Hickory, Virginia – April 3, 2020. At high noon on a blustery day, morning shift construction workers driving cars, SUVs and pickup trucks gingerly navigated their way out of the pothole-lined Ballantine Road construction site and onto Battlefield Boulevard. The afternoon shift workers parked in front of the access gate and made their way into the enormous fenced off field full of roaring excavators and massive shipping containers. Other workers were packed into vehicles parked in the middle of the road waiting their turn.
The temporary stay-at-home orders issued by Virginia’s governor on March 12 and 23 shuttered most state industries except select “critical” retailers and construction works. Slated to produce up to 32 megawatts of power, the Caden Energix Hickory utility scale solar energy array now appears to be nearing completion. Metal supports stand at the ready for solar panel installation. The electricity that the $23 million site will produce is not desperately needed by Virginia. But as the first of at least seven planned utility-scale generators, its smooth launch is vital to parent company Energix Renewable Energies, Ltd., headquartered in Israel. (See a map of all announced Energix sites in Virginia).
In Virginia, counties mostly regulate utility scale solar energy facilities through permit processes. However, Caden Energix Hickory received both a special zoning exemption to build on 154 acres of farmland and its building permit from the nearby City of Chesapeake. The Virginia Israel Advisory Board, which operates as a taxpayer-funded Virginia state government export promotion council exclusively for Israeli companies, code-named the massive Energix infrastructure building effort “Project Turbine.” The name may be a reference to Energix’s 155-megawatt wind turbine facility it built in 2015 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. The American Friends Service Committee in 2019 claimed Energix was “reportedly using questionable methods in obtaining access to the land from its indigenous Syrian-Druze owners, and in violation of international law.”
Outside Virginia, Energix is no stranger to building its facilities on other people’s land and undermining surrounding communities. The independent research center, Who Profits, wrote in its 2017 “Greenwashing the Occupation” report that Energix built and operated its five-megawatt Meitarim Solar Field in the Israeli occupied Jordan Valley on 98,749 square meters of Palestinian land. Who Profits documented Palestinian villages in the surrounding Mount Hebron area were “suffering from forcible displacement, demolitions, lack of basic services and overall economic strangulation.” Many Palestinians cannot buy electricity nor are they allowed to own or operate solar for their own use. This corporate culture of impunity landed Energix in hot water.
In February, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights designated Energix as a “Category G” human rights violator. Energix is considered by the U.N. to be among other similar businesses that benefit commercially from the use of natural resources located in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
As a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, Energix must periodically issue updates about its energy business. In reports written in Hebrew, Energix considers Israeli occupied territories simply to be “unregulated” land free for the taking. This rogue view has recently been bolstered by the Trump administration. In November, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared that, “After carefully studying all sides of the legal debate…the establishment of Israeli civilian settlements in the West Bank is not, per se, inconsistent with international law.”
Israel seized the Golan Heights from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1981. The global community regards it as illegally occupied territory. But two weeks before Israel’s March 2019 elections, President Trump recognized Israeli sovereignty over the region.
Virginia courts may present Palestinian and Syrian victims of Energix’s overseas expansions and land seizures an opportunity to test those legal theories. Revenue flows from Energix projects in Virginia are sure to be a bountiful as well as tempting target for overseas litigants with American lawyers dedicated to untangling the web of multiple limited liability companies Energix uses to operate in Virginia.
At Hickory Solar Farm, American construction workers appeared to face the same disregard that Energix exhibits toward Palestinians and Syrians that stand in its way. Workers on the vast construction site operating machinery and installing equipment could follow the “social distancing” protocols federal and state officials recommend to stem the spread of COVID-19. But those sheltering from the elements in vehicles parked at the entrance to the Caden Energix Hickory gate weren’t so fortunate. With nowhere else to go for meals or rest breaks, groups of two, four and five workers could be observed packed inside their vehicles, rocked by the wind—far too close for comfort, let alone safety.
Grant F. Smith is the director of the Institute for Research: Middle Eastern Policy in Washington, DC. To view files received via the Virginia Freedom of Information Act used to produce this report, visit the Israel Lobby Archive at https://IsraelLobby.org/Energix Smith’s latest book, The Israel Lobby Enters State Government: Rise of the Virginia Israel Advisory Board, is now on sale at Middle East Books and More. View the author discussing his book at WRMEA’s YouTube channel.