It should be a celebrated coincidence that this year Israel’s Independence Day is also Earth Day. Yet unfortunately the convergence further highlights the lack of Israel’s energy independence by the government’s continued refusal to embrace renewables—which are at least a third the price of gas and they don’t go boom when hit by a missile.

If President Trump does indeed order the destruction of Iran’s energy infrastructure, Israel’s gas platforms, power plants and sub-stations are going to be hit in retaliation.  Israel’s first solar field was launched 15 years ago, and it could have ushered in an era of green energy, creative energy storage solutions and necessary grid upgrades so that 100% of our energy today could be green, inexpensive and distributed.

Better Place, the electric vehicle venture, could have transformed our transportation dependence on petrol, but instead was cut short by then Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz, now, ironically, Israel’s Defense Minister.  Yes, our Defense Minister was part of the hit team that undermined Israeli citizen’s ability to be insulated from the volatility of oil.  Instead, successive governments made luke-warm pledges on climate change and vigorously pursued a “drill-baby-drill” program, with fossil fuels still retaining an 85% monopoly of Israel’s power today.   And the Ministry of Finance is about to eliminate tax benefits for electric cars.

With oil around $100 a barrel, the despots who control it as well as the gas companies who pry off its volatility, are replenishing their bank accounts.  And much of that will go into funding militaries of non-democratic states or help the rich get richer.

Theodor Herzl, Israel’s founding father, envisioned a future state that would be 100% powered by renewables and where all the cars would be electric, enabled by battery-swap stations run by cooperatives.   The only large company exploiting Israeli know-how for battery swap to drive decarbonized transportation is Nio, a $16 billion Chinese giant that is now also exporting Israeli innovation for battery swap to the European Union, which is their growth market.  The war with Iran is accelerating interest in electric vehicles worldwide but especially in Germany and other EU countries that already have high petrol taxes.

As Israel’s isolation grows internationally, it wont just be arms embargoes that we will have to worry about but also air fuel.  We were anyway on a collision course with the EU on aviation, since by 2030 all carriers—including El Al, Arkia and Israir–that want to land in Europe will need a minimum of 6% of their fuel to be from sustainable sources, like biofuel.  Here Israel has impressive technology and opportunity but, like with renewables and electric vehicles, the government has done next to nothing to nurture the biofuel industry that could make the Negev bloom with vegetation for both animal feed and jet fuel.

And Gaza.  Israel deliberately pursued a policy for Israeli companies to supply the Gaza power plant with diesel and to keep all the hospitals and other infrastructure dependent on oil, which, of course, Hamas stole and exploited and used against us in rockets and more.   Even today, the Israeli government is holding back approvals for solar panels to enter Gaza for hospitals, Watergen installations and schools.  Indeed, the Israeli military gave approval in writing for constructing Gaza’s lone solar field in May of 2023.  It was hit, probably accidently, but then was completely bulldozed, including the intact panels. The IDF should reimburse the developers the $7.5 million, with the stipulation that they will come back to build.  De-centralized solar power should be the back-bone of any reconstruction efforts, not diesel.  The Board of Peace has yet to weigh in on the matter, even though the answer is obvious.

And our poor friends in Africa.  This war has doubled the price of petrol in many countries, increased dramatically food prices and created even more volatility and inequality in their societies.  Israel could still lead a renewables revolution in Africa, with its subsequent diplomatic benefits, but lacks the vision and leadership to do so.

This Earth Day could be a day that Israel celebrates the green aspects of Start Up Nation and a whole other column could be written about our achievements.  Let’s save that for Tu Bishvat. In our time of war and great vulnerability, Israel Independence Day should be about energy and transportation independence so that we can live freely in our homeland and not be choked and bilked like the rest of the world by the battle for the Straights of Hormuz.

Yosef I. Abramowitz, Israel’s solar pioneer, has been nominated by 12 African countries and Israel for the Nobel Peace Prize and named by CNN as one of the planet’s leading Green Pioneers. He serves as a leader on President Herzog’s Climate Forum, as co-chair of the Shamsuna Bedouin climate justice NGO and as a co-founder of the Gigawatt Impact 501c3.  He leads several solar impact investment platforms and can be followed @Kaptainsunshine

Watch Gigawatt’s 3-min video about our work in Africa

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