Tension rises as bulldozers tear down zoo in Rafah

[JoFerret]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/story.jsp?story=523723

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.

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[lefty_mcduff]

1. Absolute Scumbags.

n/t

[Leilani]

2. This makes me sick to my stomach

It shows that none of this is about terrorism or self defense.

It is about wanton killing & hatred.

[Disturbed]

4. Israel brings shame to itself.

This is naked sadism. The type of brutal oppression and suppression that the Israelis are practicing makes it real hard to have sympathy for them as people who are trying to defend their state.

[RhodaGrits]

3. I had read an earlier story about the plight of the zoo

as described by the veterinarian who ran it. It really helped open my eyes to the wanton viciousness - there is no excuse whatsoever. This ending to the story makes me completely ill. Day after day reading about the vile actions of my fellow human beings is making me despair. These are dark days.

[Tellurian]

11. please don't despair...they are counting on people giving up...

remember it's people like us that have to stand together for strength to rid the world of this malignancy. Sooner or later we'll get it done.

[kysrsoze]

5. Not as if you could ever call their other actions as "defensive measures"

The next time someone tells us Israel is defending itself, we can now respond, "You mean just like they defended themselves by tearing down a zoo."

This is just sick, sick, sick. It isn't about finding tunnels and explosives. They want to ruin every last signal that the Palestinians own this land.

[keithyboy]

6. Stop all aid to Israel now!! It is a terrorist regime under Sharon.

Supported by a terrorist Bush regime in the US. I don't want my tax dollars supporting terrorists!!

[Dover]

7. And the U.S. has become a terrorist nation under Bushco.

It must be stopped, but who can/will do it?

[harshthemellow]

8. If only

If only the outrage shown here for the demise of the zoo was displayed when a bus load of Israeli kids gets blown up by militants it would help balance the equation.

[SayitAintSo]

9. There is outrage there too ... ain't nobody clean ...

The outrage here attempts to balance the lack of acknowledgment and reporting that has been historically biased in favor of Israel. Don't forget that there has been a movement in recent days of many Israeli military refusing to serve and participate in the continued violence against the Palestinians.

[Just Me]

12. Hmmm,...since 3X as many Palestinians have been killed,...

,...should we show 3X as much outrage? They would seem fair.

I am outraged at the escalation of violence, period.

I am outraged that any peoples would become so desparate as to tie bombs to their bodies in order to overcome a far superior "rule of force".

I am outraged that Sharon and the Likud are being provocateers,...not beacons of hope or peace.

I am outraged at Bush's role in the escalation of death, destruction and violence.

[lynx rufus]

This IDF scum is the lowest form of coward

There can be nothing so hideous as the abuse of
animals. This action was senseless, unprovoked, unjustifiable,
and deliberately malicious - the very definition of a 'good'
IDF soldier.
You have a lot to learn about life.

[dusty64]

14. Like the animals had anything

to do with that. This bullshit argument that one can do whatever one pleases no matter how evil cause some from the other side do it just that, BULLSHIT! Is everyone so blind as not to see that these murderous rampages keep the cycle of hate and death going? I'm sick of having my hardearned money paying for this shit and having NO say whatsoever about it.

[lefty_mcduff]

16. One event does not negate the other.

Each is a result of evil.

[number6]

17. you got 8 posts, yet ur tellin us ....

"If only the outrage shown here for the demise of the zoo was displayed when a bus load of Israeli kids gets blown up by militants"

you been monitoring this board and counting outrage eh ...

[Classical_Liberal]

21. If Israel would get out of the territories settlers, idf and everything

fewer children on either side would die. Israel deserves part of blame for its own citizens deaths as well.

[Tellurian]

10. Now that I think of it.. I read somewhere last week..

Some of our military were sent to Israel for further training in operating prison camps.

Someone should ck into this. The level of violence and disregard for life is the typical common thread between our prison guards and the Israelis. Now the bonding of Bush and Sharon make sense.

[dusty64]

13. Our tax dollars

at work again. At the risk of being flamed, I'm sick of the Israeli government and our support for it. Where is the outrage from their citizens? What possible reason would one have to do something like this, the animals have NOTHING to do with politics. These regimes are just EVIL!

[Lorien]

15. Pure evil

people that would do such a thing are simply monsters. We seem to be surrounded by them these days- the inmates truly have taken control ;(

[Violet_Crumble]

18. News just in from the IDF...

They were Palestinian bulldozers cleverly disguised as ones used by the IDF that destroyed that zoo. It was the Ayrabs that did it to try to make the mostest moral army in the world look bad. Can you all please join me in urging the UN to bring out a resolution condemning those damn Ayrabs for their destruction and trying to make the IDF look bad!!

Violet...

[dusty64]

19. This IS sarcasm

right?

[lumpy]

20. Betty Bowers

check it out...

[Classical_Liberal]

22. NO the Israeli apologists in I/P have actually been posting articles

suggesting this. They bombed themselves at the protest and bulldozed their own houses.