Uncle Obama's Cabin, by Carlos Latuff
For sale: Gaza zoo where the zebras were not all they seemed: The Independent
Israeli blockade leaves animals starving and owners with no choice but to sell up
By Katherine Butler in Gaza City
Monday, 8 February 2010
The two painted mules in Marah Land zoo in Gaza, one of which has now died
An emaciated lion, a hyperactive camel, and the only “zebra” in Palestine – this unusual assortment of animals could soon be yours. Mahra Land, a ramshackle zoo in Gaza, is now on the market.
The zoo made headlines last year when its owners engineered, not with genetics, but black paint, a pair of “zebras” out of two donkeys. TV reports showed delighted local children patting, slapping and even riding the docile if exotic looking creatures. The donkeys replaced two real zebras that starved to death during Israel’s three-week war on the Gaza Strip last year.
But six months after acquiring global stardom, one “zebra” has died, and the owners, no longer able to meet the costs of feeding their menagerie under Israel’s illegal economic siege of Gaza, are being forced to sell up.
In their darkened office – electricity cuts are a daily occurrence because Gaza’s power plant keeps running out of fuel – Mohammed Berghout and his brother Ahmed, the two young businessmen behind Mahra Land, are still bemused at how they transformed two white mules into respectable copies of beasts that may have roamed the African savannah.
“Ahmed had the idea to paint donkeys” Mohammed says. First they tried ordinary black paint but that didn’t work so well, then they mixed human hair dye in a plastic bowl and using masking tape to get the striped effect, applied it to their white coats.
The results were pretty convincing but even more so when it came to helping shed light on the desperation of Gazans under siege and the limited options for its children, many of whom have never been allowed to travel even as far as Israel or the West Bank, and whose entertainment is limited to the beach in summer, an outing to one of four dilapidated zoos or a walk around a British First World War cemetery.
Last year’s Israeli air bombardment and ground invasion killed 1,300 Palestinian civilians and reduced much of the territory to rubble. For three weeks bombing and shelling made it too dangerous for Mohammed or Ahmed to reach the zoo to feed their charges. When they eventually did, they found the place intact but many of the animals had starved to death.
Smuggling in replacements via underground tunnels on the Egyptian border would have run to tens of thousands of pounds. But the Berghouts are typical of Gazan resilience and resourcefulness.
The sign at the entrance on the outskirts of Gaza City still beckons “Well Com” in English, but a raw east wind whips across the Strip and there isn’t a visitor in sight. The bumper cars have broken down and are gathering dust and Thomas the Tank Engine in the miniature train ride has shunted to a halt opposite an outdoor cafe whose white plastic chairs are deserted.
The animals seem to have stopped bothering, too. Curled up in the corner of his narrow cell, eyes shut, the lion certainly looks defeated. His female companion died of hunger during the war. In another pen there’s a household dog, like an overgrown Cairn terrier, barking in an urgent high pitch perhaps because his neighbours include a family of domestic cats.
A few doors down, a fox trots around his cell in agitated circles, his skinny vixen wife and their young offspring look on with glazed expressions from the corner. There’s a lone monkey, a gazelle, owls, storks, and some suspiciously inactive fish.
The surviving dye-job zebra looks scrawny on her fragile legs, her head cast down and the black stripes on her back faded to a dirty grey. “We thought it would be more successful, we thought people would love to come here,” says Mohammed. “But it is too expensive to feed the animals”. Admission costs only 3 shekels (around 60p). But inflation is high in Gaza and feeding a lion alone costs up to £15 a day. In an economic siege that is taking its toll on both the morale and the pockets of Gazans, exotic animals, or even just souped-up donkeys, were always going to be a difficult business model.
Officials: Jewish bid for East Jerusalem home likely to fail: Haaretz
Interior Minister Eli Yishai resolved Monday to use his powers to thwart a court-ordered evacuation of an illegally built home erected by nationalist Jews in a predominantly Arab neighborhood of East Jerusalem.
The Shas chairman said he plans to raise the matter of legalizing the structure, known as “Beit Yonatan,” during the next meeting of the ministry’s district planning commission in Jerusalem. Yishai believes he will be able to void the evacuation orders which the municipality intends to distribute to the building’s residents.
Nonetheless, officials with intimate knowledge of the matter said the chances that Yishai will succeed are virtually nil, given that zoning approval for Beit Yonatan would require the approval of a long list of building violations.
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Beit Yonatan, a seven-story residential structure that houses eight Jewish families, was built illegally in the heart of the predominantly Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan by the nationalist association Ateret Cohanim. The courts issued an evacuation order for the building last July.
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat initially refused to enforce the evacuation order, though he later yielded after considerable public pressure from the attorney general and state prosecutor.
“Just as Nir Barkat is not above the law, Eli Yishai is also not above the law,” said a source familiar with the issue. “The interior minister cannot intervene in a court ruling and he will need to learn this lesson just like Barkat did.”
Even if the structure is legalized, the building’s residents would need to undergo a lengthy process in order to obtain the necessary permits from the Jerusalem municipality. These permits are a prerequisite for nullifying a court order.
The Jerusalem District Court has already turned down the residents’ appeal to strike down the evacuation order so that they can win approval for a new building plan.
In a letter to State Prosecutor Moshe Lador, Barkat pledged last week to enforce the court order to evacuate the structure, though he added that he was doing so under protest. Barkat also wrote that the municipality would tear down some 200 Palestinian homes slated for demolition in East Jerusalem. The letter essentially ended a power struggle between Barkat and the judicial system, especially the Jerusalem municipality’s legal consultant, Yossi Havilio.
Meanwhile, the Jerusalem municipality canceled a planned visit by inspectors Monday to the home. The municipality originally dispatched officials from its construction, licensing and inspection department to “Beit Yonatan” to distribute evacuation and seal orders to its residents, however sources in City Hall said the police requested the trip be postponed due to security concerns.
Meanwhile, residents of the house are enlisting the support of right-wing activists and public figures. The dwellers said they would not initiate violence should the evacuation proceed as planned.
Since Barkat’s letter was made public, right-wing members of the Jerusalem municipality have lobbied the mayor to delay the sealing of the building. Deputy Mayor David Hadari (National Religious Party) and city councilman Elisha Peleg (Likud) paid a solidarity visit to the site Monday. “We have come to protest the expulsion of Jews in East Jerusalem,” Peleg said.
“Everybody agrees that there cannot be discrimination against Jews in Jerusalem,” Hadari said. “This is not an issue just for the extreme fringe of the right wing.”
One of the Israelis residing in the building gave a tour of the site. “Look around,” he said, pointing toward the neighboring Palestinian homes. “Everything you see here is illegally built structures.”