Occupation through renewables: FoE groups urge governments to cut ties with Israeli energy company

We're sharing here a Friends of the Earth Europe article, penned by Marija (Maruška) Mileta of Friends of the Earth Croatia, and Amanda Subiela of Friends of the Earth Spain. This article delves into how an Israeli energy company with projects all over Europe is responsible for exploiting natural resources and production in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories. They also have a small wind farm here in Ireland based in Tullynamoyle, Sligo.

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Renewable energy, same as fossil fuels, can be an active tool for military violence, land theft and occupation.

The Israeli government aims to increase electricity production from renewable sources by 2030, for the “benefit of Israeli households and industry”. Part of this plan is the construction and expansion of commercial renewable energy projects in the occupied West Bank, the Syrian Golan and the Negev (Naqab) desert. 

As of August 2024, at least ten commercial Israeli renewable energy projects are operational in the occupied territories – exploiting Palestinian and Syrian land and natural resources. These solar and wind farms supply electricity to Israeli households and industry, while at the same time reinforce the underdevelopment and dependency of the Palestinian electricity sector.

The company behind these projects, Enlight Renewable Energy, has a history of working with the IOF (so called IDF – Israel Defense Forces) and is currently behind major renewable projects in Italy, Croatia, Spain, Ireland, Hungary, Serbia, Kosovo, Sweden and the US.

Governments cooperating with Enlight are in violation of international law. Friends of the Earth groups in Spain and Croatia are actively resisting these projects.

Occupied Golan Heights

The Golan Heights is a rocky plateau in the Levant region of Western Asia that Israel conquered and occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War with Syria. The vast majority of the 150.000 inhabitants had to flee, leaving only 6.390 – mostly Druze. In 1981, the state of Israel announced the annexation of the Golan Heights – the international community has never recognised this annexation and still considers it an illegal occupation. In a highly controversial move, the US recognised the annexation under the Trump administration in 2019, and the illegal settlement “Trump Plateau” was symbolically established on the Golan. The latest events in Syria, with the fall of the Assad regime, have led to the immediate further penetration of Israeli troops into the Golan.

Today, about 26.000 Druze and about 22.000 Israeli settlers live on the Golan Heights. The vision of the Israeli state is to bring in 250.000 illegal Israeli settlers by 2042.

The Druze are an Arab ethnic group defined by their unique religion living in the Levantine region (Syria, Lebanon, Palestine). While many Druze live in the Golan Heights, they also live in other parts of Israel, totaling 150.000 people. The relationship between the Druze community and Israeli society is complex. On the one hand, they are incredibly well integrated, on the other hand, the Israeli government uses many discriminatory tools to control the Druze community and its resources. As a non-Jewish minority, they were directly affected by the controversial 2018 nation-state law, which relegated them to second-class citizens alongside the Palestinians. 

Only 5% of the Golan Heights is believed to remain in Druze ownership. And it is there that a massive wind farm project is situated. Genesis Wind (Ruach Bereshit) is currently the largest Israeli renewable energy project. Its 39 wind turbines (207 MW) were built in 2023 by Enlight Renewable Energy, an Israel-based company. This project, as well as others, was met with significant resistance from the Druze community.

Through its subsidiary, Ruach Beresheet L.P., Enlight is the majority owner. The wind farm is located in the southeastern Syrian Golan Heights, and was established by the company in partnership with the local illegal settlements, which together own 10% of the project. In full capacity, it’s expected to supply electricity to 70.000 households and generate annual revenue of NIS 192 million (cca 50 million EUR). The project also includes the construction and expansion of 35 km of roads and a high-voltage power line that will include optical fibers stretching across the Golan and provide high-speed internet to illegal settlements in the area.

The energy produced by the wind farm will be sold under a 20-year power purchase agreement with the Israel Electric Corporation (the largest electricity supplier in Israel and the Palestinian territories). The wind turbines on the farm were provided by US company General Electric, which is also responsible for the operation of the turbines on site. 

Since 2022, Enlight also operates another wind farm – Emek Habacha. Through its subsidiary, Emek HaBacha Wind Energy Ltd., Enlight holds a 40.85% stake in the wind farm project in the northern Syrian Golan Heights. The wind turbines at the farm were also manufactured by General Electric. 

Both wind farms operate under the jurisdiction of the Golan Regional Council, which serves illegal Israeli settlements in the region, and which have the possibility to join as minority shareholders.

In 2023, the company was selected to develop four additional solar facilities in the settlements of Ramat Magshimim and Merom Golan on the occupied Syrian Golan. In addition, Enlight has six installed PV systems built on water infrastructure in the Syrian Golan in partnership with the Mei Golan Water Corporation, which owns 27 illegal settlements in the Golan.

The Negev desert

The Negev is an arid region in the southern part of Israel (under occupation) and occupies almost half of Palestine west of the Jordan River and about 60 percent of Israel’s territory under the 1949–67 borders. Since the Nakba in 1948, the State of Israel has used a variety of tools and policies to forcibly displace Bedouin residents in the Negev.

Enlight has eight solar projects in the Negev region.  

