the people who choose not to participate.

Today, nothing much has changed:

Jerusalem police on Monday detained four Arab residents of the city suspected of threatening east Jerusalem shopkeepers to take part in a solidarity strike in support of the Palestinians in Gaza, police said.

I would venture that the reason that PalArabs continue to go down the same self-destructive path that has proven disastrous for decades is because they don't learn any sort of objective history. One would be hard-pressed to find any Palestinian Arab who considers the 1936-9 "Great Revolt" to be anything but an historic victory, when in fact its consequences directly translated to their "naqba" in 1948, not to mention infighting that killed hundreds of them at the time.

Some people never learn.