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Residents of the occupied Syrian Golan heights have unequivocally rejectedÌýa temporary freeze on a controversial IsraeliÌýwind farm project, much of which will be built on private land, and have demanded its immediate cancellation due to the threat it poses to their land and livelihoods.

If implemented, the project will see the confiscation of 4,500 dunums – over 1,000 acres - of agricultural land belonging to Syrian Druze residents, which serves to attract agricultural tourism and is a key source of income for the 27,000-strong community.ÌýThe Syrian Golan Heights have been occupied by Israel since 1967.

The 'Religious and Temporal Committee' in the occupied Golan last week held an emergency meeting where those who had signed contracts with the windfarm company were asked to file requests for the termination of the contracts and to return all funds paid by the company. They were also asked to fence off the land earmarked for the turbines' construction and erect 'Private-No Entry' signs on it.

"If implemented, the project will see the confiscation of 4,500 dunums – over 1,000 acres - of agricultural land belonging to Syrian Druze residents"

The committee pinned "full responsibility to each signatory who doesn't abide by these conditions and each person who cooperates with this company […]" and demanded these measures should be carried out before 30 June, including by those with turbines already constructed on their land.

The measures followed brutal scenes last week when Golan residents protested after the wind turbine company resumed work on their farmland. Dozens were injured as they clashed with Israeli police forces, who used live fire, rubber bullets, skunk water, tear gas, and sound bombs to clamp down on the protesters.

Following the protests, on Thursday 22 June, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu stated that construction would be temporarily halted until after Eid al-Adha, after being urged to by senior officials including the head of Israel's Security Agency (Shin Bet). Construction is yet to restart.

A familiar story: Israel's government wants the land - not the people

"The Golan people categorically reject the wind turbines project," Golan resident Sheikh Salman Awad told the Arab48 news agency. "We don't want the project frozen […] our demand is clear – the cancellation of the project which aims to squeeze the people and bring about their expulsion from their villages."

For most residents, the land slated for construction is their only source of income and provides green, open spaces for leisure.

"We aren't against green energy, but against placing it in the middle of the apple, cherry, and date palm orchards which will be seriously damaged, and against being deprived of the nature and source of our livelihoods, as well as the huge environmental damage which will result from this project," he explained. ÌýÌý

"The goal of the Israeli government is the land, as it wants the land, but not the people," Awad added. "Therefore it chose to put these turbines on land belonging to the Golan people and not other areas. Even though the Golan region is vast and there is lots of space, they chose the Arab villages […] in order to displace the people".

"The goal of the Israeli government is the land, as it wants the land, but not the people. Therefore it chose to put these turbines on land belonging to the Golan people and not other areas"

Tightening restrictionsÌý

Wael Treibeh, an activist from the Golan Heights, explained to Arab48 that the windfarm project began in 2008 after a company called 'Mei Golan' began investigating the possibility of investing in wind energy in the occupied territory.

However, a few years later Mei Golan was taken over by 'Energix' which started preliminary studies and preparation for the project in 2013, explained Treibeh.

"Across the Golan there were plans for around 15 windfarm projects, a portion of which would be built on the private land of Golan residents. This is despite the vast open space in the Golan – Druze villages were chosen in order to squeeze them".

In his view, aside from the natural suitability of the area, the company saw striking individual deals with farmers to use their land as easier than undertaking the bureaucratic procedures required to obtain licences. They also felt they could strike deals for relatively small payments to farmers, so the company would save both time and money by going directly to them.

Secretly gathering contracts

Treibeh says from 2014 to 2017, a group of collaborators – "not more than five people" – received payment for pushing the project forward and convincing farmers to sign contracts with the company. This was done in secret, and resulted in a set of contracts being arranged.

Local awareness of this began building in 2017. "People started sensing the danger of the contracts, which stated the company would have 25 years' right to use the private land of Golan residents," Treibeh said.

"Here the citizens began sensing that the company would just take the land following that period, and people would lose their land completely. This is when people started to fear the fact that they were up against a giant corporation that wanted to seize land belonging to the people".

In 2017 an enquiry began. Experts were consulted on every aspect, from health and the environment to noise pollution and agricultural impacts, and public meetings were called.

By late 2018 the serious danger posed to the future of the Golan residents was crystal clear. However, even though residents submitted "hundreds of objections to the planning committee in Jerusalem […] Israel's authorities took none of this into consideration," says Treibeh.

Paving the way for a giant settlement project

In terms of the windfarm project's political aspects, Treibeh says: "The project is based on political Israeli interventions - there is a group of senior politicians who are major beneficiaries of this project".

He believes Israel is attempting to intensify its grip on the occupied Golan heights and wants it to become "fully Israeli", and that, to this end, infrastructure is being prepared for a giant settlement project planned for the region, which aims to bring in 250,000 Israeli settlers by 2042.

"There have been […] incentives for settlers to move to the Golan, like providing job opportunities, to secure [Israel's] grip over the Golan completely. All this followed the destruction that befell our motherland Syria in 2011 – for this reason Israel is working to exploit this gap," he concludes.

"Infrastructure is being prepared for a giant settlement project planned for the region, which aims to bring in 250,000 Israeli settlers by 2042"

Objections thrown out

Lawyer Karama Abu Saleh from Al-Marsad – the Arab Center for Human Rights in the Golan Heights, told Arab 48 that the legal fightback started in 2018 when thousands of objections were sent to the National Planning and Building Council. Unfortunately, all of them were rejected, he adds. However, Al-Marsad is now going down a different route.

"One condition for building the wind turbines was that the owners of the land next to the plots where the turbines were supposed to be built also signed their agreement to it, which caused the company to bring forged signatures and submit them to the planning committee," explains Abu Saleh.

This was to do with land ownership in the region. With no official land registry under Israeli occupation, ownership papers regarding land are only exchanged upon purchase, upon which an ownership transfer document will be exchanged between Golan residents. Ìý

"The company exploited this gap and forged papers with names of people from the Golan," says Abu Saleh, adding that today Al-Marsad is trying to prove the company faked the signatures, and is currently submitting requests that this issue be investigated.

"The area the company and the government want to build these towering structures on are the green lung for the people of the Golan, and the only space they have to expand in. This is the reason for the fight to oppose this restriction and land confiscation - it is the right of the people of the Golan to reject projects which aim to expel them from their villages," he says.

This is an edited and abridged translation with additional reporting. To read the original article click .

This article was originally published by Arab48.

Translated by Rose Chacko