Lecture | LUCIS What's New?! series
East Mediterranean Natural Gas and Israel’s Regional Integration
- Date
- Thursday 29 October 2020
- Time
- Explanation
- This is an online event. Please register to receive the link to the lecture.
- Series
- What's New?! Fall 2020 Lecture Series
- Location
- Online
This presentation is based on a new research project. It will discuss the consequences of the discovery in the East Mediterranean of one the world's largest reserves of natural gas on Israel’s strategies for regional integration in the wider Middle East. It will discuss how the extraction and export of natural gas exacerbates three key characteristics of the neoliberal period in Israel: economic integration with its neighbours (especially Jordan and Egypt), the use of economic means to discipline the Palestinian leadership, and growing economic and diplomatic rapprochement between Israel and the GCC.
Recent trade deals between Israel, Jordan, and Egypt over the export of gas, as well as official discussions about an agreement with Saudi Arabia, appear to confirm these hypotheses. The same is true for Israel’s ongoing refusal to allow the extraction of gas found off the shore of Gaza in the context of negotiations with the PA.
About Sai Englert
Sai Englert is a lecturer in political economy of the Middle East at the University of Leiden. His research interests include, Zionism, settler colonialism, neoliberalism and labour movements. He completed his PhD at SOAS in 2018, which focussed on the changing relationship between the Israeli state and the labour movement in the neoliberal period.