Environment in Context: Green Energy Colonialism in the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights

by Status Audio Magazine Editors | Jul 19, 2020

This is the third episode of the Environment in Context podcast. In it, Environment Page co-editor Malihe Rezazan interviews Wael Tarabieh and Muna Dajani on the Israeli wind farms in the occupied Golan Heights.

Renewable, clean sources such as solar and wind energy have become an important part combatting the climate crisis and its impacts, but can we divorce the environmentally friendly technologies from the conditions under which these are developed and implemented? And what happens when renewable energy development becomes synonymous with colonial expansion and political repression?

Israel’s feverish plans to build the largest onshore wind farm in the occupied Golan Heights are a good example of why the conversation about a decarbonized economy may not be abstracted from considering prevailing power structures and systems of oppression including colonialism.

Wael Tarabieh

Wael Tarabieh, the co-founder of al-Marsad, The Arab Centre for Human Rights in the Golan Heights is an independent, not-for-profit international human rights organisation located in Majdal Shams, in the Occupied Syrian Golan. The centre was founded in October 2003 by a group of lawyers and professionals in the fields of law, health, education, journalism, and engineering, along with human rights defenders and other interested community members.

Muna Dajani

Muna Dajani’s research aims to identify the link between identity, resilience, and farming under belligerent occupation, where farming acquires political subjectivity as a form of cultural resistance. Her research interests are environmental politics, community-led resource management, and social impacts of climate change.

Malihe Razazan

Malihe Razazan is producer and cohost of Voices of the Middle East and North Africa on KPFA Radio in Berkeley. She is also a producer and guest host of Your Call, a daily public affairs program on KALW, local public radio station in San Francisco and a member of The Arab and Middle Eastern Journalists Association (AMEJA). Malihe is the co-editor of Jadaliyya’s media page and host of the weekly program “Media on the Margins.”

For more from Status/الوضع, visit www.statushour.com and subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts!

[This article was originally published by Jadaliyya on 17 July, 2020.]