Middle East Times
Hamas TV refuses to axe contested kids cartoon
May 10, 2007
RAMALLAH, West Bank -- A Hamas-run television channel has defied a Palestinian government request to axe a controversial children's cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike urges resistance against Israel. A senior official working for Al Aqsa (Jerusalem) television in the Gaza Strip said that the program - "Tomorrow's Pioneers" - would air as normal this Friday in defiance of information minister Mustafa Barghouti.
"The program will continue and it will be broadcast tomorrow at 4.00 pm [1300 GMT]. Mustafa Barghouti misunderstood the issue," said the official on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the press. Earlier, the information ministry in the West Bank city of Ramallah said: "A politically-oriented children's television program was withdrawn by the Al Aqsa TV station today following a request by the ministry of information."
Barghouti said that the program adopted a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and that it was wrong to use children's programs to convey political messages. In the program, the Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur and a little girl urge resistance against Israel and the United States - along with stressing the importance of daily prayers and drinking milk.
The program drew strong protests from Israeli and Jewish groups, with the Anti-Defamation League slamming the station for promoting a message of radical Islam, anti-Semitism and hatred of the West.
"When you take a Mickey Mouse-like character and deliberately use it to promote an ideology of hatred, obviously it's going to have an impact on children and their thinking," said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director. "For all of their attempts to appear more moderate, Hamas is still willing to indoctrinate children into their culture of hate," added Foxman.
Hamas is the senior partner in the Palestinian national unity government and blacklisted as a terrorist organization in the West. The Islamist movement controls a television and radio network both called Al Aqsa and has just launched a newspaper.
