CAIRO: The Cairo Court for Urgent Cases will hold a hearing on Dec. 15 to consider a motion filed by the State Judicial Authority to repeal the Cairo Administrative Court s verdict to halt Egypt's gas exports to Israel. Thirty individual lawyers have also filed six motions to repeal the verdict, which was handed out on Tuesday. These motions will be reviewed on Dec. 15, 16, 18 and 20. The underlying argument for the repeal is that the verdict cannot be given against the government, as there is no contractual relationship between the state of Egypt and the state of Israel concerning the exportation of natural gas. Rather, the contract is between the Egyptian General Authority for Petroleum and the EgyptianIsraeli consortium Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG). As it is a purely business venture, it no longer falls under the jurisdiction of the administrative court. Meanwhile, MP Talaat El-Sadat sent a request to parliamentary speaker Fathi Sorour calling for the removal of both Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif and Petroleum Minister Sameh Fahmy from Cabinet in light of Tuesday s verdict. Sadat said in the letter sent to Sorour that the request was justified because of the clear words of the verdict that ensure the role of the legislative council in reviewing such agreements according to the constitution. The government s non-adherence to this is careless and a waste of the people s resources and public funds, Sadat continued. The Cairo Administrative Court ruled Tuesday that exporting natural gas to Israel cannot be carried out without parliamentary approval and ordered its halt.The court ruled that national resources belong to current and future generations, and the executive must first get parliament s approval. The case was brought by former diplomat Ibrahim Yousry, who is the lawyer representing the Popular Campaign Against the Export of Egyptian Gas to Israel. The suit aimed to cancel the decision of the Minister of Petroleum to export gas to Israel and to protect the resources of the country, a campaign statement read. The campaign believes that Egypt s natural gas would be better appropriated in local consumption. Another member of the campaign, Abdallah Helmy, told Daily News Egypt after the verdict, This shows that the Egyptian judiciary has listened and responded to the wishes of the Egyptian people. And Helmy pointed out that the campaign would not stop its activities with the verdict. Now that we have judicial legitimacy, we will be requesting from President Hosni Mubarak as head of the executive branch to carry out the decision, he said. There was a severe objection to the Israeli deal specifically because of the lower than market price on which the deal was struck, which according to Yousry was costing Egypt $9 million a day. There has also been opposition to the deal due to the continued siege of the Gaza Strip, in which fuel shortages are enormous. Many have opposed exporting gas to Israel while 1.5 million Palestinians face crippling fuel shortages. The 15-year deal was struck in a memorandum of understanding signed in 2005 between the two countries. Gas started flowing to Israel in February. The company responsible for the deal is the EgyptianIsraeli consortium Eastern Mediterranean Gas (EMG) which has a contract initially for 15 years guaranteeing a supply of 1.7 billion cubic meters a year at the price of $1.5 per million BTU (British Thermal Units). EMG is a private energy consortium co-owned by Egyptian businessman Hussein Salem and the Israeli Merhav Group. The gas being supplied to Israel specifically goes to the Israel Electric Corporation.
