Local activists yesterday expressed disappointment with a court decision to give the Egyptian Government legal clearance to allow natural gas exports to Israel, vowing to continue fighting to compel the Government to stop fuelling “the factories and the homes” of the Jewish state. The activists said they would pursue every possible legal channel to convince the Government to keep the gas for the people of Egypt, instead of giving it for an “enemy country” for peanuts. “I feel so sorry for what is happening,” said Ibrahim Youssri, a former diplomat and a current lawyer who started the legal proceedings against exporting the gas to Israel. “The wealth of this country shouldn't be left in the hands of a few who are ready to squander it,” he told The Egyptian Gazette in an interview over the phone. The Higher Administrative Court, an appeals court for cases involving the State, yesterday cancelled a former lower court ruling to stop natural gas exports to Israel. But it called on the Government to monitor the price and the quantity of its exports so that it could ensure it meets local energy demand. This decision seems to have brought a lengthy and loud conflict between Youssri and his colleagues, on the one hand, and the Government, on the other, to the finish line. It was, according to some observers, a conflict that showed the real width of the gap between the Government and these activists as representatives of a large swat of the Egyptian people. While many Egyptians still balk at normalisation of relations with Israel, the Government goes forward towards this normalisation at full speed, totally disregarding the desires of the people, these observers say. "It is not within the jurisdiction of the courts to hear appeals against the Government's decision to export gas to eastern Mediterranean markets, including Israel," said Mohamed Husseini, who chaired the court's session yesterday. The State's decision to export gas to Israel was "sovereign", he said. Gas started flowing to Israel through a pipeline for the first time in May 2008 under an agreement signed in 2005 for the supply of 1.7 billion cubic metres a year over 20 years. In November 2008, a Cairo court overruled the Government's decision to allow the exports after a group of lawyers had filed a suit against the Egyptian authorities, saying the Israelis were buying the gas at prices below the international level. Egypt exports gas to Israel and Arab countries by pipelines and also ships liquefied natural gas abroad. In 2008, it said it would not sign any new gas export contracts until 2010 in order to meet rising local demand. This rising local demand is what fuels the actions of Youssri and his colleagues against gas exportation to Israel. He says by exporting the gas, the Government violates the Constitution. “This is a mere waste of a badly needed public wealth,” he said. “The people must do something to stop this,” he added.
