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Israeli Death Force treats animals like Palestinians

Donald Macintyre | 22.05.2004 19:19

With a parrot that had escaped the Israelis perched on his shoulder, and a kangaroo crouching in the corner of the room, Mohammed Juma contemplated the little that was left of the zoo he had spent five years creating. "This was my life," he declared. "I watched my dream being destroyed."

Posted by Skyver Bill

Originally published in The Independent Sat 22 May 2004

Tension rises as bulldozers tear down zoo in Rafah
By Donald Macintyre in Rafah

22 May 2004

With a parrot that had escaped the Israelis perched on his shoulder, and a kangaroo crouching in the corner of the room, Mohammed Juma contemplated the little that was left of the zoo he had spent five years creating. "This was my life," he declared. "I watched my dream being destroyed."

The first bulldozer, he said, had come, escorted by a tank, at 2am on Thursday morning. Between then and when Israeli soldiers left the zoo at dawn yesterday, he had watched as the army killed birds and animals, uprooted shrubs, trees and grass, destroyed pens and cages, and then dumped much of the debris and wreckage into the zoo's swimming pool.

The despoliation of the zoo at the Brazil refugee camp may seem insignificant after 41 Palestinian deaths in Rafah this week and the trail of destruction left by the Israelis elsewhere in the Al Salaam and Brazil camps - the Israelis demolished an estimated 43 homes in Brazil, reducing them to rubble still awaiting clearance yesterday - but it is a potent symbol of the much wider havoc wrought in the two camps and a third, Tel Sultan, since the Rafah incursion began on Monday.

The zoo, the only one in the Gaza Strip, was perhaps the only attraction for children in a town almost entirely without public amenities. Admission cost just one shekel - about 12p. The destruction betrayed a wantonness that went beyond anything that could be deemed militarily necessary to hunt down militants or find tunnels used to smuggle explosives. Although soldiers commandeered the top floor of one of the three buildings for sniper positions, it was much more difficult to explain the damage to the harmless recreation space below their vantage point.

Mr Juma insisted that he had watched with his own eyes as the Israeli bulldozer drivers broke into a cage containing 40-45 Macaw parrots and put them into the cabin of one of the bulldozers before taking them away. "It looked as though the drivers knew about animals," he said.

According to Mr Juma, 40, the Army also released some 80 animals, including monkeys, a fox, a non-poisonous snake and - adding yet another danger to those already faced by the residents of the Brazil camp - seven jaguars. Mr Juma held a sickly looking raccoon in his arms, betraying a deep gash under its hind legs, and pointed to a long row of feathers on the ground indicating a dead ostrich buried beneath the debris.

The Israeli Army claimed last night that it had been forced to pass through the zoo because explosive devices had been planted in the roads and that it had made "every effort not to harm any of the animals". But Mr Juma said: "I believe they planned to do this. I can't call the Israelis animals because animals are beautiful."

Despite the partial withdrawal from the Brazil camp yesterday, the Israelis made it clear that the operation would continue. Some tanks remained in the camp as a funeral procession followed the bodies of four militants killed by Israeli forces in the past 24 hours, including Khaled Abu Maza, head of Hamas's military wing in Rafah. Abu Maza was killed by a missile targeted at him while he was in the Al Salaam camp.

But in the absence of any new finds of tunnelling, Gideon Ezra, a Likud government minister, said that the operation would rely increasingly on intelligence, while a senior Army officer was quoted by Israeli media as saying that Palestinians in Rafah would not yet be able to "rest easy".

Residents in the Brazil camp talked angrily of homes destroyed by bulldozers, despite earlier denials by the army that this was happening.

The army destroyed a one-and-a-half acre olive grove in the centre of the camp, uprooting its 300 trees and the home of the owner's father, Suleman Qishta, 95. The owner, Mehidan Qishta, said that a bulldozer had pushed through the wall as his father lay on his bed. Debris which had crashed down on the bed was still visible yesterday, as were cuts and bruises on the old man's arms and legs. "I heard my father screaming after the bulldozer came," said Mr Qishta. "I thought he was dying."

Shakria Khamis, 60, tried to stay in her house even after a bulldozer pushed through a wall. Her daughter, Iktimal Awad, 35, said: "My mother was shouting, 'I don't want to leave'." She was forced to flee as masonry continued to fall.

Ms Awad's sister, Menal, who works at a health centre in Gaza, said she had lost many souvenirs. She said: "A human being is worth more than these items, but my memories of this house are unforgettable."


