Demonstrators in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Jerusalem called the agreement with Delek Group and Noble Energy robbery.
Last night, thousands of Israelis took part in
demonstrations in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem, demanding a halt to
the state's agreement with the gas exploration companies with Delek
Group, controlled by Yitzhak Tshuva, and US company Noble Energy. The
demonstrations came two days after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
informed Knesset Economic Affairs Committee chairman Eitan Cabel
(Zionist Union) that he intended to invoke section 52 of the Restrictive
Trade Practices Law enabling him to bypass the Anti-trust
Commissioner's objections to the agreement and to implement it.
Netanyahu has the power to invoke the section since he is acting as
Minister of the Economy, following the resignation of Shas leader Aryeh
Deri from that post.
"Once in a generation, and perhaps once in the life of a nation it
can happen that it finds a treasure that is able to change its life from
one extreme to the other," said Mor Gilboa, head of student
organization Green Course, "Like winning the lottery, the gas discovered
in the Mediterranean could change our lives. Thousands have taken to
the streets this evening throughout Israel because the State of Israel,
without a shred of shame or embarrassment, is robbing its citizens of
the greatest economic treasure ever found here.
"Our gas reserves are estimated to be worth the incomprehensible sum
of one thousand billion shekels. If the gas agreement is passed, gas
will not be supplied to the economy at competitive prices that could
lead to the reduction that is so much needed in electricity and water
prices and in the cost of living, or to save factories in the periphery
or to reduce the air pollution that has been a national plague for so
long. Netanyahu has managed to suppress the system so strongly that the
political and economic sewage he has created is being sprayed on us from
all directions. We, the citizens of Israel, smell this stench from
miles away, and we will not ignore it. We have taken to the streets this
evening with a demand for a state commission of enquiry to investigate,
and hopefully also stop, the folly and the robbery, and give us an
economic, social and environmental future free of conspiracies and
disgusting political ploys."
The demonstrators said they would continue the fight against the gas
agreement in the Knesset Economic Affairs Committee, which Netanyahu is
obliged to consult before applying section 52, and in the courts.
"Don't be fooled by the spin that this is an ideological struggle
between left and right," the demonstrators' Facebook page says, "The gas
tycoons have managed to confuse many people over this. The economic
right does not advocate monopolies, but competition. The gas monopoly
agreement does the opposite of create competition. It makes the gas
monopoly last for a very long time, at your expense and at the expense
of your children. This has nothing to do with ideology. It's robbery,
pure and simple."
(www.globes.co.il/, 08 Nov., 2015)