Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel walk on Ashdod beach on February 21, 2021, after an offshore oil spill caused damage along Israel's Mediterranean coast (Kobi Gideon / GPO)
As last month’s oil spill continues to do damage to Israel’s territorial waters and beaches, Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel is doing damage to herself, to the prime minister and to Israel’s efforts to contain Iran, with her ongoing accusations that Tehran deliberately engineered the incident.
Pressed Thursday night during an interview with Channel 12 to provide evidence to back up her repeated claims that last month’s spill, which polluted most of Israel’s Mediterranean coastline with hundreds of tons of tar, was an act of “environmental terror” by Iran, Gamliel offered only circumstantial evidence regarding the ship and the damage it caused.