The Sde Nitzan Solar Farm began commercial operations in 2023. It’s Enlight’s first grid-connected project and the largest in the country to combine solar power and storage. It has 23 MW of solar and 40 MWh of storage capacity.

Enlight also owns 90% of the Eshkol Havetzelet-Halutziot solar project in the Negev. 

The company has developed a wind farm project in the Yatir Forest (on the edge of the Negev Desert), which was planted by the Jewish National Fund to displace the indigenous Bedouin population. The Yatir Wind Farm is a 38 MW onshore wind farm project. According to GlobalData, the project is currently in the permitting phase. The project is expected to be operational in 2025.

Gaza Envelope & West Bank

Enlight’s two new solar energy projects in the Gaza Envelope are connected to the national electricity grid. These facilities are located near the illegal settlements of Yesha and Re’im to provide them with a stable and reliable source of energy. These projects were completed despite delays caused by the “security situation” (i.e. genocide) in the area. The projects are entering commercial operation ahead of schedule, thanks to close cooperation with the Israel Electric Corporation and IOF. The solar-plus-storage system helps provide energy “security” to the State of Israel through a distributed energy model. Enlight Renewable Energy now has five solar plants in the Gaza Envelope.

In January 2022, Enlight was selected to participate in a pilot program launched by Israel’s Ministry of Energy and Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to test the feasibility of dual-use agricultural land for solar power generation. Six pilot projects have been approved for Enlight – including agroelectric plants in the settlement of Carmel in the occupied West Bank and in the settlements of Ramat Magshimim and Merom Golan in the Syrian Golan.

Enlight is responsible for exploiting natural resources and production in the occupied Palestinian and Syrian territories, providing electricity through renewable sources to illegal Israeli settlements and producing such settlements because illegal settlers come to these areas due to a new source of energy.

Enlight Renewable Energy and the IOF

Prior to founding Enlight, Gilad Yavetz was vice president of marketing and sales at BVR, a high-tech company that works with leading militaries around the world. 

Enlight Renewable Energy has a history of working with the IOF on renewable energy projects, particularly in the field of solar energy. In 2011, Enlight won a tender to install 45 solar panels on the roofs of IOF bases, generating 2.25 megawatts of electricity, which was the company’s largest project at the time.

The IOF is actively working to increase the use of renewable energy sources, including solar power on bases and larger solar farms such as the one at Ramon Air Base (2017). Under  a new framework proposal, Enlight will maintain the infrastructure they build for about 15 years, before transferring ownership to the IOF, and will share  the profits.

Resistance to projects in Europe

Friends of the Earth groups in Spain and Croatia are actively resisting these projects.

In the south of Croatia, Enlight Renewable Energy already operates a wind farm, and now, through its subsidiary Aureus Solis, it wants to build a big solar power plant named Gala-Obrovac Sinjski. The proposed project is environmentally damaging, as it is planned in a hydrologically sensitive karst area, only 1.5 km above the Kosinac water pumping station, which supplies drinking water to the population of the region. It also envisages the removal of a large area of ​​forest (252 hectares). The project area is surrounded on the north, west and east sides by the borders of the Dinara Nature Park, and in places the distance is only about a hundred meters. The local community is strongly opposing the project.

Zelena akcija/ FoE Croatia advocates renewable sources, but not in the hands of investors who use them as a tool for occupation and control.

Marija Mileta from FoE Croatia stated:

Enlight Renewable Energy cannot greenwash its complicity in the occupation of Palestine and part of Syria, as well as the genocide in Gaza. It is unacceptable for Croatian institutions to issue permits to such a company! Therefore, we demand that cooperation with Enlight be terminated.

In its historic ruling from July 2024, the International Court of Justice made it clear to states that they must refrain from entering into economic or trade relations with Israel, but also take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that help maintain Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine. By entering into investment relations with Enlight Renewable Energy, Croatia and other states are violating international law.

In Spain, where Enlight Renewable Energy through its subsidiary Generación Eólica Castilla-La Mancha SL has already built and is operating GECAMA, the largest wind farm in the country that generates 300 MW of electricity. It has now secured 310 million dollars in investment to expand this wind farm into a hybrid wind-solar farm of an additional 250,08 MW with 100 MW of storage capacity. The expansion of this project will affect 334,22 hectares of agricultural land and forests, with electricity infrastructure crossing protected forest areas.

Apart from this project, Enlight Renewable Energy also intends to build a lithium battery storage center with 49 MW of capacity in the north of Spain, in the little village of La Fueva (Huesca), located in an UNESCO heritage protected area. This new project would occupy 3 hectares of land and be used for placing 96 batteries of the size of a container truck. There are high risks of fires caused by lithium leaks and of water supply pollution due to its proximity to the Mediano and el Grado reservoirs. 

Amigas de la Tierra España / FoE Spain rejects these projects not only because of the environmental and local social impacts, but because of its ties to colonization, apartheid and genocide. Amanda Subiela from Amigas de la Tierra España emphasised:

If our government is serious about its support for Palestine, we have to completely withdraw our collaboration with Israeli companies that are helping expand illegal settlements and are providing renewable energy to the IOF.