- Title: WEST BANK: ISRAELI LIONS BECOME SYMBOL OF PEACE IN WEST BANK'S BATTLE-SCARRED ZOO
- Date: 5th September 2004
- Summary: (L!1)RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL (SEPTEMBER 5, 2004)(REUTERS) VARIOUS OF LIONS IN RAMAT GAN ZOO IN ISRAEL, WHICH DONATED A NUMBER OF ANIMALS TO ITS COUNTERPART IN QALQILYA IN THE WEST BANK ZOO CHIEF VET IGAL HOROWITZ APPROACHING ANIMAL HOUSE WITH A TRANQUILLISER GUN DEER WITH TRANQUILLISER DART IN ITS FLANK DEER FALLS ZOO WORKERS CARRYING TRANSPORTATION BOX INTO STABLE TRACTOR
- Embargoed: 20th September 2004 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL AND QALQILYA, WEST BANK
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Quirky,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
- Reuters ID: LVA9BJW0WMFP7JHTZVC5YNT5WEAO
- Story Text: Israeli lions a symbol of peace at battle-scarred Palestinian zoo.
Usually when Israelis enter Qalqilya its in military jeeps on sweeps for militants and they are greeted with stones pelted by Palestinian boys and bullets fired by gunmen.
So Tel Aviv-area natives Gvir, Grass and Nabuko were understandably apprehensive when they arrived in the West Bank town for the first time, so much so that their tongues lolled out of their mouths and drool ran down their hairy chins.
But instead of stones and bullets, the three castrated lions from Israel were greeted with hoots of joy from excited school boys who lined the town's streets to welcome the new arrivals.
"They'll be the main attraction," said Dr Sami Khader, the veterinarian at Qalqilya's zoo. "(Lions) are the king of any zoo. Without a king, you've got a problem."
The lions, two adolescent zebras and a deer were a gift from the Ramat Gan Safari near Tel Aviv which has had a close relationship with the Qalqilya zoo despite four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence that has mostly soured ties.
The warm friendship between the two zoos and their staff contrasts sharply with the hostility and suspicion that usually characterises relations between Israelis and Palestinians.
In the past, before the Palestinian uprising began in 2000, Israe lis would pack the streets of Qalqilya and nearby villages to shop for fruit and vegetables. Some even visited the zoo.
Palestinian residents of Qalqilya, which sits on the West Bank's border with Israel, entered the Jewish state to work and sometimes even take their children to the Ramat Gan Safari park.
But Israeli army roadblocks and an internationally-condemned barrier blocking Qalqilya off from Israel has made it difficult for Palestinians to enter the Jewish state.
While Israelis, who once ventured freely into Palestinian areas, keep well away after Israelis visiting their favourite haunts in Palestinian towns were shot dead by militants.
Levison is unafraid about his visit to Qalqilya where he is greeted with kisses by the zoo's vet and manager, old friends.
Khaled, the Qalqilya zoo's vet and its resident taxidermist, said he couldn't sleep the night before the animals were due to be delivered for fear there would be a suicide bombing and the Israeli authorities would seal the border.
The zoo's food and medicine supply is highly dependent on whether the only entrance to Qalqilya is open or shut.
Khader's once frequent trips to the Ramat Gan Safari for consultations with Israeli vets has become increasingly rare since Israel built the barrier. These days he uses the telephone.
The barrier of razor-tipped fences and towering walls has been condemned by the U.N.'s highest court which backed the Palestinian position that it is a grab for occupied land and isolates thousands of people in cordoned off enclaves.
Levison does not generally favour fences in zoos or outside, but sometimes he says it is dictated by necessity.
At the zoo, a lonely giraffe watches the lions arriving. The Qalqilya zoo had asked for another giraffe from the Ramat Gan safari to replace her mate who hit his head on a metal bar and died during an Israeli military raid into the town.
The Ramat Gan Safari management wants to wait and see how the other animals acclimatise before transferring more.
They also want to advise the Palestinian zoo on designs for a new compound with modern, more natural enclosures to replace the concrete cages where the lions will live for the time being.
The cooperation is genuine and heartfelt.
Gvir, Grass and Nabuko's move was partly due to the very unneighbourly behaviour of the other lions at the Ramat Gan Safari who began to shun and attack them so viciously that the keepers were afraid for the three lions' lives.
The castrated outcasts, who were at the bottom of the lion pride totem pole at Ramat Gan because of their lack of virility, are truly the kings of the Qalqilya zoo, judging by the scores of children crowded around their enclosure. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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