Crocodile Conflicts

When Crocodiles are Used to Attack Zionists

On Sunday I was inside a large freezer room, inspecting a new exhibit being prepared for the Biblical Museum of Natural History - a large crocodile that had died at the wonderful zoo in Jerusalem. This particular crocodile’s enclosure had led to a very strange phenomenon a few years ago: an anti-Israel academic was triggered by the sign on the exhibit to launch a literary attack on the State of Israel.

You might recall my post on this from two years ago, Weaponizing Crocodiles Against Israel. The sign on the exhibit states that “In 1905, the last crocodile was hunted in Israel by residents of Jisar-A-Zarka.” Elizabeth Bentley, then a postdoctoral fellow in social and cultural analysis at NYU, published an article on this in the Jerusalem Quarterly, an academic journal based in Ramallah and published by the Institute for Palestine Studies. She took exception to the sign “blaming” the extinction of crocodiles in Israel on the Ghawarna Bedouin, since the Ghawarna were paid to hunt them by European colonialists, who should be the ones receiving the blame. She then segued into a discussion about the parallel violence done by Zionist settler-colonialists on the indigenous Ghawarna Bedouin themselves, when they were subsequently driven from their homes.

I responded by pointing out that although it was indeed European colonialists who paid the Ghawarna to hunt the very last crocodiles, the population of crocodiles was already fatally crashing by that point - because they had been hunted by the Ghawarna! Not that the Ghawarana should be criticized for this; they were killing the crocodiles to avoid being attacked by the crocodiles. Crocodiles and humans do not get along, as the incident at the zoo shows. I also pointed out that all the large animals of the Land of Israel that were driven to extinction over the last century or so, such as bears and cheetahs and ostriches and oryx, were due to hunting by Bedouin and other Arabs (and unlike with crocodiles, not usually to avoid being eaten).

As for Bentley’s condemnation of the Zionist settler-colonialists driving the indigenous Ghawarna Bedouin from their homes, I pointed out that their home was in a swamp that was home to lethal malaria-bearing mosquitoes and had to be drained, for the benefit of Jew and Arab alike. I also pointed out the absurdity of referring to the Ghwarna Bedouin - the descendants of recent African refugees - as “indigenous Palestinians,” while the Jewish refugees from Europe returning to their ancient homeland are “settler-colonialists”!

I had sent my critique to Dr. Bentley. Much to my surprise, she responded that she is a fan of my work! It turned out that she grew up Orthodox and attended seminary in Israel and YU. She said that she unfortunately did not have time to respond to my points, and never did.

Meanwhile, the crocodile at the zoo reminded me of all this, and I decided to check what Bentley had been up to. I searched online and came across a video in which she gives a brief presentation about how the crocodile extinction is falsely blamed on "indigenous Ghawarna" by Zionists. Later, Bentley is asked whether there are other examples of extinctions that are falsely blamed on Palestinians by “Zionists colonial narratives.” She refers to my critique (what she calls an "attack") of her paper, claiming that I conceded about the crocodile (which I didn't). She talks about how I engaged in “Zionist blame games” and mentions that the extinction of the Syrian brown bear and cheetah are also blamed on Arabs. She refers to a book, Between Ruin and Restoration, which delves into this.

Now, it is unclear if she is referring to the book as an example of Zionist blame games or as a text proving them incorrect. But in fact the relevant article in the book, which I have read, is a dispassionate factual history which notes that IDF soldiers shot gazelles in large quantities until it became illegal, but also notes that the primary cause of extinction of large species in Palestine was due to Arab hunting. (An earlier article in the book, about environmental degradation as a result of Arab-owned goats overgrazing, is also interesting and relevant.) This is a simple historic fact, not false slander against Palestinians.

It’s ironic that Bentley talks critically about Zionist "blame games" for extinction, when that's exactly what her article is all about!

But there’s something curious. The video featuring Bentley is from two years ago. I have tried to locate Elizabeth Bentley online and she has absolutely vanished. Her LinkedIn profile has been deleted and she has no online presence. There is nothing online about her current activities, nor any mention of her book on extinction that she was working on. I can’t help but wonder if perhaps after October 7th, she realized that she was getting in with the wrong crowd?

UPDATE: Turns out that she is on Twitter. But her posts are private.