The fate of the animals of the “World’s Worst Zoo” in Gaza has been making the news.
If you recall, the zoo contained emaciated and mummified animals, partly because the owner wanted to make a (anti-Israel) political point.
The zoo owner used formaldehyde and sawdust, to mummify the dead. In addition to the tiger, visitors could look at desiccated carcasses of a baboon, lion and crocodile, and the scattered skeletons of other animals.
The zookeeper’s morbid display was both a financial and political decision. He had bought the animals, and people would pay to see them, dead or alive; he also wanted to show Palestinians what the Gaza wars and Israeli siege had wrought.
But demonize Israel as he and others may, the truth about Israel’s humanity and compassion cannot be hidden – even in this very report about the zoo’s closure, written by William Booth.
The last tiger in Gaza, renamed Laziz, meaning “delicious” in Arabic, passed from the Gaza Strip into Israel at the Erez crossing early Wednesday. He was scheduled to visit Hebrew University’s Koret veterinary hospital and then continue on to Ben Gurion Airport to make El Al’s evening Flight 71 to Johannesburg.
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What will happen to the animals now? The zoo is closed. The Four Paws group is transporting the birds, deer and porcupines to animal reserves in Jordan. The five monkeys will live out their days at a primate sanctuary in Israel.
If the palestinians cared about human life as much as we care even about animal life, we’d likely have peace.
