Thousands of Jordanians have taken to the streets of Amman in Jordan and other places such as Zarqa, Aqaba, Karak and Irbid to condemn the gas deal between Israel and Jordanian Government.
The protesters, who took to the streets on Friday 17 January 2020, lamented that the 15-year agreement signed in 2016 would see the Jordan’s National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) import natural gas from Israel’s Noble Energy.
“Israel will supply 45 billion cubic metres of gas to Jordan with 250-300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day,” one of the protesters said.
The protesters took to the street chanting slogans, “From north to the south, we refuse looted gas.”
The demonstration by tens of thousands of Jordanian citizens saw a wider participation from youth, prominent Islamic leaders and political activist like Jamal Jit, condemning the deal for which a three-month trial run has been lunched early this January making it closer to implementation.
The protesters were seen carrying placards with various slogans. One of the placards reads:
“Together against the gas deal with the occupation. The gas deal is an occupation. The gas of the enemy is occupation. Down with the attempts to wipe out the Palestinian cause.”
In March 2019, the Lower House of the Parliament unanimously ruled against the deal which the speaker of the house, Atef Tarawneh, called a gas deal with “Zionist entity”, and which should be “cancelled at any cost”.
However, the ruling did not hold as the Constitutional Court ruled that the deal was signed between two firms – the National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) and Noble Energy, and not between states.
“The deal does not require the approval of the parliament to be implemented,” the court ruled.
Abdulmumeen Sulyman Yitta, MCR Correspondent.
