ByAARON REICH
Updated:

In honor of the new political shift in Israel, three young deer born in Jerusalem's Deer Valley Park will be named in honor of three Israeli politicians: Incoming President Isaac "Buji" Herzog, new Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg and former environmental protection minister Gila Gamliel.

The deer will officially be named Buji, Tamar and Gila, and will join the other young deer in the park born in recent years, whose names include the likes of Zoom, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Pfizer.

The names Gila and Tamar were especially significant due to their roles in government.

"Gamliel has promoted the issues of nature and urban nature while in government and Zandberg has been active for years supporting wildlife and the environment, and we are confident she will continue to do so," said Iris Hahn, CEO of the Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI) which operates the municipality-owned Deer Valley Park.
A young deer is seen curled up in the tall grass at the Deer Valley Park in Jerusalem.
A young deer is seen curled up in the tall grass at the Deer Valley Park in Jerusalem. (Photo credit: Maya Karmilovski/Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel)

The park has flourished as of late with strong rainfall keeping the grass high, allowing deer to give birth safely without fear of predators. The park has also been given new importance amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as urban nature reserves like Deer Valley allows people to experience nature within a small walking distance from their home.

Israel has several of these urban nature parks throughout the country, but the Deer Valley Park is the largest.

In a statement, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion, who himself has a lion cub named after him in the Jerusalem Biblical Zoo, congratulated Gamliel, Zandberg and Herzog and invited them all to visit the park, which he claimed is the most beautiful in all of Israel.

This comes after Israel's new government was sworn in, bringing Zandberg into office and seeing Gamliel leave the post.

In a statement released ahead of the transition, SPNI congratulated Gamliel on an accomplished term in the Environmental Protection Ministry.

Gamliel had several notable accomplishments during her tenure, one of the most notable being her banning of the fur trade, making Israel the first country in the world to do so. 

However, she also had to tackle an unprecedented climate disaster in the form of the Mediterranean oil spill, which saw many of Israel's beaches covered in tar.

The organization welcomed Zandberg as her replacement, noting the importance and significance of the position and promising to closely cooperate with her, and calling on her to continue several of Gamliel's positive policies, help stop the pollution of Israel's rivers and introduce legislation that would help ban hunting in Israel.