OCCUPIED JERUSALEM: Israeli workers took part in a one-day strike Monday, throwing their weight behind an economic protest movement that has spread across the country and rattled the government.

It was difficult to gauge how many workers heeded the call to stay home, though Shlomo Buhbut, president of the Local Authorities Union, told AFP he expected municipal workers across Israel to join the strike.

“We have called for a one-day strike. The municipalities are closed to the public and rubbish collectors will not be emptying rubbish bins,” he said.

“As representatives of the municipalities and the local authorities, we represent the whole population so we cannot stand by with our arms crossed doing nothing while the entire population is demonstrating for social justice,” he added. “If the government does nothing, we don’t rule out the possibility of taking additional measures.”

Tzvika Bassor, who set up a Facebook page to promote the strike action, said he was “very pleased with the results,” after more than 25,000 people signed up to participate.

The strike is just the latest action by a protest movement which has tapped into deep frustration in Israel over the cost of living and income disparity.

An estimated 100,000 Israelis took to the streets across the country Saturday in some of the largest protests ever seen in the Jewish state.

In Jerusalem Monday, 41-year-old Noga Stern was spending another day in a protest tent with her husband and eight children.

She said she wanted her children to “live with their heads held high.”

Her family normally lives in a 54-square-meter flat in the northern town of Pardess Hannah.

“I cannot raise my children decently in these conditions, and if we don’t fight now for their future, they will really be living in the street in 20 years,” she told AFP.

The burgeoning protest movement, which is calling for reductions in the cost of everything from cheese to gasoline, appears to have caught the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu off guard.

He has pledged to take measures to address protesters’ concerns, but warned Sunday that “hasty” actions could plunge Israel into a “European-style” economic crisis.

But Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer told journalists Monday that some demands could be met without economic upheaval. “Nobody can get everything they want but there are things that can be attended to,” Fischer said. “The housing problem can be solved. The tax issue … is an issue which can be solved without a great macro-economic cost.”