Is it a zebra -- or just the best re-creation available? Palestinian children at a Gaza City zoo take a look at a white donkey painted to resemble a zebra. (Mohammed Saber / EPA / October 8, 2009) |
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Gaza City -
Two white donkeys dyed with black stripes at a small Gaza zoo are delighting Palestinian kids who had never seen a zebra in the flesh.
With their long ears, drooping heads and sleepy eyes, the impostors probably would not have fooled the zoo's only lioness. But the effect achieved by the zoo owners' dye job looks not so bad -- to the unpracticed eye, and from a distance.
On closer inspection it resembles the classic striped convict suit of cartoon strips.
Nidal Bargouthi, whose father owns the Marah Land zoo, said the two female donkeys were striped using masking tape and women's hair dye, applied with a paintbrush.
"The first time we used paint but it didn't look good," he said. "The children don't know so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new."
Israel has placed an embargo on the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, because the militant group has refused to end its armed resistance against the Jewish state.
A genuine zebra would have been too expensive to bring into the Gaza Strip via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt, said owner Mohammed Bargouthi. "It would have cost me $40,000 to get a real one."
Bargouthi's zoo charged an entrance fee of $15 for a full busload of children.
With their long ears, drooping heads and sleepy eyes, the impostors probably would not have fooled the zoo's only lioness. But the effect achieved by the zoo owners' dye job looks not so bad -- to the unpracticed eye, and from a distance.
On closer inspection it resembles the classic striped convict suit of cartoon strips.
Nidal Bargouthi, whose father owns the Marah Land zoo, said the two female donkeys were striped using masking tape and women's hair dye, applied with a paintbrush.
"The first time we used paint but it didn't look good," he said. "The children don't know so they call them zebras and they are happy to see something new."
Israel has placed an embargo on the Gaza Strip, which is ruled by Hamas, because the militant group has refused to end its armed resistance against the Jewish state.
A genuine zebra would have been too expensive to bring into the Gaza Strip via smuggling tunnels under the border with Egypt, said owner Mohammed Bargouthi. "It would have cost me $40,000 to get a real one."
Bargouthi's zoo charged an entrance fee of $15 for a full busload of children.
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