National Security Minister Ben Gvir Condemns Tel Aviv University Over Crocodile Moat Protest

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has strongly criticized Tel Aviv University following a joint appeal from the university's law faculty and the animal rights group Let the Animals Live. The appeal called on Ben Gvir and Environment Minister Idit Silman to halt the planned installation of a crocodile moat around detention facilities holding terrorists, intended as a security and deterrence measure. The letter argued that the ministerial decree authorizing the use of animals for security purposes does not comply with legal standards and condemned the use of crocodiles for guarding as fundamentally unacceptable. The letter also controversially described the conflict involving Hamas as a "human conflict," a characterization that sparked sharp rebuke from Ben Gvir, who questioned how anyone could equate Hamas's actions during the October 7 massacre, rape, murder, kidnapping, humiliation, and desecration of bodies, with a human conflict. In his response, Ben Gvir accused the university and the animal rights group of hypocrisy and political agenda, dismissing their concern for crocodiles as insincere. He pointedly asked where their concern was when hundreds of crocodiles were killed at the Petzal farm, labeling their protest as "crocodile tears." The dispute highlights tensions over the involvement of academic institutions in security matters, which are typically under governmental jurisdiction. The plan to use crocodiles as a deterrent remains under consideration amid ongoing debate.