Chair of Knesset finance panel: Broad secrecy for state oil concern may be ‘anachronistic’

Concluding a discussion about the cabinet’s decision Sunday to extend secrecy rules concerning a state-owned oil conglomerate, Knesset Finance Committee chairman Moshe Gafni says the blanket confidentiality may “anachronistic” and require changing “in light of today’s reality.”

Gafni, a member of the coalition’s United Torah Judaism party, says he’ll ask the committee’s legal adviser whether a new public hearing can be held on the need for continued confidentiality, promising not to “make life easy” for the most visible element of the conglomerate, the Europe Asia Pipeline Company. “What was once right is no longer right,” he continues, saying he knew the reasons the extension had been requested.

Ministers voted to extend secrecy rules for another five years, despite receiving more than 300 objections, but this must still be approved by the Knesset committee.

The Europe Asia Pipeline Company — formerly the Eilat Ashkelon Pipeline Company — is the best-known of three state companies established by Israel decades ago in a secret partnership with the shah’s Iran.