An El Al airlines plane is seen after its landing at Nice airport, France, April 4, 2019. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

i24 News – No flights are taking off from Israel’s international airport due to a general labor union strike. Pinchas Idan, leader of the Israel Airports trade union and an influential Likud party member, announced that there will be no takeoffs from Ben Gurion Airport.

The airport will participate in the general strike, called Monday morning, against controversial judicial reform legislation that has faced a lot of lashback. The airport strike announcement came minutes after the head of the Histadrut labor union declared a “historic” labor strike to “stop the madness” of the judicial reform blitz.

Departure boards at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport either wildly optimistic – or not updated. Nothing leaving for now due to strikes against government’s judicial overhaul: pic.twitter.com/qaLUDBQ7Iz

— Elliott Gotkine (@ElliottGotkine) March 27, 2023

As of right now, it is unknown what will happen at the airport. Despite the immediate call to shut down all flights, twitter users are posting the departure boards still showing flights taking off. Some flights have already been delayed.

After a tumultuous night of protests reacting to the firing of Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel has grinded to a halt as it awaits an address by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

The ultra-Orthodox coalition parties, Shas and UTJ, and high-ranking Likud members have agreed to follow Netanyahu’s decision, but National Security Minister Ben Gvir has threatened to leave the coalition if the reform is delayed, albeit without toppling the government.

Many of the declarations to strike have pinned the ultimatum on Netanyahu’s decision whether to halt the controversial legislation.