Dozens of protesters blocked parts of Tel Aviv 'sNamir Road Saturday in protest of the State's plans to export some of Israel's natural gas. Hundreds marched to Finance Minister Yair Lapid 'shome in northern Tel Aviv and then blocked Namir Road, one of Tel Aviv's main roads.
The protesters are claiming that gas export would see every Israeli household losing NIS 3,000 ($832) a year and the State losing hundreds of billions of shekels. The protesters carried signs reading "Leave the gas in country" and "Stop the gas theft." Some called for solidarity with the protesters in Turkey.
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Earlier on Saturday, some 150 activists launched eight vessels in what they called a protest flotilla against plans to export Israel's recently discovered underwater natural gas reservoirs. The flotilla disembarked from Herzliya and Tel Aviv's ports and was cruising along Tel Aviv's coast line.
Protesters, police forces on Namir Road (Photo: Or Manbar)
Demonstration outside finance minister's home (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
(Photo: Motti Kimchi)
- (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Michal Shukrun from the Green Course Organization said: "We demand to keep the gas in the country, Lapid could be making the biggest decision of his life and we want him to do so after a thorough examination and not a hasty one, as Prime Minister Netanyahu wishes."
Yoav Takta, one of the protest's organizers, said: "We are protesting the hijacking of the gas, and we demand this action will be discussed by the Knesset. It is a critical economic matter that would affect the next 50 years and that is why we demand a transparent and public debate."
Avner Pinchover, one of the demonstration's activists: "Bibi's plan to pass the decision on exporting the gas without any thorough and transparent discussion in the Knesset is an outrage on the scale of the biggest historic failures, such as Yom Kippur."