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."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 8, 2015
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