Majority of gas worth $19 billion transited Palestinian waters without Palestine's consent while Palestine received nothing for it
A gas deal signed between Israel, Egypt and the EU, that has come up for renewal this June, is likely to make the EU complicit in breaches of international law, according to a new investigation by Global Witness. The investigation comes as the EU review their trade ties with Israel due to its aid blockade on Gaza.
The gas deal was signed in 2022, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as the EU took a clear stance on ending ‘the era of Russian fossil fuels’ and sought to diversify its gas supply.
According to Israel’s energy ministry, the agreement enables substantial Israeli gas exports to Europe. The route for this gas to be exported from Israel to the EU relies on a pipeline, operated in part by a subsidiary of US oil giant Chevron, which crosses Palestinian territory without regard for international conventions.
Despite the pipeline’s likely breaches of international law, and the UN Special Committee finding Israel’s war on Gaza consistent with the characteristics of genocide, the EU and its member states have continued to import gas via the pipeline.
Campaigners say the EU’s divergent approach to doing business with Russia and Israel expose its moral hypocrisy. They are calling for member states to immediately end imports of Israeli gas, and for all state and corporate actors involved in the running of the pipeline to be held legally accountable.
Sarah Biermann Becker, Senior Investigator at Global Witness said:
"Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the EU has tried to position itself as a defender of human rights, but its continued business with Israel exposes a deplorable double standard.”
“What we’ve effectively seen is the EU swapping out one human rights abuser for another - pursuing a gas deal that tramples over Palestinian rights and effectively helps bankroll Israel’s genocide on Gaza.”
“As Israel’s relentless and brutal aggression towards the Palestinian people shows no sign of abating, the EU must act - it must halt all gas imports via the EMG pipeline immediately and cancel the trade agreement. The EU’s complicity in Israel’s human rights violations must end now.”
Speaking in a personal capacity, Lynn Boylan MEP (who Chairs the European Parliament Delegation for Relations with Palestine) said:
"This shameful deal should never have been signed. Now, as we are witnessing Israel commit genocide in Gaza and threatening full annexation, the EU must end the MoU.”
“The agreement contradicts EU policy as it does not explicitly exclude the Occupied Palestinian Territories from the scope of the MoU.”
“As we see the Israeli Government and the U.S Government openly discussing a resource grab in Gaza, the EU cannot be complicit and must now take the opportunity to end this shameful agreement once and for all."
Mohammed Usrof, Executive Director, Palestinian Institute for Climate Strategy (PICS):
“The EU treats Palestine as a disposable zone, completely ignoring a live genocide that has poisoned land, sea, and air. It’s racism in policy form and not only is it prolonging the climate crisis, it is evading the question of a just transition by investing in and profiting off the destruction of Palestinian life.”
“The EMG pipeline shows how international law - including the EU’s own human rights clauses - appear to crumble once profit is at stake.”
“If it wants to stand for human rights, Brussels must cancel the gas deal, impose an energy embargo, and lead full-scale economic disengagement from Israel. Grassroots movements must also escalate their actions until Palestine controls its own resources.”
Ana Sánchez Mera, spokesperson for Global Energy Embargo for Palestine said:
“This investigation lays bare the EU’s complicity and hypocrisy: while claiming to uphold human rights, it actively supports a gas infrastructure that entrenches Israel’s colonial control over Palestinian land and resources.”
“By denying Palestinians their right to self-determination and exploiting their natural gas, Israel - backed by private corporations - turns genocide into profit. The companies operating this pipeline are complicit in apartheid, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.”
“Normalising energy and economic ties with Israel is not neutrality, it is the whitewashing of a regime built on illegal occupation, apartheid, and genocide. We call on the EU and member states to end their complicity and impose an energy embargo for Palestine.”
Ya’ara Peretz, Gastivists’ Collectivist coordinator said:
"Fossil gas has been fuelling tensions in the East Mediterranean even before the ongoing genocide in Gaza.”
“The EU has consistently played a complicit role, contributing to the destabilization of the lives of the people in the region.”
“This is a call to all EU citizens: stand against these atrocities. Demand that your governments stop importing gas from Israel. Demand that your energy does not come at the cost of the lives of Palestinian children."
The main way for gas to reach the EU from Israel is via the ‘East Mediterranean Gas’ (EMG) pipeline that runs from Ashkelon in Israel to Al-Arish in Egypt. It runs parallel to Gaza’s shore and crosses Palestinian maritime territory (see map below based on estimated coordinates).
The Palestinian Authority did not agree to the pipeline and Global Witness could find no evidence that Palestine receives transit fees or other monetary compensation for the pipeline.
By contrast, Ukraine still made $1.2 billion in 2022 from transit fee revenues after Russia’s full-scale invasion – equivalent to about 0.5% of its GDP.
Global Witness received in-depth legal advice from expert lawyers outlining multiple possible breaches of international law posed by the pipeline – and the EU’s role in these infractions.
The legal advice highlighted that Israel and Egypt’s unilateral construction of the Ashkelon-Arish pipeline across Palestinian waters without agreement from the Palestinian Authority is a breach of international law.
Lawyers also highlighted how the EU’s 2022 Memorandum of Understanding with Israel which further supports Israeli gas imports, ignores evidence of lethal Israeli military enforcement of the naval blockade in Palestine.
The naval blockade has been maintained in part to ‘protect’ the gas pipeline, and has wrecked the Palestinian fishing industry, led to food insecurity, and entailed Israeli military violence against Palestinian fisherfolk, including killings and arrests.
Expert lawyers outlined that if the EMG pipeline breaches international law, the EU would also be complicit in these breaches – through both the gas deal itself and through purchase of gas transported through the pipeline.
Outside of legal implications for state actors, the companies that profit from the pipeline could also be in breach of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, due to the systemic human rights abuses involved in the running of the pipeline.
Global Witness is calling for all state and corporate actors involved in the running, use or other legitimisation of the pipeline to be held legally accountable.
The investigative campaigning group are also demanding a stop to any Israeli gas imports to the EU, the cancellation of the Memorandum of Understanding and for Palestine to have control over its maritime territory in line with international law and for an end to the occupation.
They also echo calls from partners for an end to Israel’s genocide of Gaze, an end to the occupation of Palestine, and call for a permanent and enduring ceasefire.
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