When the coalition agreements were published, a surprising clause was revealed. Now it has become clear what is behind it
Not only will we all depend on electricity from the settlements, so will the Palestinians…
By Neta Ahituv • [Translated by Sol Salbe]
Settlement Environmentalism
In January of this year, when the current government’s coalition agreements were published, they included a surprising clause according to which the government would act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 per cent. An impressive target by all accounts. I don’t think there is anyone in Israel, including the person who set the target, who believed it was written out of environmental considerations, let alone any feasibility of realising it. “That’s how it is when words cost you nothing” Yarden Michaeli wrote at the time in a text that thoroughly detailed the racist greenwashing of the coalition agreements.
“The basic guidelines of the new government — perpetuating the Israeli Occupation and fortifying ultra-Orthodox autonomy — make it impossible to advance a genuine solution to the climate crisis,” he elaborated. “Consolidating and strengthening Jewish control and influence vis-à-vis the Palestinians is one of the elements that has had the most significant impact on the planning system in Israel and the Territories under its control, and now threatens to have an even greater impact.”
And today it becomes clear, not surprisingly, what really dictated that ambitious goal: perpetuating the occupation, Judaising the area, increasing settlement revenues, expanding Israelis’ dependence on the settlers, and as usual, institutional harassment of Palestinians. Nir Hasson @nirhasson reveals [Heb] that while the denizens of Ramat Gan, Ashdod and all non-settler residents of Israel encounter hurdles when installing solar panels, settlers actually benefit from no fewer than 22 plans to build solar power generation systems. For example, instead of a solar facility that was supposed to be built in Dimona [in the south], but which wondrously ran into some difficulties and was cancelled, the largest solar electricity project in Israel will soon be inaugurated in the Jordan Valley settlements.
“These plans will turn solar electricity into an important industry in the settlements and deepen Israel’s dependence on them,” Hasson explains. But not only will we all be dependent on settlement electricity, so will the Palestinians, who, according to a source in the Civil Administration, will not be able to choose to refuse buying electricity produced in the settlements.
And if anyone needs more proof that Judaisation is a top priority for this project, here it is: Most solar projects in Israel are built on top of existing structures so as not to degrade valuable land that has not yet been disrupted. In the settlements, the panels will be placed on the ground, since the goal is not environmental, God forbid, but settlement. Occupying more and more territories and stamping a Jewish imprint Jews on them, this time through Jewish panels.
Relevant of the Daily news summary in today’s Haaretz
Original Haaretz articlet in Hebrew. Translated by Sol Salbe, Middle East News Service
