Last update - 00:00 23/01/2007
Cancelled water fowl census falls foul of Sabbath debate
By Zafrir Rinat, Haaretz Correspondent
The annual water fowl census, which has been held in Israel for the past 43 years, has fallen victim to arguments over keeping the Jewish Sabbath. Two weeks ago, a census that had been scheduled for a Friday and Saturday was cancelled under pressure from the religious parties. The census was rescheduled for this Friday, but was cancelled on Monday due to a lack of participants.
"We cancelled the census, because we didn't have enough birders," Israel Nature and Parks Authority's Eyal Hatsofeh said on Monday. "People had planned for the previous date and couldn't fit the new date into their schedules. This year we will not be able to hold the census on another date."
Environment Minister Gideon Ezra decided two weeks ago to cancel the census, which relies on volunteer bird-watchers. Ezra said at the time that it would not be damaging for the event to be be held only on Friday, however this has now been disproved.
According to Hatsofeh, the missing information can be filled in during future censuses, but this will be the first year Israel has failed to take part in international efforts to monitor and preserve wet habitats.