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The Red Sea reefs off the Israeli resort town of Eilat are home to some of the greatest coral diversity on the planet.
A symphony in splendid technicolor, the reefs are among the most resistant coral colonies in the world in the face of warming seas. They have also become an unlikely battleground, caught between Israeli diplomatic and commercial interests, and environmental groups who fear this natural treasure is in danger.
A underground oil affair concluded last year as part of the landmark agreement establishing relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) make Eilat a crossing point for Emirati oil destined for Western markets.
Initially hailed as a move that could cement fledgling diplomatic ties and advance Israel’s energy ambitions, the deal is now in question after Israel’s new government opens a review. The move has shocked investors and risks a diplomatic row with allies in the Gulf of Israel.
The United Arab Emirates and Israel, which normalized their relations last year under the US-brokered “Abraham Agreements,” have since signed more than $ 830 million in trade deals and signed numerous trade and cooperation agreements.
But the deal between Europe Asia Pipeline Company, an Israeli government-owned company, and MED-RED Land Bridge, an Israeli-UAE joint venture, remains a secret.
Senior officials in the government of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – including his former energy, foreign affairs and environment ministers – said they were unaware of the deal until it was announced last September, after the agreements were signed at the White House.
The pipeline company, known as EAPC, was founded in the 1960s to bring Iranian oil to Israel when the countries had friendly relations. Its operations are shrouded in secrecy, apparently for security reasons.
Israeli environmental groups have asked the country’s Supreme Court to stop oil shipments, citing the EAPC’s questionable safety record and the risk posed by supertankers parked next to Eilat’s fragile coral ecosystems.
As for an oil spill, it is “not a question of whether it will happen, but when it will happen,” said Assaf Zevuloni, an ecologist with the Nature and Parks Authority in Eilat. Even a small break-up or human error would have dire consequences, he said.
Israel suffered its worst environmental disaster in February when a spill in the eastern Mediterranean covered almost all of its 270 km (170 miles) coastline with oil. The petitioners – three Israeli environmental groups – argued that the incident would be “overshadowed by a massive oil spill” off Eilat.
Israel has long lacked natural resources. But that started to change after the discovery in 2009 of natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea and the first exports from Israel.
The deal with the United Arab Emirates would expand this nascent energy sector, with oil shipped through Israel in a pipeline to the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon and to European markets.
Yona Fogel, an executive with one of the project’s Israeli partners, told public broadcaster Kan in June that the deal with the United Arab Emirates “will generate revenue for the EAPC of hundreds of dollars. [of millions] and maybe billions of dollars “without” increasing the risk to the environment in any way. “
Ksenia Svetlova, a former lawmaker and director of Middle East relations with the Mitvim Institute, an Israeli think tank, said the project is particularly attractive because it offers an alternative to the Suez Canal. The canal, the main waterway for the Gulf’s exports to the West, was paralyzed earlier this year when a huge tanker ran aground there.
The Emiratis are getting “a cheaper alternative route, something they can use in case they need to divert some of the tankers in that direction,” she said.
But opponents say the potential cost is irreversible damage to a natural wonder.
“In real danger”
The EAPC terminal overlooks part of the Eilat coastline one kilometer (half a mile) north of the Coral Beach Nature Reserve in Israel. Its cranes and pipes jut out into the aquamarine and navy blue waters of the Red Sea. The air stinks of petroleum.
For now, multitudes of corals are still blooming on nearby reefs, attracting fish in kaleidoscopic abundance.
A senior government official said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office had asked the Supreme Court for more time to respond to the challenge from environmentalists. The official spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to reporters.
Israel’s new environment minister has pledged to shut down the pipeline altogether, and his ministry has frozen the company’s planned expansion of operations, pending a government decision.
“The Gulf of Eilat is in real danger because of the Med-Red pipeline, and the State of Israel does not need to be the oil bridge for other countries,” Tamar Zandberg said during he took office in June. His office declined interview requests.
No less important is the effect of a future spill on tourism, the cornerstone of Eilat. Meir Yitzhak Halevi, a first-year lawmaker who served as mayor of Eilat from 2003 to June, said he remained in the dark about EAPC operations and called for full transparency.
An ecological disaster would also likely affect the ecosystems of Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, which all share the waters of the Gulf.
“We have a real potential loss for humanity and for the world’s biodiversity,” said Gidon Bromberg, head of the cross-border environmental group EcoPeace.
The EAPC dismissed environmental concerns as unfounded, claimed that “the danger inherent in the arrival of tankers is nil” and claimed that hundreds of tankers have docked at the adjacent Jordanian port of Aqaba over the past decade. .
The company declined interviews, as did Emirati officials. But the Hebrew daily Israel Hayom recently quoted unnamed Emirati officials as saying that canceling the deal “is definitely a violation” of diplomatic agreements and could damage relations.
Poor safety record
In the meantime, the EAPC has confirmed that it has launched operations. At least eight tankers docked in Eilat in 2021, up from one on average every five years, according to the court’s petition, which argues the deal could carry more than 100 tankers each year.
The EAPC has a poor safety record. A pipeline rupture in 2014 spilled millions of gallons of crude oil into a desert nature reserve. In the 1970s, a series of spills nearly wiped out Eilat’s coral reefs.
Yossi Loya, professor of marine biology at Tel Aviv University, said reefs have managed to recover over the past decade – a rare exception to the deteriorating reefs around the world.
“It is one of the diamonds in the crown, and therefore it is very important to protect them,” he said.
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