The chukar partridge population in Israel has declined drastically in recent years, and it is on the brink of extinction. Harm to the partridge population harms a whole ecological system. Studies show that declining partridge populations have caused acute harm to the populations of birds of prey such as the Bonelli's eagle and the golden eagle, which are themselves endangered species.

In an attempt to revive the chukar population, a prohibition on chukar hunting has been enacted in recent years via a temporary law. Recently, however, it was decided that hunting can no longer be prohibited by a temporary law; the status of the chukar must be permanently resolved. As a result, the Knesset Interior and Environment Committee decided last month that the chukar will now enjoy the legal status of a protected animal.

But then, on the very same day that the new regulations enacted to protect the chukar took effect, the director of Israel's Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INPPA), which is responsible for the protection of wildlife in Israel, granted a permit to hunt chukars in large parts of the country during the next two months, based on special "understandings" between the authority and hunters' organizations.

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An absurd situation has thus been created: The chukar was actively protected from hunting for many years by dint of the temporary law, but now that they have been granted legal protection as a protected species, they have become fair game. The hunters' organizations exerted pressure, and in this way, "understandings" were achieved: In exchange for declaring the chukar a protected animal, a permit would be granted to hunt the birds for two months a year, and possibly more. Deals of this kind, made at the expense of environmental values, are unacceptable morally, publicly and, in this case, also legally.

The Society for the Protection of Nature in Israel submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice this week, arguing that the permit is illegal. The permit's illegality stems from the fact that the Law for the Protection of Wild Animals enumerates a closed list of cases in which permits can be granted for hunting protected animals. These include protecting public health, preventing damage to agriculture, scientific purposes and maintaining the natural balance when a certain species becomes too populous. In the permit granted by the director of the INPPA, there is no mention of any of these conditions. SPNI professionals claim that none of the conditions that would justify a permit exist in the case of the chukar partridge.

Moreover, just a few months ago, the INPPA's own professionals warned that a renewal of chukar hunting, even in limited areas, would be "dangerous and inappropriate," adding that "the renewal of hunting at this stage could, in our opinion, stop the recovery [of the chukar population] and actually reverse the process and nullify all the achievements made thus far." Therefore, the SPNI argued in its petition, the permit is illegal.

Since the permit was granted, dozens of hunters have regularly visited the northern Negev to hunt for chukars, after six years in which they were forbidden to do so. Shots are frequently heard in the area, and some hunters are thought to have exceeded the permit's conditions.

Is this to be the fate of legally protected wild animals in Israel?

The writer is the director of the SPNI's Environmental Protection Department.