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Palestinians welcome cancelation of Israel-PA gas deal
Palestinian activists are welcoming the cancelation of a lucrative deal in which the Palestinian Authority would have purchased at least $1.2 billion worth of natural gas from an Israeli consortium over the next twenty years.
The news is likely to add to pressure on Jordan to cancel a similar deal from which Israel would reap vast profits.
And on the Palestinian front, vigilance is needed to defeat long-term efforts by Israel and the Palestinian Authority to give Israel ultimate control of the rich gas fields off Gaza’s coast.
Palestine’s Boycott National Committee (BNC) welcomed the announcement last week that the Palestine Power Generation Company had withdrawn “a few months ago from the agreement with the developers of the [Israeli] Leviathan natural gas field.”
The gas would have supplied a planned power plant near Jenin in the occupied West Bank.
Mahmoud Nawajaah, general coordinator of the BNC, the largest civil society coalition in Palestine and the steering group for the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, said: “The import of Israeli gas would contribute to entrenching our economic dependency on Israel and strengthen the Israeli economy at a time when Israel’s international isolation is growing.”
Source: electronicintifada.net