Surprising opposition: The project to build wind turbines in the northern Golan Heights on land belonging to the Druze villages of Restauranta, Buq'ata and Majdal Shams has drawn protests from local Druze residents in recent days and has also aroused widespread opposition from green organizations.
The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel and environmental activists have expressed concern about damage to natural landscapes as well as to birds, as well as human rights activists who claim that the damage will outweigh the benefits they may bring.
Druze throw Molotov cocktails and stones during protest in the Golan | Police Spokesperson's Office
At the center of the objection, arguments against the construction are based on professional opinions that note extensive damage to the residents' traditional agricultural areas, damage caused by noise hazards due to turbine activity, and harm to birds and other animals in the area. At the same time as the environmental organizations' struggle, other elements expressed opposition to the project based on the possibility that the turbines' activity would also damage military devices such as radars.
The government promotes green energy
On the other hand, government ministries, including the ministries of defense and energy, are strongly promoting the plan due to the green energy produced by the farms. Sources in government ministries point to the great advantage to the electricity sector inherent in turbines.
The project to build wind turbines in the north, photo: Michael Giladi-Ginny
The officials present an opinion that the turbines will not harm nature and the winged animals, due to sophisticated systems in the turbines that will detect them from a distance. In addition, according to the companies, there will be no harm at all to the Druze villages in the area, and the turbines will not constitute a noise nuisance and will not harm agricultural activity.
The Ministry of Energy and the Ministry of Environmental Protection support the development of wind energy in Israel, despite the paucity of possible locations for the construction of wind turbines. The advantages of wind energy are the relative savings in space and the absence of air pollution or greenhouse gas emissions.
Over the past few years, three huge plans for turbine farms have been approved in the Golan (Gilboa, Sirin, and the northern Golan). Wind energy constitutes a marginal percentage of Israel's total electricity production today.
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