Israel-related animal conspiracy theories

Zoological conspiracy theories are conspiracy theories propagated in the media or on the internet, usually in Muslim majority countries, alleging use of animals by Israel to attack civilians or to conduct espionage. These conspiracies are often reported as evidence of a Zionist or Israeli plot.

Events that were subjected to more extensive commentary include the December 2010 shark attacks in Egypt, which were attributed to a shark released by the Mossad, and the 2011 capture in Saudi Arabia of a Griffon Vulture carrying a satellite tracking device, detained on suspicion of spying for Mossad, which was not the first incident of this kind. Together with other less mediatized incidents, these were discussed as a pattern by several journalists and foreign affairs commentators.

Shark attacks

An oceanic whitetip shark, one of the two species implicated in the attacks

A series of shark attacks in the Red Sea off Egypt's Sinai peninsula in December 2010 sparked a few days of speculation in scattered media reports that Israel may have been involved, before being squashed as ridiculous by Egyptian scientists and politicians. Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha, the governor of South Sinai told a news site: “What is being said about the Mossad throwing the deadly shark [in the sea] to hit tourism in Egypt is not out of the question, but it needs time to confirm.” Egyptian television broadcast claims that Israeli divers had captured a shark with a GPS unit planted on its back. Describing the theory as “sad”, Professor Mahmoud Hanafy of the Suez Canal University pointed out that GPS devices are used by marine biologists to track sharks, not to remote-control them. Governor Shousha himself ultimately said he thought the dumping of sheep carcasses was the most likely explanation.

Birds carrying Israeli tracking devices and tags

A vulture similar to this one was detained in Sudan on suspicion of being used by Israel for spying

In the late 1970s and the early 1980s, Sudanese authorities detained an Egyptian vulture and a white pelican tracked by Israeli scientists. The birds, wearing a GPS device and a tag with the sign "Tel Aviv University," were captured by local officials. Sudanese authorities refused to return the GPS transmitters.

R56 vulture

In 2011, a griffon vulture with a wingspan of about 8 feet (2.4 m) was seen flying in Saudi Arabia, near the home of a shaikh, near the city of Hayel. When the bird was captured, a GPS device and a "Tel Aviv University" leg tag were discovered on the bird. The authorities were alerted that the vulture was a part of "Zionist plot". The story was first reported in Saudi Arabia's newspaper Al-Weeam, and was later discussed in Arabic websites and other Saudi Arabia media outlets.

According to Riyadh newspaper Harmony the bird with code number "R56" was well trained and resisted the arrest by emitting a large amount of "a foul smell waste out of his mouth". According to Arab Nyheter news agency "Al Jazeera has reported that Saudi security authorities arrested a suspect bird, who worked for Israeli intelligence (Mossad) and was flying in Saudi airspace to gather information on the country."

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Secretary-General of the Saudi National Security Council, criticized the coverage the vulture received in the Saudi media, saying: "Some of the Saudi journalists rushed in carrying the news of this bird for the sake of getting a scoop without checking the information...they should have asked the competent authorities about the bird before publishing such news." Israeli officials described the accusation as "ludicrous" and said they were "stunned" and were concerned that the bird could meet a severe punishment in the Saudi justice system.

A spokesman for Israel's Park and Nature Authority told the Israeli daily Ma'ariv that Israeli scientists are using GPS devices to determine the migration routes of the birds. He explained that, "The device does nothing more than receive and store basic data about the bird's whereabouts, and about his altitude and speed". The Israeli ornithologist Yossi Leshem of Tel Aviv University said that this was the third such detention of a bird tracked by Israeli scientists in 3 decades.

The bird was later released from custody after Saudi wildlife authorities determined that its tracking system was used for scientific purposes.

Bee-eater

In May 2012 a dead European Bee-eater with an Israeli leg-band, used by naturalists to track migratory birds, was found by villagers near the south-eastern Turkish city of Gaziantep. The villagers worried that the bird may have carried a micro-chip from Israeli intelligence to spy on the area and alerted local officials. At one point, a counter-terrorism unit became involved, and Turkey's agriculture ministry had to examine the corpse of the bee-eater to assure villagers that it is common to equip migratory birds with rings in order to track their movements.

Commentary on patterns

Writing in The Australian, James Hider linked the responses to the shark incident with those to the vulture incident and ascribed the reactions in Arab countries to "paranoia among Israel's enemies and its nominal friends", adding that "evidence of Mossad using animals is scant." Jackson Diehl, writing in his Washington Post blog, also linked the two events: "So Arab media and officials who rave about spying vultures and Mossad sharks deserve to be mocked. On the other hand, they can cite the paranoid's defense -- just because they believe the Mossad is staging wild covert operations against them doesn't mean it's not true."

Gil Yaron wrote in the The Toronto Star that "Many animals undoubtedly serve in Israel’s army and security services: dogs sniff out bombs and alpaca help mountaineers carry their loads. [...] But tales about the use of sharks, birds, rodents or, as has also been claimed, insects in the service of the military are more the fruit of imagination than hard fact."

See also

• Animal-borne bomb attacks
• Killer badger
• Media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict
• Military dolphin

References

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External links

• Hunter lured Israeli vulture with “dead sheep”
• Video: Israel’s Latest Secret Weapon: The Death-Defying Rodent
• Bewitched Animals and the Muslim Media