Adjudication Instead of Strike Action: The Histadrut, the Post-Socialist Liberal Welfare State, and the Passing of the Israel Labor Court Law

ABSTRACT: The subject of this article is the public struggle over the establishment of the labor court system in Israel and the complex attitudes of the Histadrut, particularly in the 1960s. The conflict, I argue, was resolved in accordance with state policy and economic interests. At the time, the government's view of labor courts as a key mechanism in the settlement of prevalent collective disputes was shared by the political right and employers. This is consistent with another argument that the labor courts represented the government's policy of promoting a social-democratic welfare state model, affected by social-liberal thinking, or "post-socialist liberalism," as it was termed by Yehuda Sha'ari, one of the main promoters of the Labor Court Law. The resulting preference for adjudication over strike action engendered a powerful labor and social security mechanism.