The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice are promoting a draft bill for Israel's marine areas, the main element of which is the declaration of an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) west of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea.
Declaring an EEZ paves the way for Israel to join the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of Sea (UNCLOS). To date, natural gas reserves worth more than $40 billion have been discovered in Israel's territorial sea, mainly at Tamar.
Other seismic surveys in the area indicate high potential of more than twice this amount of oil and gas reserves at the Leviathan and other structures. These reports have already revived tensions between Israel and Lebanon, which has declared that the areas belong to it. Yesterday, it was reported that Lebanon plans legislation to declare its sovereignty over the areas of the gas discoveries. Syria and Turkey are expected to support Lebanon's claims.
Against this background, legal expert warn that the proposed Israeli bill and plans to join UNCLOS will fan the flames and embroil Israel in an international dispute. UNCLOS states that an international arbitration committee will decide a border dispute between signatory states. A legal expert said, "Joining UNCLOS means Israel's consent to its borders being set by an international tribunal. Such tribunals tend not to rule in our favor."
The Israeli public is familiar with the term "territorial waters", the 12-nautical mile (22.25-kilometer) strip along the coastline. The proposed bill talks about a 210.5-kilometer line directly west from Israel, up to the point equidistant between Israel and Cyprus.
Such a proposal was first raised in 2008, but progress was resumed recently at the initiative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice. A copy of the proposal is now making the rounds of the ministries for comment before it is submitted to the ministerial legislative committee.
The main factor delaying Israel's joining UNCLOS is agreement between Israel and Cyprus on the border between their EEZs, with the idea that it runs equidistant between the two coastlines. Sources inform ''Globes'' that an agreement in principal on the path of the line has been reached between the two countries, and it now has to be decided whether to put this in writing.
Does this mean the annexation of Israel's territorial sea? The Ministry of Justice rejects the term "annexation". Ministry officials say that at issue is declaring Israel's existing rights to the EEZ. Most Israeli legal experts believe that the EEZ already belong to Israel, and that the new law will have no material effect on its status.
These experts say that Israeli law has applied to the EEZ since 1953, under the Submarine Areas Law (5713-1953), which stipulates, "The territory of the State of Israel shall include the sea floor and underground of the submarine areas adjacent to the shores of Israel that are outside Israel territorial waters, to the extent that the depth of the superjacent water permits the exploitation of the natural resource situate in such areas.
Nothing in subsection A shall affect the character of the water superjacent on the said submarine areas, and outside Israel territorial waters, as waters of the high seas."
This simple, but clever principle was prescient. In the 1950s, drilling was only possible to a depth a few dozen meters of water of the continental shelf; today, it is possible to drill in deep water at a depth of over 2,000 meters, in the deep waters of the Levant Basin where Tamar and Leviathan are located.
Under international law, Israel has the rights to the EEZ; rights which are not conditional on joining UNCLOS. These marine areas are part of the "continental shelf of the coastal country"; in other words, sovereignty of the seafloor up to the point where the continental shelf meets the continental shelf of Cyprus, or up to a distance of 200 nautical miles from Israel coastline, or in case of overlap, the point equidistant between the Israeli and Cypriot coasts.
Under these circumstances, why does Israel see the need to legislate a law declaring its EEZ, if the country already has sovereignty over it?
According the Ministry of Justice, Israel is joining a worldwide trend. More and more maritime countries have declared EEZs in recent years, pursuant to UNCLOS. Countries now undergoing the process include India, Iceland, France, Namibia, Mexico, Mauritius, Malaysia, Vietnam, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Portugal, the Philippines, Norway, and New Zealand.
Opponents of the bill argue that Mediterranean basin countries have refrained from declaring EEZs, because of the great sensitivities in the region. "The Mediterranean Sea is not open ocean, but a closed sea," said one legal expert. "Countries like Greece or Italy understand that they must not initiate measures that are liable to cause conflict with Libya or Algeria. Even in a fairly simple case like the border between Egypt and Cyprus, it took 14 years to reach agreement."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 30, 2010
© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010