Israeli Colonialists in Gaza and the West Bank Leave Behind Thousands of Cats to Die of Thirst, Hunger, and Predation

When the Israeli colonialists abandoned twenty-one colonies in Gaza and four more in the West Bank (northern Sumaria) back in August they left behind thousands of cats to die of thirst, hunger, and predation in the desert heat. An estimated seventy dogs were also abandoned as well as a few parrots. Numerous baby pigeons later plunged to their deaths when the buildings in which they were nesting were leveled by the colonialists.

The Cat Welfare Society of Israel (CWSI) was able to rescue approximately two-hundred cats from the West Bank colonies of Ganin, Kadim, Sa-Nur, and Homesh plus one-hundred more from Gaza. (See photo above of a kitten named Smadar being rescued from the rubble of Homesh.) The group was also successful in rescuing a few dogs and some pigeons and parrots. The rescued cats were then sterilized and vaccinated before being taken to CWSI's sanctuary in Hadera, Israel.

Since the web sites of CWSI, Alley Cat Allies, and Best Friends have not been updated since the end of August, the fate of the other cats is unknown. The Palestinian Authority has been equally unforthcoming. In an e-mail one of its spokesmen wrote simply, "... we do not have any information on this subject." It is known, however, that the Israeli government exterminated some of them through its trap and kill policy and it is likely that many more have died of thirst and hunger. Others have no doubt been killed by either marauding packs of dogs or died when the colonies were bulldozed. (See photo below of an injured white cat eating off the pavement.)

CWSI, Concern for Helping Animals in Israel (CHAI), Noah, Let Animals Live, and the Animal Rescue Society have been severely hampered in their rescue efforts by a lack of funds, manpower, equipment, and inadequate shelter space. The Israeli military authorities have also greatly limited their access to the former colonies. On August 18th the Middle East Times reported that CHAI and the Israeli SPCA submitted plans to rescue the cats as early as last year to the head of Veterinary Services but were rebuffed. CWSI has also reported that the Israeli government reneged on assurances it gave to provide financial assistance for the rescue.

Israel is not a poor country. It receives $15 million a day in welfare money from taxpayers in the United States so it could have easily spared the rather miniscule $111,000 requested by Noah and other rescue groups. (Pictured above are two more banged-up cats rescued from Gaza.) Nor are the colonialists themselves poor. Each family received from the United States government an average of $350,000 to relocate, a new house in the West Bank, and two years free rent at a transitional abode should it be needed. This excessive generosity stands is marked contrast to the paltry $2,000 that most victims of Katrina received before they were hustled off to far-flung homeless shelters and left to rot.

The colonialists' abandonment of these cats is reprehensible and unforgivable. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that the Israelis have been guilty of such egregious behavior. Back in the early 1980s when they pulled out of the Sinai they rewarded their faithful cats and dogs with the same shabby and inhumane treatment; in fact, they even left dogs chained in their yards! The Israelis do not, however, stand alone in their barbaric treatment of animals. The Greek authorities poisoned tens of thousands of dogs, cats, and birds in the run-up to the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Israeli animal rights groups are also to be faulted for their lack of preparation and funding. They were informed of the planned pullout more than a year ahead of time and should have used this time in order to assemble the manpower and funding beforehand. By contrast, the evacuation of hundreds of snakes, birds, and other animals from the ten-acre Katifari Zoo in Gaza was accomplished well before the pullout. (See Reuters, "Israeli Zoo in Gaza Poised to Evacuate Animals," 2 August 2005.)

Moreover, the Israeli animal rights establishment's incessant online begging is unbecoming. For instance, Let Animals Live even tried to put the bite on the pope! They have money and they should have spent it instead of begging. There is an undeniable welfare mentality which exists among some Jews in both Israel and in the United States. This is evident in the conduct of Russian immigrants in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn and Conshohocken, Pennsylvania who live on welfare and in government housing while American citizens sleep in the street and eat at soup kitchens. It is also plain to see in the actions of the welfare bums and thieves of New Square (Rockland County, New York) who helped Rodham win her senate seat and in turn received pardons from Clinton for the hundreds of millions of welfare dollars that they stole. The same holds true for those Jews who monopolize public housing specifically set aside for the poor in Williamsburg, Brooklyn while at the same time owning estates in Westchester County, New York and condominiums in Miami Beach.

The Israelis' total disregard for the sanctity of animal life extends far beyond their atrocities associated with the Sinai and Gaza withdrawals. In May of last year, Israel used armor-plated bulldozers from Caterpillar to demolish the Rafah Zoo in Gaza. Writing for London's Guardian, Chris McGreal described the carnage as follows: "The butchered ostrich, the petrified kangaroo cowering in the basement corner, the tortoises crushed under the tank treads -- all were held up as evidence of the pitiless nature of the Israeli occupation." (In the photograph above a Palestinian youth holds up a raccoon injured by the Israelis at the Rafah Zoo.) A little further along in the article he adds, "One of the ostriches lay half-buried in the rubble. Guinea fowl and ducks were laid out in a row. Goats and deer struggled with broken legs." According to the zoo's co-owner, the Israelis were even so villainous as to steal several valuable African parrots.

