Painted donkeys stand in for zebras at Gaza Strip zoo

Are they zebras, or are they donkeys?  Well, if you ask the staff and visitors at Gaza's Marah Land zoo, the (bizarre) answer is: They're both.

Because of Israel's blockade of the Gaza Strip, obtaining a real zebra would be a tricky business involving smuggling and a hefty expense -- $40,000 for a single zebra was zoo owner Mohammed Bargouthi's estimate.  So zoo staff took matters into their own hands and went DIY, using just a roll of masking tape, a paintbrush and some women's hair dye to turn two white donkeys into imitation zebras.  ("The first time we used paint but it didn't look good," Bargouthi's son Nidal told Reuters of the process.)

They kind of look like zebras, if you squint.  But to schoolchildren in Gaza who have never seen a zebra, they're just as good as the real thing, according to Nidal.  "The children don't know so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new," he said.  So far, according to Slate, none of the children have caught on that their beloved zebras are actually imposters.  But, zoo director Mahmud Berghat acknowledged, two university students did spot the bit of trickery.  No matter; no one seems inclined to let on to the zoo's youngest visitors.

Check out The Times' photo gallery for more shots of these faux zebras (and some real zebras as well, for comparison).

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Marco Longari / AFP/Getty Images

Comments

[Mike Perry]

Actually, there is a combined Egyptian/Israeli restrictions on the flow of goods into Gaza. Look on any map. Gaza shares borders with both countries and the Egyptians are far more restrictive than the Israelis. It really amazing how ignorant the media (in this case the LA Times) is about basic geography. Ignorant or willingly anti-Semitic. Otherwise, why blame Israel for this but not Egypt?

A more credible newspaper would ask if this might be just a money-saving scam by the zoo owner. (My own experience living there suggests it was.) That would make this story roughly similar to an earlier one in which an Israeli shut-off of power led to news photographs showing Palestinian officials meeting by candlelight. A more-honest-than-most photographer caught both the officials and cameraman as thick curtains were closed to block out the bright Middle-eastern sun, so they could stage that fake candlelight meeting. Fake candlelight, fake zebras, same thing. Anyone who's lived in the Middle East knows Arabs have a serious problem with honesty. Anyone, that is, but reporters like this Lindsay Barnett.

There's also little reason to feel sorry for the adult residents of Gaza. For some sixty years they have had a choice between giving up their hate, settling down, and taking good paying jobs in Tel Avi or continuing to fall prey to the anti-Semitic xenophobia of their own corrupt politicians. They chose the latter and the result is that they and their children wallow in misery.

As Golda Meir put it, "Peace will come to the Middle East when the Arabs love their children more than they hate us."

[Peter Dent]

"Gaza shares borders with both countries and the Egyptians are far more restrictive than the Israelis."

The Egyptian blockade is largely due to threats of reprisals from Israel. Following the pre-emtpive and illegal strike on Egypt during the six-days war, Israel made it clear that peace with Egypt would last only so long as it did not defend the residents of the Gaza strip. Egypt continues to support Gaza unofficially, but cannot do so publicly. I'm sure the LA Times did not feel the need to explain what is basic common knowledge.

"There's also little reason to feel sorry for the adult residents of Gaza."

I would feel sorry for anyone whose child was burned to death with white phosphorus, wouldn't you? Sorry, but I do feel sorry for the victims of Israel's war crimes.

Peace will come to the Middle East, and the world, when religious fundamentalism is abolished. Zionism, radical Islam, and Christian fundamentalists are all to blame for the suffering we all have to endure in this world. Go away!