The three judges of Israel’s Supreme Court on Sunday rejected four petitions against Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s controversial gas deal with Lebanon.

The judges did not provide their reasons for rejecting the petitions, and the court notice states that the reasons will be provided separately.

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court deliberated over the petitions against the deal, with the discussion focused on the question of whether a transitional government can sign such a deal so close to elections, as well as on the question of whether the Basic Law of Referendum should be applied to it and whether it should be brought to the Knesset for approval.

In the course of the deliberations, Attorney Yitzchak Bam of the right-wing Lavi organization argued that the deal must be brought before the Knesset for approval, saying that it’s absurd that a caretaker government can sign an international deal with an enemy state but can’t make an appointment to a religious council in Kiryat Ono.

Following the Court’s decision to reject the petitions, the government is expected to convene on Thursday to approve the agreement and hold a signing ceremony immediately afterward.

Eugene Kontorovich of the Kohelet Policy Forum, responded to the report by stating: “I don’t know of any Western democracy where a minority government can cede national territory without legislative input. What happened in Israel is not a democratic process, but a capitulation to Hezbollah’s threats, which swept up the caretaker government, and with it the Courts.”

Religious Zionism chairman Betzalel Smotrich responded to the announcement by stating: “So the Supreme Court, which didn’t allow Netanyahu to promote the gas plan without the Knesset because ‘the Knesset is not a band of cheerleaders,’ allows Lapid to give up significant territorial territory and economic assets to Hezbollah during an election period and turn the Knesset into a ‘band of cheerleaders.'”

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, which is affiliated with Hezbollah, reported at the end of the week that the American mediator, Amos Hochstein, is expected to arrive in Beirut in the middle of the week and that the Israeli side informed the Americans that Israel would be ready to sign the agreement at the UN headquarters later this week.

The signing will be in two separate rooms, with both sides accompanied by American and UN representatives.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)