An interview with Palestine Media Watch director Itamar Marcus at the Jerusalem Post:
While Israeli youngsters spend summer days crowded around TV screens watching a variety of cartoons and other entertainment programs, in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority, children will be getting quite a different message from some of their TV programming: a message of hatred.
"For many years both Fatah and Hamas have been actively using television for propaganda," says Itamar Marcus, director of the Palestinian Media Watch. From music videos to the dramatic death of cartoon-like characters, including a Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur, the message of martyrdom is being drummed into young minds.
From the first months of the intifada, music videos were being turned out to get young Palestinians into the streets, he says. Starting in January 2001, says Marcus, "there was one where a boy wrote a farewell letter and then went off hoping to be killed. You see the boy throwing stones, a singer sings his farewell letter, and when he falls dead on the ground, the words in the music video are sung: 'How sweet is shahada [martyrdom] - ahla shahada - when I am embraced by you, my land.' And you see him falling down in slow motion. Death as a martyr was presented as sweet, as calm, and there were periods when this was being broadcast three times a day." [...]
Another key message on both PA and Hamas children's TV is that there is no State of Israel, "that there is a world without Israel," says Marcus. "A special Ramadan program last year featured a geography quiz posing questions like: Name Palestinian ports. The answer? Haifa Port, Ashkelon, Jaffa, Eilat, Ashdod and Gaza."
"That the world should be viewed as a world without Israel is a very prominent message even today continuing on Palestinian TV, which is under the direct control of Mahmoud Abbas."
A particularly effective device used on Al-Aksa (Hamas) TV has been to introduce a collection of cute animal characters who are each in turn slaughtered by the Jews. It does wonders for boosting a child's antisemitism at that crucial early stage:
But it was Farfur, the Mickey Mouse character, who really made headlines. A featured performer on the popular Friday afternoon Al-Aksa TV (Hamas) program Tomorrow's Pioneers. In 2007, Farfur appeared for a few months before being killed on TV by an "Israeli interrogator." He was replaced by Nahul, a bee, who also died on TV when Israel refused him medical treatment. "As he died in bed, Saraa, the hostess, says: 'Congratulations to you. Today we don't mourn you as if you died, we say congratulations because it's your wedding. Congratulations. You are a shahid,'" notes Marcus.
The bee was replaced by a bunny named Assud, which means "lion," "because he was a bunny on the outside but a lion inside," explains Marcus. "Among other things he says that because he is a lion, he is going to kill the Jews and eat them. Another time he said that if the Danes ever did another cartoon of Muhammad, he would kill the Danes and eat them, as well."
In his final video, Assud explains how he went to the headquarters of Al-Aksa TV because he heard Israeli forces might bomb it during Operation Cast Lead. "Saraa sits with him as he's dying, and he says: 'Tell the children that Assud has died, died as a hero, died as a shahid....' She tries unsuccessfully to revive him, and then the children all say: 'We will sacrifice ourselves for you, O Palestine.' The message is that if Assud can be a shahid, all the children can be.
"Assud was replaced by a bear named Nassur, who declares war on the Zionists. He says to Saraa: 'You are ready, Saraa, we are all ready to sacrifice ourselves for the homeland.'"
"Children are very attracted to these characters," notes Marcus, "Kids fall in love with them, and then right in front of their eyes, these characters... become shahid, one after another, killed on television by Israel. It creates intense hatred. In fact, we've had children call in to the program and say: 'We hate the Jews because they killed Farfur.' The life-size dolls have been turned into the perfect tools to imprint hatred on young minds.
The JP article includes video examples, if you can face watching them. Some have already featured on MEMRI TV.
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