22 May 2004 20:14
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Comments

Hide the following 8 comments

'insignificant compared to 41 palestinian deaths'

22.05.2004 22:35

This is one aspect of war most people overlook. The hundreds of wild and captive animals brutally killed.

This event is just as attrocious as the killing of humans - its just that for some reason humans think they are better than animals. Which can, if you take a wide look at the Earth at the moment, be seen to be a rather idiotic opinion - even though it is shared by a majority of humans at the moment.

We live in a shameful world, full of psychos, meglomaniacs and greedy people. It is a shame that most people sit back, complacent, and let things get this bad.

commenter


Angry

23.05.2004 18:50

Animals are NOT as important as people. For fucks sake, there are more important things happening in the world today than animals dying. Of course we should look after them and make sure rare species don't die out etc, but we have to get our priorities right! Saving human lives is more important than saving animal lives, and the sooner we change the world we live in (which is run by HUMANS), then the sooner we can start thinking about how to stop the unneccesary killing of animals.

Obrero


animal farm

24.05.2004 16:53

I guess that you (obrero) are looking at it from a humans point of view
but I am of the opinion that humans suck and whats left of the world when
humans manage to make themselves extinct will be much better of without you

Hot Dog


...

24.05.2004 19:00

I am looking at it from the view of the dominant, and most intelligent species on this planet. Humans are the only species who use fire, and the only species who think consciously.

When a spider makes his web for example, does he plan it in his head before. Does he have a mental picture of what it looks like? NO!

Does man, when he makes or designs something. Does man always aim at bettering themselves and the conditions around them? YES!

FACE IT! HUMANS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT SPECIES, AND THEY MUST BE PROTECTED FIRST!

Obrero


Obero

24.05.2004 21:29

> When a spider makes his web for example, does he plan it in his head before. Does he have a mental picture of what it looks like? NO!
So what?

> Does man, when he makes or designs something. Does man always aim at bettering themselves and the conditions around them? YES!
Like the 9/11 terrorists, or the evil scum who murdered Nick Berg. Yea they really aimed to better themselves and the conditions around them, didnt they.
Animals dont hunt other animals to extinction for the sake of a decorative piece of jewellery, murder each other in cold blood, fight wars, drop bombs, torture each other, hate others, worship false gods, get drunk and beat each other up for fun, or wreck the ecological balance and climate of the entire planet.

> FACE IT! HUMANS ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT SPECIES, AND THEY MUST BE PROTECTED FIRST!
OK well its clear u're too ignorant to even be a part of this argument. Humans need animals to survive, infinitely more so than they need us. In fact, they'd be a million times better off without us. Care to dispute that? go ahead, make my day.

They say the bees will be the next dominant species on Earth. Good luck to 'em, they'll do a much finer job than us holier-than-thou humans ever did. Providing there's a planet left to dominate of course, once we've finished with it.

Jamie


...

24.05.2004 22:00

You're right.

Fuck Palestine, fuck Iraq, fuck the billion people who live on less than a dollar a day, fuck the 14 million who are in poverty in this country and fuck resisting this shitty system we live under...

Come and join me and my friends in attempting to save Billy the Bear, and Sid the Snake, and Jimmy the Giraffe. They are much more important!

WAKEY WAKEY!


humans only kill for fun

25.05.2004 07:40

yeah we are so important ,we are the most intelligent and the only animals that kill just for fun.
ask Marc Dutroux and the gang of perverts from the ruling elite scum that run belgium, then
check out the same bunch of vile filth that runs UK George Robertson who helped is pervert
mate to get a gun license so he could bump off half the kids at the Dunblane school, not to mention
Kincora and all the other scandals involving high class perverts like Anthony Blunt ,, for me the
human race is sick and when it becomes extinct, as it certainly will very soon, the world will be a much better place. keep on with your protests but the majority of the sheeple are to stupid to even understand what your talking about they are all living their lives in side east enders or some other soap opera which is basically what their lives are. don't protest to loud or you might annoy them and end up getting your head kicked in..

wakey wakey


/

25.05.2004 09:55

So you are now saying that either you support and campaign for animal rights, or you are a soap opera fan. There are people on the left, who campaign for socialism/communism or whatever, that put PEOPLE first, like me. You cannot simply put people into two camps. We just think there are priorities, and the sooner we change the system, the sooner we can think about protecting animals.

?