Israeli police violently crack down on Syrian Druze protesting Golan Heights wind farm
Israeli security forces disperse a protest near the Syrian Druze village of Majdal Shams in the occupied Golan Heights on 20 June 2023
Lubna Masarwa in Jerusalem and Rayhan Uddin in London report in Middle East Eye:
Israeli police have violently confronted members of the Syrian Druze community in the occupied Golan Heights, wounding people during a second day of demonstrations against a wind farm being built on their agricultural land.
Israel’s Energix Renewable Energies plans to build $190m worth of wind turbines in orchards near the Syrian Druze towns of Majdal Shams and Masada in the northern Golan Heights.
On Tuesday, Druze demonstrators blocked roads and burned mattresses and tyres near the project, waving the Druze flag. The Israeli police responded by firing tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons.
Demonstrations and the police crackdown continued on Wednesday, with several protesters sustaining injuries. That included a young man who was hit in the eye by a rubber-coated metal bullet, local activists told Middle East Eye.
“Today we had two rounds of violent confrontations with the occupation forces who carried out full scale raids with all its equipment,” Sedqi Almaqt, an activist and former prisoner from the Golan, told MEE on Wednesday from protests outside a police station in Masada.
“We in the Golan, the whole community, completely oppose this project and we don’t accept these wind turbines being built on our land.”
According to Ziv Medical Centre in the Israeli city of Safed, three people from Masada were treated there. One of them, in his twenties, suffered bullet wounds, while another sustained head injuries.
Police used tear gas, which was dropped on demonstrators from a drone, the activists said. They added that authorities closed the area and prevented ambulances from reaching the injured. A committee representing Syrian Druze communities in the occupied Golan Heights said that it would go on general strike on Wednesday over “arbitrary and criminal actions against us and the right to our land”. They added that they would gather on Wednesday at the tomb of Al-Ya’afuri, a Druze prophet, before marching towards their threatened lands.
Druze Palestinian citizens of Israel held solidarity actions in the Carmel and Galilee regions on Tuesday, blocking Route 85 and Route 6, two major highways in Israel.
The 41-turbine project would lead to the confiscation of around 1,000 acres of agricultural land that Syrian Druze families rely on for apple, grape and cherry cultivation. Almaqt said that authorities blocked off large areas of the agricultural land, including some owned personally by him.
There are several Israeli and international companies involved in developing wind turbines in the Golan Heights, including Energix, Enlight Renewable Energy and US conglomerate General Electric (GE).