From the Liveblog of
Sunday, January 12, 2025
MKs host confab in Eilat against increased oil imports
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
Members of the Knesset’s Environment Caucus host a conference in Eilat in southern Israel to protest the government’s decision last month to allow more oil to be brought into the port of the Red Sea city, the economy of which depends on its world-renowned coral reefs.
“What will remain of Eilat’s tourism if the coral reefs are destroyed,” asks the city’s mayor Eli Lankri, adding that the question of an oil spill is “not if, but when.”
MKs, academics, heads of local authorities, NGOs, and more decry what they call an irresponsible decision that threatens all those living close to the state-owned Europe Asia Pipeline Company’s terrestrial pipeline infrastructure.
Meirav Abadi of the environmental advocacy organization, Adam Teva V’Din, says the move will only bring the EAPC $23 million annually, of which half will go to state coffers. She charges that the government’s decision is illegal and points out that the oil that the EAPC wants to move through its pipelines between the ports of Eilat and Ashkelon will not even serve the Israeli economy.
Civil society has been fighting for nearly five years to stop more oil from being brought into Eilat, and at this evening’s conference, at the Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, those present vow to continue the battle.
In 2021, then-environmental protection minister Tamar Zandberg limited oil imports by the EAPC to two million tons annually, dubbing the move a “zero additional risk” policy.
This disrupted an EAPC deal signed in 2020 with Red-Med, a consortium of Israeli and UAE businesspeople. That deal would have seen Gulf oil brought to the EAPC’s Eilat terminal and channeled overground, via EAPC pipelines, to Ashkelon on the Mediterranean. From there, the oil would be reloaded onto tankers bound for Europe.
Since Zandberg’s decision, the EAPC has constantly tried to get the cap removed.
Since the start of the war against Hamas, which has seen Houthi rebels in Yemen firing missiles at Eilat, the EAPC’s port in the city has barely functioned.
