Druze community urges Netanyahu to review Golan wind turbine project, alleging fraud
Following mass protests, community leaders send letter to PM presenting alleged evidence of a series of irregularities in approvals, including impersonation of Druze landowners
Gianluca Pacchiani is the Arab affairs reporter for The Times of Israel
Leaders of the Druze community in the Golan Heights sent a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Thursday requesting a freeze on a controversial plan to construct dozens of wind turbines on farmland in the area.
The lengthy 43-page letter, sent by lawyer Nasser Kais on behalf of Druze landowners and residents of the Golan region, outlines “failures in the approval process of the turbines by the competent authorities,” according to a report by the Haaretz news site.
The newly submitted evidence allegedly justifies an additional suspension of the construction works, following the brief pause granted by Netanyahu this week for the duration of the Eid al-Adha holiday marked by Muslims and Druze.
The document was sent to Netanyahu, as well as Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Israel Electric Corporation and the Infrastructure Planning and Development Administration, detailing several alleged irregularities, starting from the appointment of the expert that approved the turbine plan.
The Druze reportedly contend that the project was promoted and finalized on the basis of a plan submitted by the contracting company Energix without prior consultation with the land owners.
Furthermore, the letter claims that the company concealed existing land lease agreements under the pretext of trade secrecy and protection of the privacy of the signatories.
Kais further claimed that meetings at the national infrastructure authority were attended by people purporting to be representatives of the Druze community who gave their approval, while in fact they were impersonators hired by the company to lie about the community’s acceptance of the project.
Consequently, the lawyer demanded that Netanyahu and his government suspend the project in view of the “irrevocable damage caused to the landowners and the need to restore public order,” and that the decision be reviewed in light of the new evidence.”
The turbine project has riled the Druze community over the past days, with thousands protesting in various locations in the Golan, burning tires and hurling rocks, fireworks and Molotov cocktails at the police. In a large demonstration on June 21, twelve police officers were wounded, and eight demonstrators were injured — five of them seriously.
The head of the Druze community in Israel, Sheikh Muafak Tarif, has warned the government to stop the work to construct wind turbines in the Golan Heights, or face “a reaction the country has hitherto not seen.”
Israel captured the Golan from Syria during the Six Day War in 1967 and annexed the territory in 1981 in a move not recognized by the international community, until the US administration of Donald Trump did so in 2019. Most of the Golan Druze view themselves as Syrian and refuse to take up Israeli citizenship.
The Times of Israel Community.