A tool for militarisation and colonial expansion

Genesis Wind is much more than a project to provide energy. It serves simultaneously many other purposes. 

Firstly, the infrastructure ensures that the expansion of the Druze community is limited. 

In a very practical way, the wind turbines physically block the expansion of the already crowded village of Majdal Shams by being located just at the south of the village and prevent any possible connection with the following Druze village of Masada.  The Golan region is wide, but the wind turbines are specifically located close to the Druze villages to limit their expansion^[10]. They are also specifically located far away from the Jewish illegal settlements to allow their physical expansion. 

At the same time, the infrastructure is built to exclusively provide energy for the Israeli grid and to sustain the current and future illegal Israeli settlements in the Golan. In no way the project is done in co-ownership with the local Druze community – and this shows in the financial set-up. Only a handful of Druze inhabitants that have leased their land for the wind turbines will benefit economically from the project – and yet they “are offered about one percent of the revenue generated by the turbines whereas it is said Israelis, for similar projects on their lands, have been offered as much as five times more”^[11]. Decades of policies aimed at limiting the economic growth of the Druze community in the Golan Heights means that farmers were ready to accept this bad deal. 

Moreover, this land is not just leased, it risks being actively taken away from Durze legal ownership :  “the majority within the Druze community perceive it as expropriating the little land that remains for them.”^[12]

This is the first wind farm project to be established on privately-owned land in Israel^[13]. And the wind turbines are planned on land privately-owned by Druze inhabitants. 

The contracts between Energix and individuals were lengthy complicated documents according close to unlimited rights on the land to the company for 25 years^[14]. People are rightly worrying that this land won’t be returned to them after this period and will be lost forever.  It is not a misplaced fear to worry that land can structurally be taken away from non-Jewish minorities.  The Druze community is still impacted by the Kaminitz law of 2017 that suddenly changed the legal status of many of their lands to agricultural, stipulating that residential buildings that had been built on them were now considered illegal constructions.

Probably the most insidious section of the contract for land leasing with Energix is that landowners need to register their land with Israeli authorities and utilise Israeli licensing regulations and laws^[15]. This is an incredibly smart way to force individuals to slowly enable the state of Israel to gain authority and legitimacy on land that is currently illegal occupied according to the international community 

Finally, it is important to highlight the militarised aspects of this project. The Israeli Ministry of Defense signed an agreement with Energix to ensure the maintenance of “israel’s security interests” within the wind project^[16]. When the company began construction work, the Israeli police was present to protect the work of the company^[17]. Again, it is important to remember that this land is currently under illegal occupation by the state of Israel, so involving state actors – such as the Defense Ministry or the Israeli police to support the establishment of a private company on that land is a highly political move.  

Fuck no

It is impossible in just a few paragraphs to relay the experience of people living in the Golan Heights over the last decades and their relationship with Israeli society. The wind project can only be understood in the context of increasing laws criminalising the Druze population. What is clear is that Genesis Wind is a project that was imposed on the local community without their interest in mind, but with a clear agenda of limiting Druze empowerment and entrench Israeli authority and occupation in the Golan^[18]. 

So with great courage, the Druze community came together and said fuck no to the windturbines. They organised huge protests, burnt tires and strategically put political pressure on the Israeli government^[19]. 

By the start of the war in October 2023, more than 18 million shekels had already been invested. But for now the project has been frozen^[20]. The fall of the Assad regime in Syria will undoubtedly reshape the Israeli occupation of the Golan in ways that are yet to be understood. 

If we don’t listen, the far-right will

While this project objectively provides clean energy and helps mitigate climate change, it is impossible to ignore that it is also a tool for occupation and control. This is where climate mitigation and climate justice reach a fork in the road.

This project is yet another example of the greenwashing Israel does regarding the violation of international law. What is happening in the Golan Heights is similarly happening in Azerbaijan^[21] or Morocco^[22]. Energy projects – whether sun, wind or fossil – are used to occupy disputed land, build costly infrastructure that will then be protected and appear under a veil of green climate-friendly solutions. 

Let’s not shy away from listening to the grievances of people resisting wind and solar projects – it is essential for the climate movement to listen to them, to learn from their experiences and fight alongside them for an energy transition that is just. It will only make our energy systems more resilient and rooted. 

By ignoring their concerns, we leave a vacant space for far-right and fascist groups to come in and entrench their base, like in France^[23]. By ignoring these difficult conversations, social movements and left political patries refuse to enter into intersectional and complex discussions – which is inherent to a just energy transition. In Greece and Spain, NGOs have lost the trust of communities and grassroots organisers for refusing to hold a clear justice line regrading the possible damage down by renewables. Let’s learn from past mistakes and do better.