Israeli Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has reclassified crocodiles from wild animals to "captive-bred wildlife", a move that clears the way for the reptiles to be used for “security purposes”, including to deter prison escapes.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir -- who reportedly proposed in December surrounding a prison for Palestinian detainees with crocodiles, a la Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz" immigration detention facility -- welcomed the decision.
"Are you thinking of attempting to escape? Think again," Ben Gvir wrote in a Facebook post on Thursday, alongside an AI-generated image of himself with a crocodile on a leash.
The caption read: "Ministers Ben Gvir and Silman are cooperating and encircling prisons with crocodiles!"
Ben Gvir, who was convicted in 2007 of incitement to racism and support for a terrorist organisation, has built his political career on hardline rhetoric against Palestinians, from calling for tougher conditions and use-of-force policies against Palestinian prisoners to threatening Freedom Flotilla activists who sailed to break Israel's blockade on Gaza with harsh treatment upon their detention.
Deploying crocodiles around Ketziot prison
Israel's Channel 13 reported that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority had opposed Ben Gvir's proposal when he first floated the idea last year.
The reclassification transfers oversight of the animals from the authority to a "security body". The Israel Prison Service, which Ben Gvir runs, is one such body.
The regulation, signed into law on Wednesday, stipulates that Nile crocodiles may be bred provided that "they are held by a security body... under conditions determined by the Director (of the Nature and Parks Authority) to prevent their release into the wild, and subject to the Minister of Environmental Protection determining that their possession is required for security purposes".
Israeli media reported that Ben Gvir intends to deploy crocodiles around Ketziot prison in southern Israel, which holds many Palestinians detained after October 7, 2023.
Channel 13 said Ben Gvir's proposal was initially "met with ridicule by several officers" at the Israel Prison Service when he raised it last year.