The Israelis' treatment of the cats in Gaza and the West Bank is monstrous enough in its own right but it pales in comparision to how they treat felines within Israel itself. During the past six years, for instance, the authorities have senselessly killed hundreds --if not thousands -- of cats suspected of carrying rabies. (In the picture above an official with a control pole collects a poisoned cat off the pavement.) On January 25, 1999, officials in Arad, near the Dead Sea, poisoned fifty-five cats after they were attacked by a rabid fox. In 2004, scores of cats were exterminated in Kfar Saba, Avihayl, and Natanya despite the fact that only one cat was diagnosed with rabies. In Israel, most cases of rabies are spread by foxes and, occasionally, by dogs.

The cats were either trapped and killed or poisoned with food baited with a narcotic called alpha-chloralose which puts them to sleep but does not kill them. (See photo on the right of a gray cat overcome by poison.) The cats are later killed by either injections of sodium pentobarbital or by suffocation in plastic bags or due to being buried alive. In addition to inducing drowsiness and sleep, the drug causes convulsions, agitation, trembling, excessive salivation, weakness in the legs, and hypothermia. Since the bait is indiscriminately tossed out in the streets non-target species such as dogs, who are sometimes blinded by the drug, and birds are also poisoned. (The photo below shows three poisoned cats lying in the back of a truck.)
If all of that were not draconian enough, veterinarians have been known to confiscate and kill cats brought in to be vaccinated simply because the animals either had not been previously inoculated or because their rabies booster shots were overdue. Cats have also been confiscated from homes and killed.

The Israelis' total disregard for the rights of animals is not confined to pets. During March and April of this year, colonialists in the West Bank used a rodenticide called fluoroacetamide to poison Palestinian cows, sheep, and goats in southern Hebron. Not only have these poisonings led to the deaths of many farm animals, but they have forced the Palestinians to quarantine their flocks and to stop using the milk, cheese, and meat produced by them. An indeterminate number of birds and wildlife have also been killed by the poisonings. Amnesty International has condemned these killings and called upon the Israeli government to stop harboring the perpetrators of these crimes. (See Aljazeera, "Jewish Settler Crimes Probe Urged," 25 April 2005.)

The same flagrant disregard that the Israelis have for animals extends to the environment as well. In the September 24th edition of Counterpunch, Bill and Kathleen Christison reported that the colonialists in the West Bank routinely dump sewage, trash, construction debris, boulders, and junked automobiles on their Palestinian neighbors. Israeli manufacturers of pesticides, batteries, and fiberglass also pollute Palestinian farmland and streams with impunity. In its November 3rd edition, London's Independent reported that the Israelis have been traumatizing the residents of Gaza with low-flying fighter jets. The sonic booms from these aircraft have reportedly led to an increase in miscarriages in pregnant women and to emotional stress (panic, nightmares, etc.) in children.

As far as the long-suffering Palestinians are concerned, more than one-hundred years of English- and American-sponsored Israeli imperialism and colonialism has robbed them of more than seventy per cent of their land. Israeli bulldozers make a sport out of seeing how many Palestinian dwellings that they can level and Israeli death squads, not content with limiting their murderous rages to Gaza and the West Bank, instead span the globe in order to carry out political assassinations against their enemies. School children and other civilians are regularly machine-gunned in the face and on October 21st the Independent reported that Israeli colonialists had cut down and burned olive trees on seventy Palestinian farms in the town of Salem in the West Bank. Over the years, an estimated 500,000 Palestinian olive and fruit trees have been destroyed by the Israelis. In 2003, International Solidarity Movement (ISM) members Rachel Corrie from the United States and Tom Hurndall of England were brutally murdered by the Israeli military in Rafah as was English cameraman James Miller.

The Israelis' power grab in the Holy Land has also led to the corruption of American politics. Not only is an ungrateful Israel selling military technology and arms to China and other countries against the wishes of the Bush Administration, but the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has been caught once again spying on the Pentagon. The Zionist lobby has also left a negative imprint upon the mass media. Just as Watergate involved a Jewish cabal consisting of Woodward, Bernstein, and Felt, the Valerie Plame affairs centers around Miller, Libby, and Cheney. Far worse is the Jewish-dominated media's incessant campaign of lies and propaganda directed against the Palestinians. A good example of this are the recent radio advertisements of David Harris of the American Jewish Committee labeling the Palestinians as the world's biggest group of welfare bums when in reality that title belongs by a wide margin to the Jews.

The Jews's corruption extends far beyond the corridors of power and into the bedroom as the Clinton-Lewinsky, Condit-Levy, McGreevey-Cipel, and Corzine-Katz sex scandals demonstrate. Noted Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff is involved in seemingly everything illegal; most recently he has been linked with the government's chief procurement officer, David H. Safavian, in a scam to steal government land in Northern Virginia for a Hebrew academy. While the hypocritical Jews do not hesitate to label the Palestinians as terrorists, the Jewish Defense League (JDL) has operated openly and with impunity for more than thirty years as the nation's number one domestic terrorist group. Although they constitute less than two per cent of the population it is an undeniable fact that American Jews not only control a disproportionate amount of the wealth and power in this country, but they are also involved in a disproportionate share of the criminality and scandalous behavior as well.

Crimes against animals and the environment do not always go hand-in-hand with crimes against humanity but with the Israelis that is indeed the case. No amount of lies and propaganda can cover up Israel's moral depravity and unless it mends its evil ways it is destined to remain like its sugar daddy, the United States, an international pariah.

Photos: CWSI (Gaza, West Bank, and poisoned cats) and Kevin Frayer, Associated Press (Rafah Zoo).