'This is not a pig': Settler innocence and visuality of zoos

Yulia Gilich

doi:10.17159/2617-3255/2020/n34a25

Abstract

Settler innocence is the primary organising principle of Israel's space production. To construct themselves as innocent political actors, oppressors disavow, justify, and deny their responsibility for oppression. The rhetoric of settler innocence allows Israel, a settler colonial state responsible for the dispossession and military occupation of Palestine, to present itself as the "only democracy in the Middle East". In this article, I perform a visual analysis of the Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan and the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo to examine how zoos, inherently violent colonial institutions, reproduce settler innocence. Entrenched in Israel's national projects of linking modernity and Biblical antiquity, zoos naturalise settlers, normalise indigenous displacement, and obscure colonial violence.

Highlights

The world's worst zooKhan Younis, a zoo in the Gaza Strip, has been dubbed the world's worst zoo
As was the case with the media coverage of Khan Younis, Israeli media routinely weaponise the devastating conditions of zoos in Gaza to accuse Palestinians of animal abuse and portray Israel as a benevolent state for helping to rescue the animals
I perform a visual analysis of the Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan (ZCTVRG) and the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo (JBZ), both of which I visited in the summer of 2019

Summary

Introduction

Khan Younis, a zoo in the Gaza Strip, has been dubbed the world's worst zoo It made headlines when most of its animals died of either starvation or injuries sustained from Israel's air-raids of the Strip. As was the case with the media coverage of Khan Younis, Israeli media routinely weaponise the devastating conditions of zoos in Gaza to accuse Palestinians of animal abuse and portray Israel as a benevolent state for helping to rescue the animals. I perform a visual analysis of the Zoological Center Tel Aviv-Ramat Gan (ZCTVRG) and the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo (JBZ), both of which I visited in the summer of 2019 These zoos, produced as modern institutions that contribute to animal welfare and conservation, serve as evidence of Israel’s purportedly progressive and democratic nature as a state. Against the backdrop of devastation in Gaza’s zoos, Israel’s care for animals is meant to validate Israel’s innocence and discredit the accusations of inhumane treatment of Palestinians (and Palestinian animals)

The only democracy

Findings

Natural order