During a demonstration against the privatization of natural gas found in the Mediterranean Sea off the Israeli coast, protesters outside the home of the then Energy Minister, Silvan Shalom, hold up an oversized check (pun absolutely intended) from the State of Israel to Israeli tycoon Yitzhak Tshuva with the estimated value of the natural gas to eventually be produced from the Leviathan offshore natural gas field, May 11, 2013.

Far-Right Minister Attacks Green Activists for Environmental Fight

Far-right Environmental Protection Minister Zeev Elkin launched an unprecedented attack on environmental activists on Tuesday, January 7, accusing them of being ignorant charlatans who are trying to mislead the public. Elkin was speaking at the Israel 2050 conference in Tel Aviv, which focused on anticipated environmental developments in the coming decades. Government ministries, gas companies and…

A demonstration against the gas deal in Tel-Aviv

Supreme Court Rejects Netanyahu-Backed Natural Gas Deal

Israel’s Supreme Court rejected Sunday afternoon, March 27, Israel’s natural gas legislation which had been sponsored, lobbied for, and signed by neo-liberal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The judges rejected the “stability clause,” a sine quo non for the entire plan – thus torpedoing it altogether. The stability clause prohibited the government and Knesset from changing…

Demonstrators against gas deal, last Saturday, in Holon

Economic Affairs Committee Session Heats Up Over Gas Deal

A session of the Knesset’s Economic Affairs Committee held to discuss implementation of the outline for the country’s long-disputed privatized natural gas degenerated into shouting matches several times on Sunday, November 22, as Knesset members across the political spectrum and social activists disrupted each other when speaking. The session, the first in a series of…

Thousands of Israelis flooded Tel-Aviv streets on Saturday night, June 27, to oppose the gas deal approved by the cabinet.

US Ambassador Presses Joint List MKs on Gas Deal Vote

US Ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, has been trying to persuade Knesset members of the opposition Joint List to abstain or absent themselves from a Knesset vote advancing a controversial plan to develop Israel’s natural gas reserves, Haaretz and “Kol Israel” (Israel Radio) reported Tuesday. A “yes” vote would allow the cabinet to implement its…