Environmental Protection Minister Idit Silman, of Likud, reclassified the Nile crocodile as a “tended” wild animal this week, paving the way for their use in the penitentiary system according to the wishes of National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir.

Silman’s legally questionable decision, reported on by several Hebrew outlets, was made Wednesday despite longstanding protest from the Nature and Parks Authority against Ben Gvir’s plans to surround detention facilities with the large reptile.

The far-right politician first proposed jailing Palestinian security inmates in crocodile-surrounded facilities in a December meeting with Prison Service chief Kobi Yaakobi, Channel 13 reported.

Despite Ben Gvir’s insistence and a subsequent Prison Service visit to the Hamat Gader crocodile farm in northern Israel, Nature and Parks Authority officials have argued against the plan, noting that the creatures can only be held for educational and research purposes under the law.

Reclassifying crocodiles as tended, which, in this instance, refers to providing some level of management or care to an otherwise wild species, will allow them to be held in facilities other than licensed zoos or sanctuaries.

“We need to protect them; they don’t need to protect us. This isn’t the spirit of the law,” one official in the agency told the two right-wing ministers, according to Ynet.

In effect, Silman is........

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