Animal Identity Crisis
By Claire Bagnall
When you go and visit your local zoo, other than perhaps idly pondering Madagascar style adventures and wishing the giraffe really did speak like David Schwimmer, unless you have burning moral objections, you will just enjoy looking at the animals. It’s unlikely that you would doubt the true identity of the animal you see before you. However, in Gaza, zoo visitors are being given the possibility to be more a little more discerning.
On various news websites you may have seen the videos of small children slapping what appear to be rather forlorn looking zebras as they wander around. But all is not as it seems, these are in fact little more than painted donkeys. Marah Land zoo in Gaza City, after experimenting with paint, used masking tape and black hair dye on white donkeys to create the zebra-effect. Visitors and even get to ride the zebras; a novelty which has allowed children in Gaza a much needed source of excitement and entertainment. Indeed, the zoo did once have zebras, but when food was difficult to get hold of during Israel’s blockade of Gaza they died of starvation. Little is said about the numbers of people who did not manage to receive food either.
Similarly the importation of the animals has undergone some innovative techniques. There have been reports of camels being lifted over the metal wall that separated the Gaza Strip from Egypt when the Hamas destroyed sections of it, while other animals have had to be smuggled under the border through underground tunnels. This is due to Israeli importation restrictions, which would mean the cost of importing the animals legally would be well beyond the means of the zoos. Tunnels are built between Egypt and Gaza, and these in turn provide a source of employment and finance for many people on bordering towns who may otherwise struggle to survive. Of course, the tunnels are not built purposely for the sole use of the importation of zoo animals. Food, fuel, cigarettes and clothes are just a few of the other items that make their way underground to Gaza. Meanwhile the Hamas group, while supplying the tunnels with electricity and a phone line, has applied some regulations to this indispensable industry. With rumours of weapons also making their way down the tunnels, it is unsurprising that in military attacks on Gaza the tunnels have been targeted.
More positively, a mayor of a local Israeli town has offered to send two genuine zebras to the zoo. Notwithstanding, it is odd to imagine monkeys and even lions and a tiger being smuggled underground across perilous borders. Bizarre, and indeed wonderful, the lengths people will go to in order to maintain a norm and provide entertainment throughout personal hardship and political difficulty.
On various news websites you may have seen the videos of small children slapping what appear to be rather forlorn looking zebras as they wander around. But all is not as it seems, these are in fact little more than painted donkeys. Marah Land zoo in Gaza City, after experimenting with paint, used masking tape and black hair dye on white donkeys to create the zebra-effect. Visitors and even get to ride the zebras; a novelty which has allowed children in Gaza a much needed source of excitement and entertainment. Indeed, the zoo did once have zebras, but when food was difficult to get hold of during Israel’s blockade of Gaza they died of starvation. Little is said about the numbers of people who did not manage to receive food either.
Similarly the importation of the animals has undergone some innovative techniques. There have been reports of camels being lifted over the metal wall that separated the Gaza Strip from Egypt when the Hamas destroyed sections of it, while other animals have had to be smuggled under the border through underground tunnels. This is due to Israeli importation restrictions, which would mean the cost of importing the animals legally would be well beyond the means of the zoos. Tunnels are built between Egypt and Gaza, and these in turn provide a source of employment and finance for many people on bordering towns who may otherwise struggle to survive. Of course, the tunnels are not built purposely for the sole use of the importation of zoo animals. Food, fuel, cigarettes and clothes are just a few of the other items that make their way underground to Gaza. Meanwhile the Hamas group, while supplying the tunnels with electricity and a phone line, has applied some regulations to this indispensable industry. With rumours of weapons also making their way down the tunnels, it is unsurprising that in military attacks on Gaza the tunnels have been targeted.
More positively, a mayor of a local Israeli town has offered to send two genuine zebras to the zoo. Notwithstanding, it is odd to imagine monkeys and even lions and a tiger being smuggled underground across perilous borders. Bizarre, and indeed wonderful, the lengths people will go to in order to maintain a norm and provide entertainment throughout personal hardship and political difficulty.