Israel's Natural Gas Law is now in Yesha [Judea and Samaria] too – after another long battle! Yesha leaders are relieved: "In a few years, an industrial zone without natural gas would be like an industrial zone without internet."
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| Israeli natural gas field in the Mediterranean (credit: Marc Israel Sellem) |
A three-year battle involving the issue of how Israeli law is applied to the Jews of Judea and Samaria has finally been resolved: The Natural Gas Law will be applied in Judea and Samaria within a matter of months.
"The importance of natural gas to the industrial zones of Judea and Samaria cannot be overstated," says Yossi Dagan, head of the Shomron Regional Council. "Within a few years, an industrial zone without natural gas would be like one without internet – irrelevant and liable to bring down our industrial zones like a house of cards."
"With some 12% of the citizenry of Israel," Dagan notes, "we never should have had to reach this saga of trying to have Israeli law applied here. It should be that Knesset legislation is automatically applied in Judea and Samaria. Why is it that for a bypass road I had to hold a hunger strike, and for security improvements I had to live outside the Prime Minister's home, and for emergency medical services I had to beg and plead with the Finance Ministry? And then they portray us as if we're parasites!"
"I hope the next Government will bring sovereignty to Yesha," Dagan concludes, "and thus our residents will receive what is due them."
The law states that natural gas must be provided to consumers throughout Israel, and that appropriate installations and piping must be built for this purpose. Natural gas has many benefits over other energy sources, such as coal and diesel, including being more environment-friendly, cheaper to use for electricity production plants, and more. Almost all factories in Israel have begun the process of switching over to natural gas, and more than half have completed it.
The specific stumbling block to the application of this law in Yesha, as in other projects required by Yesha towns, was the Civil Administration. With the help of Energy Minister Yuval Shteinitz and Deputy Defense Minister Eli Ben-Dahan, the budgetary demands it wished to impose have now been resolved. Thus, Judea and Samaria will now be a full-fledged part of Israel in yet another area.
"Our main mission is to have one million Israeli citizens living in Judea and Shomron," says Dagan, "and this requires appropriate infrastructures, just like everywhere else in the country." Currently over 450,000 Jews live in Yesha – not including close to 350,000 in Jerusalem areas liberated in 1967 – and it has the highest population growth rate in Israel.
Energy Minister Shteinitz expressed his satisfaction that "after a number of years, the Natural Gas Law will also be applied in Yesha. The advantages of natural gas are immeasurable, and the residents of Yesha will now benefit from them as well."
The application of the law will enable the planning of gas piping routes in Yesha and the transport of natural gas throughout the area. Until now, gasoline and diesel have been the primary fuels in use, costing between two and three times as much as natural gas.
Coincidentally or not, the Yemina Party, headed by Shaked-Peretz-Smotrich, announced at the same time a plan to promote the construction of 113,000 housing units in the Shomron [Samaria] over the next five years. Though possibly an election gimmick, the goal is to reduce housing prices throughout the country and greatly increase the population of the Shomron.