Israel will begin exporting natural gas to Jordan through a pipeline within two weeks, Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz announced Dec. 3. While there was no official confirmation from the Jordanian side, Dima Tahboub, member of the Islamist-dominated Al-Islah bloc at the Lower House and a critic of the gas deal between Jordan and Israel, tweeted Dec. 6 that the countdown has begun for “the enemy to take hold of” our energy. She said her bloc will submit a draft law soon to bar the import of “gas from the Zionists.”
The controversial $15 billion, 10-year contract between Jordan National Electric Power Company and an Israeli-American gas consortium signed in 2016 has been criticized by lawmakers, professional unions and activists. Online campaigns have been launched on Twitter using the hashtag #StopGasDeal, and protests were staged in Amman and other governorates as a pipeline was being built between Jordan and Israel.