People in occupied Golan: We are deeply-rooted in our land, and the occupation’s plans will fail
Since its occupation of the Syrian Golan in June 1967, the Israeli entity committed the most heinous crimes of ethnic cleansing, destroying 131 villages and 112 farms, and displacing 131,000 citizens out of 138,000. The Israeli occupation worked to change the Golan geographical and demographic features, plunder its natural resources and agricultural resources, and establish 35 settlements on the ruins of the destroyed villages.
The occupation’s Judaization plans did not stop over the past years, however, they were thwarted by our people through their steadfastness, their clinging to their land, and their adherence to their Syrian Arab identity, starting with their rejection of the false annexation decision in 1981, their declaration of a comprehensive strike, their waging the battle of identity, and forcing the occupation to submit to their demands and retreat from its racist plan to impose the Israeli identity on them.
Today, the people of the Golan are facing the “turbines” scheme announced by the occupation in early 2019. This scheme is considered as one of the most dangerous Judaizing colonial schemes targeting the Golan, as the occupation is working to pass it under the pretext of generating electricity from wind energy, while its real goal is to seize more than 6 thousand Dunums, through the construction of 46 turbines in three phases. The first and second phases were carried out on an area estimated at more than 2000 dunums of the lands of the villages, whose residents were displaced in violation of the international conventions for the protection of peoples under occupation and United Nations resolutions, foremost among them is Resolution 497 of 1981, which affirms that all occupation measures in the occupied Syrian Golan are null and void.
Some of these farms were decided to be established on the agricultural lands of the Syrian population, despite their strong opposition to these projects.
One reason for this opposition is that the wind turbines would negatively impact the agricultural sector and confiscate the Syrian residents’ livelihoods, which constitutes an important source of economic independence and morale for the Syrian people of Golan.
Nevertheless, residents of the Occupied Golan denounced the plan as infringing on their lands, having organized protests and strikes against the project benefiting Israeli settlers.
They emphasized that they would never relinquish their Syrian identity , for Golan was and still Syrian, affirming their right to defend their land by all available means.
A number of the residents declared that the project, led by the company Energix, would see locals in three villages – home to nearly 25,000 people – lose thousands of acres in agricultural land, the main source of their livelihood.
NR