THOUSANDS of Israelis protested against a government deal with US gas monopoly Noble Energy on Saturday evening.

About 7,000 people marched through the capital Tel Aviv while hundreds more demonstrated in Jerusalem, Haifa and Beersheba.

Police pushed protesters back, arresting 10 in clashes. Three were also detained in Beersheba.

“The authorities are trying to help Big Money ‘clean up’ at the expense of Israeli citizens,” protest organiser Yossi Dorfman told reporters. “To ‘clean up’ from natural resources that belong, by law, to the citizens of Israel.”

At the Haifa rally Communist Maki party MP Dov Khenin said the deal would corrupt politicians and “give away our natural resources to tycoons.”

“This struggle is not only economic and social but also over democracy, since there can be no democracy under the rule of money,” he said.

The dodgy deal, described as “the great gas robbery,” has torn up anti-monopoly legislation and led to the resignation of economy minister Aryeh Deri on November 1.

Right-wing Yisrael Beitenu MP Orly Levy-Abekasis told the Times of Israel: “The gas monopoly has already led two regulators to be kicked aside and has sent ministers running.”

If approved, US Noble Energy and the Israeli Delek Group will gain access to the country’s largest offshore gas field — dubbed the Leviathan — which is estimated to contain up to 535 billion cubic metres of gas.

In return they would be forced to limit production at the Tamar, Tanin and Karish fields.

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