Among the many social protests that have taken place in Israel since the “cottage cheese protest” of June 2011, the struggle over limiting the export of natural gas from Israel has all the elements needed to bring people out into the streets. It epitomizes the desire for social justice, which the Israeli public started demanding in the protest of summer 2011.

This is a struggle whose success or failure will directly affect us and future generations. If it succeeds, we will pay a lot less for electricity and achieve a victory in terms of a fair distribution of Israel’s natural resources. This struggle is exactly what we dreamed of when we asked for social justice — that decision makers prefer the public good over the interests of tycoons and other stakeholders.

Next week [mid-June] the government is expected to decide on the extent of natural gas exports, and all eyes are directed toward the Leviathan gas reserve – the biggest gas field found in the waters of the Mediterranean, worth many billions of shekels. According to the Tzemach Committee, which two years ago was tasked with recommending export policy following the discovery of the large gas reserves, 53% can be exported. 

Had we not undergone a social awakening, the Tzemach Committee’s recommendations would certainly have easily been approved by the government, without the public being any wiser about who stands to win and who stands to lose, and above all how much it will lose as a result of this arrangement.