The Ministry of Defense gave a kosher stamp to 41 wind turbines.

Environmental activists: "This is a sad news"

The eagle placed by members of the Golan Heights Association outside the cabinet meeting was intended to symbolize the enormous environmental damage that the placement of turbines in the Golan Heights could cause.

However, the Ministry of Defense claims in response that the project will enable "green and clean electricity supply to tens of thousands of households in Israel."

Eli Ashkenazi

01/01/2022

Saturday, 01 January 2022, 01:29 Updated: 05:10

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Assaf Gary held in his hands an stuffed eagle with a hanging rope around his neck and waited in the cold wind in front of the dining room of Kibbutz Mevo Hama in the southern Golan Heights, hoping that one of the government ministers would reach out to him. Inside the dining room overlooking the Sea of ​​Galilee, the government convened on Sunday morning for a festive meeting on the occasion of its decision to implement a plan to double the Jewish population in the Golan Heights. For many years, demographic growth in the Golan Heights has been faltering, despite a host of government promises over the years. Now, the Golan Heights believe, the promises will have coverage.

But Gary and his friends from the environmental association "Golan Guardians" fear that the pretentious plan ignores environmental considerations and will cause the destruction of unique natural values. The main danger they are alerting to is approvals for a number of plans to build wind turbines. These are 116 huge turbines, which rise to a height of about 200 meters, and the distance between the tips of their wings is about 150 meters.

The stuffed eagle, which was found dead in one of the deadliest poisonings in the Golan, symbolizes for Gary and his friends the foreseeable future of the rest of the eagles and other birds, in addition to the additional environmental effects they warn of.

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If the ecosystems fall, even a trillion turbines will not be useful "Assaf Gair (Photo: Eli Ashkenazi)

The eagle stuffed by the Golan Heights guards in front of the cabinet meeting (Photo: Eli Ashkenazi)

The construction of wind turbines will completely change the Golan Heights landscape, as well as solar fields for electricity generation that are planned to be built on the level.

These projects are intended to implement the national plan to increase energy output from renewable sources, the use of which will reduce the air pollution caused by the use of fuels, coal and gas.

95% of the plans are to be carried out in the north of the country, with two-thirds of those plans concentrated in the Golan Heights.

But environmental activists say it will be generations of weeping to resolve one environmental injustice by creating new environmental injustices, as they define it.

"If the ecosystems fall, even a trillion turbines will not work," Gary said.

"One should not try to solve one problem by creating another problem. It is going to be just like the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea, only in those days there was no awareness and there was an existential urge. Today we are in a different place."

Wind Turbines in the Golan Heights - Imaging (Photo: Ministry of Defense)

Two days after the cabinet meeting, environmental activists received a message that spilled cold water on the fire of their resistance.

They hoped that the defense establishment would oppose the giant turbines that would be built on the border, given a possible fear by the Air Force that the turbines near the border with Syria would interfere with aircraft activity.

But on Tuesday, the Ministry of Defense announced that it had signed an agreement with Energix.

The agreement will allow the construction of up to 41 large turbines to generate electricity from wind energy in the northern Golan Heights.

The Ministry of Defense also welcomed the construction of the turbines and said in a statement that this was "another significant milestone in the national process for generating electricity from wind energy."

The agreement was signed by the Director General of the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Eshel, and according to the announcement, "the agreement will allow the construction of wind turbines in the northern Golan Heights, while preserving the security needs of the State of Israel."

"Significant milestone", the future location of the turbines in the Golan Heights (Photo: Ministry of Defense)

The agreement signed between the Ministry of Defense and AR (Clean Wind Energy), a subsidiary of Energix, includes the construction of wind farms of up to 41 wind turbines up to 200 meters each. The

Ministry of Defense also announced that "the construction of the project It will enable green and clean electricity supply to tens of thousands of households in Israel "and the Director General of the Ministry of Defense, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Eshel said:" Promoting green energy projects is a national goal for the defense system as well. Technologies that will enable turbines to operate in conjunction with the IDF.

The agreement signed balances all the needs and is another example of our willingness to strengthen security, also by strengthening the economy and society. "

"In a very sad and unfortunate news", environmental activists on the agreement (Photo: Ministry of Defense)

Environmental activists from the Golan Guard Association said in response that "despite the solemn statement, this is a very sad and unfortunate news."

According to the organization, "failure after failure is taking place here: this is a complete disregard for the cry of the residents of the area that has been demonstrated with great stubbornness in recent years, which indicates detachment from the area and a lack of understanding of the Druze minority in the Golan."

These things were said in light of the fact that the approval for those 41 turbines will make it possible to implement their construction plan in areas belonging to Druze residents.

This causes tension within the Druze society in the Golan and provokes internal conflicts.

According to them, "this is ignoring, on the verge of absurdity, the significance of huge wind turbines that, according to the current trend, will cover the Golan and change its character from end to end while severely damaging the unique Golan nature when all these projects generate very minimal electricity." - The one whose disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. "

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• Environmental protection