Crocodiles as prison guards: Israeli moat plan dehumanizes Palestinian prisoners
A court injunction has slowed plans to build a crocodile moat at a facility holding Palestinian prisoners. But Israeli government hard-liners are pushing ahead.
On August 6, 2018, crocodiles were photographed resting in water at a farm in Israel's Jordan Valley. Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir's proposal to encircle a Palestinian security detainee prison with Nile crocodiles sparked widespread dismissal as political theater, reminiscent of Donald Trump's Alligator Alcatraz in Florida.
However, despite a temporary injunction by an Israeli court, Ben-Gvir and Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman visited the site on August 5, 2026, posing defiantly and posting messages on social media. This plan, while unlikely to be constructed, reveals a darker history of weaponizing animals in settler colonial projects to advance dispossession, territorial control, and dehumanization.
The Nile crocodile, once thriving in the region, was driven to extinction by the late 19th century due to habitat destruction and wetland drainage. They reappeared in the 20th century as commodities in crocodile farms, marketed for their skins and tourist attractions. In 2026, environmental minister Silman revived the "cultivated wildlife" category to allow state agencies to keep crocodiles for "security purposes," facing criticism from conservation experts and legal advisers who argue that animals should not be used as dehumanizing punishment.
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