Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has made a decision that paves the way for the use of crocodiles against Palestinian prisoners.
In an unprecedented move, the Israeli Minister of Environmental Protection decided to reclassify the Nile crocodile as a "domesticated wild animal" and allow its possession for security purposes, in a measure aimed at enabling the Israeli Prison Service to use crocodiles as part of a plan to guard prisons that house Palestinian prisoners.
According to what was revealed by the Hebrew newspaper “Yedioth Ahronoth”, the decision came in response to a request submitted by the Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, who has been seeking for months to implement a project to deploy crocodiles around the prisons that hold Palestinian prisoners, with the project to begin experimentally in Ketziot prison in the Negev.
The decision is a significant legal shift, as it removes the main obstacle that prevented the implementation of the plan, after Israeli laws prohibited the use of dangerous wild animals in security tasks, and restricted their keeping to the purposes of scientific research, education and species conservation.
The decision represents a preliminary legal and administrative step that opens the door for the project to be implemented if it is not frozen or cancelled.
Silman reclassified the Nile crocodile as a "domesticated wild animal," creating a pathway that allows security agencies to possess and use it for security purposes, which gives the Department of Homeland Security a legal basis to demand the delivery of crocodiles for use in the vicinity of prisoner detention facilities.
The report suggests that the decision makes the establishment of what has become known in the media as "crocodile prisons" possible in the next stage, if the government completes the required procedures and overcomes the legal objections.
The move has dimensions that go beyond legal aspects, as it reflects a trend towards tightening the conditions of detention of Palestinian prisoners by introducing unconventional means of deterrence based on the use of predatory animals in the vicinity of prisons, which raises human rights concerns about escalating policies of psychological and physical intimidation against prisoners.
The project comes in the context of a series of measures led by National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir to tighten the conditions of detention for Palestinian prisoners, which have included reducing rights and services inside prisons, amid repeated criticism from Palestinian and international human rights organizations.
If the decision of the Minister of Environmental Protection remains in effect, it will represent the first legal basis that allows the Israeli government to proceed with the implementation of the project to release Nile crocodiles around Palestinian prisons, in an unprecedented move that would raise further controversy in the world.
