Jordan's parliament
Jordan's parliamentReuters

A Jordanian parliamentarian is so much against her country’s gas deal with Israel, that she would rather set herself on fire than see the deal being implemented.

The MP, Hind Al-Fayez, said in a television interview that a Jordanian-Israeli gas deal was tantamount to having "dealings with Satan."

"I will use firewood or even set myself on fire, but I will never import Israeli gas," she declared. The interview aired on the Jordanian/U.K. ANB channel on December 14 and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

U.S. giant Noble Energy announced in September that Israel would supply Jordan with 1.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas from its Leviathan offshore field over a period of 15 years.

A week after the deal was announced 40 Jordanian parliamentarians submitted a memorandum the deal not go through. The issue came up again in Jordan’s parliament several weeks ago, after 79 lawmakers in the 150-seat house filed a motion calling for it to be scrapped.

"Gas supply is part of national security, so how can we link it to an enemy who does not respect its commitments?" asked Jamal Qamwa, who heads parliament's energy commission.

"We are bound to Israel by a peace treaty, but it does not respect it... It is also attacking our people in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip," he added.

"This whole issue is not about importing gas or about prices. Buying from Israel will make us hostage to the Zionist enemy," he said.

Jordan's main opposition Islamist party threatened this week to take legal action against anyone in the kingdom who signs the controversial gas deal with Israel.

Though Jordan has a peace treaty with Israel, the country’s parliament, which is made up mostly of Islamists, remains anti-Israel and its members have more than once called to annul the peace treaty.

In November, following a terrorist attack in a synagogue in Jerusalem, Jordan's parliament held a prayer and a minute's silence in honor of “the spirit” of the two terrorists who carried out the attack.

The same MP who led the prayer, Khalil Attieh, later appeared on a television program discussing the matter, where he repeatedly declared, “I hate the Jews”.