Marah Land
Zeitoun, occupied Gaza Strip (IPS) — “We haven’t had a single visit yet through Ramadan, what kind of zoo doesn’t get visitors during holidays?” asks Mahmoud Barghoud, 22, co-creator of the Marah zoo. The Marah Land zoo and children’s park lies halfway between Gaza and Deir al-Balah on the main north-south highway running Gaza’s length, waiting for customers to visit. In the peak of summer, the park gets a handful of visitors on a good day. During the month of Ramadan and since, there have been none. Of Gaza’s roughly ten scattered zoos and animal parks, the Marah zoo has gained the most fame for its creativity: in 2009, using women’s hair dye and a donkey, it created Gaza’s first ‘zebra’. But in the face of its ingenuity, the zoo has suffered financial and physical losses. “When we returned to the zoo after the Israeli war on Gaza stopped, the first thing we saw were the dead monkeys. We’d had six of different types and they were all sprawled out dead,” says Barghoud. “The lioness was dead. The two camels were dead. The two hyenas were dead. Our gazelles, the foxes, the wolves, the caribou, the deer, the ostriches... 90 per cent of our animals and birds were dead.” The zoo became an area occupied by Israeli soldiers and tanks during the 23-day Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008-09. Barghoud says the family tried twice to obtain coordination with the Israeli army to come to 60