Israel Takes An Environmental Stance By Cutting Oil Deal With UAE

Israel

Israel has blocked the oil pipeline deal with the UAE. As per the deal with UAE, oil has to be transported from Gulf to Europe via Israeli port city. The port city has fragile coral reefs. The deal was signed by a state-owned company from Israel and a venture with Emirati and Israeli owners. 

As per the agreed terms in this deal, oil unloaded from tankers in the Red Sea port of Eilat to be moved across Israel in an existing pipeline to the Mediterranean coast. In response to the petition filed by environmentalists at the Supreme court, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government decided to allow the Environmental Protection Ministry to play its regulatory role limiting activities that pose ecological risks.

The Environmental Protection Ministry shared recently that it had blocked a deal with partners from the United Arab Emirates to transport oil from the Gulf to Europe via an Israeli port city that houses a fragile coral reef.

The risk involved with this announcement is cancellation of the deal. This deal is one of the biggest to emerge from the normalization of ties between   Israel and the UAE last year. In a bid to save the environment, the local environmentalists have put a petitioned in the Supreme Court of Israel. Their request is to block the agreement signed between an Israeli state-owned company and a venture with Emirati and Israeli owners, the deal allows for oil unloaded from tankers in the Red Sea port of Eilat to be moved across Israel in an existing pipeline to the Mediterranean coast. 

Responding to the Supreme Court petition, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s government said it would not intervene and would instead allow the Environmental Protection Ministry to play its regulatory role limiting activities that pose ecological risks. “We blocked the entry of dozens of oil tankers into the Gulf of Eilat,” Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg said in a statement, adding that Israel “will not become a bridge of pollution in an era of climate crisis.” 

Earlier the Energy minister of Israel has come out against the deal due to clear environmental issues raised by local environmentalists. There are two companies involved in this deal – Israel’s Europe Asia Pipeline Company (EAPC), and MED-RED Land Bridge. No one from these two companies provided an immediate comment.