“Alligator Alcatraz.”<\/a><\/p>\n![\"Itamar]()
Ben-Gvir is one of the most radical members of the Israeli governmentImage: Debbie Hill\/UPI Photo\/IMAGO<\/p>\n
Nile crocodiles reclassified as security assets<\/p>\n
The new classification puts the crocodiles in the category of “cultivated wild animal”\u00a0instead of wild animals. It could allow an approved security organization to keep Nile crocodiles for security purposes, subject to government approval and conditions set by environmental authorities.<\/p>\n
One such body is the Israel Prison Service, which answers to\u00a0Ben-Gvir.<\/p>\n
Israeli media reported that Ben-Gvir intends to use crocodiles to guard\u00a0Ketziot prison in southern Israel,\u00a0which primarily holds Palestinian security prisoners.<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post on Thursday, Ben-Gvir wrote: “Are you thinking of attempting to escape? Think again.” He accompanied the post with\u00a0an AI-generated image of himself with a crocodile on a leash.<\/p>\n
Criticism of crocodile use<\/p>\n
Israel’s Channel 13 reported that the Israel Nature and Parks Authority spoke out against Ben-Gvir’s proposal when he first put forward the idea\u00a0last year.<\/p>\n
The authority said wild animals should be kept only for research and educational reasons.<\/p>\n
It also cited previous problems with bred crocodiles escaping into the wilderness and posing risks to human lives.<\/p>\n
Channel 13\u00a0also said the idea\u00a0“met with ridicule by several officers” at the Israel Prison Service.<\/p>\n
Don’t let the algorithm hide the news. If you rely on our team for trusted reporting, please take a moment to select us as your Preferred Source on Google by\u00a0clicking here<\/a>\u00a0and hitting the “star” or “preferred” button, so you’ll always see our verified news first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Israel’s\u00a0Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman has given a new classification to crocodiles, in a move that may allow…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":809852,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-809851","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809851","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=809851"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/809851\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809852"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=809851"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=809851"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=809851"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}