I’m so happy for you. You should know we, the Israeli people, admire you.  

I hope to celebrate with you very soon in Iran!  

Some will say it was all done for geopolitics agenda, but it doesn’t change the outcome. We love you!    

  

  the Persian fallow deer that lives in Israel today exists here largely thanks to Iran.

The Persian fallow deer was once common across the Levant, including the area of modern-day Israel, appearing even in ancient texts and historical descriptions. But by the late 19th–early 20th century it had disappeared from the region and was eventually believed to be extinct.

Then in the 1950s a small surviving population was discovered in Iran.

In the 1970s Israel began a program to bring the species back. A few deer arrived from European breeding programs — but the real turning point came in 1978, just before the Iranian Revolution.

In a strange moment of history, four female Persian fallow deer were flown from Iran to Israel on one of the last El Al flights leaving Tehran. They became the core of a breeding population at Hai-Bar Carmel.

From that small group, the species was bred and eventually reintroduced into the wild in Israel.

So one of the animals you can see today roaming parts of Israel’s forests exists here largely because Iran helped preserve the last surviving population of the species.

A rare ecological story where conservation crossed borders in the middle of political upheaval.

We are so happy for you! (And the story about the Persian fallow deer)