A recent Hamas-backed children's television show featured a child vowing to become a police officer so she could "shoot the Jews," revealing anew the depraved indoctrination forced upon kids of Gaza, even as the terror group that leads it has joined forces with the Palestinian Authority.
The shocking display came in a recent episode of "Pioneers of Tomorrow," a show aimed at young children and airing on Hamas' state-run Al Aqsa TV station. In the show, a cuddly giant bee encourages young children to attack Jews, while a young girl presenter lauds one child’s uncle who is a policeman and “shoots Jews."
“You want to be like him?” the presenter asks the girl, who appears to be no older than three or four.
“I will shoot the Jews” the little girl replies.
While such propaganda aimed at the youngest residents of Gaza is not new, even hardened observers found the latest example shocking.
“We’ve been monitoring Al Aqsa TV since it began,” Steven Stalinsky, executive director of the Washington-based Middle East Media Research Institute, told FoxNews.com. “They have multiple TV shows for children that include cartoons. Now they have the bee character, but there have been a whole series of other cuddly animal presenters who all have ended up being martyred and killed. They’ve killed them all off. The bee is just the most recent... but they don’t normally last more than a year.”
The first to be martyred on the ‘Pioneers of Tomorrow’ children’s show was a Mickey Mouse-style character called "Farfour." He went to his death after being interrogated by an Israeli intelligence character. Since then, a rabbit and a bear have been among the presenters of the show to also have been “martyred.”
“Al Aqsa is an official channel of Hamas, which control the airwaves [in Gaza]. This show is absolutely broadcast with the blessing of the authorities,” Stalinsky said. “Al Aqsa programs are not only anti-Semitic, but are also pro-martyrdom and pro-terrorism with lots of indoctrination of children to become martyrs and blow themselves up; not only against Jews in Israel, but also the West in general."
The indoctrination of children and hate-mongering championed by the Islamist regime is reminiscent of the warped caricatures created by Nazi Germany to demonize Jews in the 1930s, say experts.
The twisted lesson for children comes as older generations of once-feuding Palestinians have come together in a deal that could doom any remaining hopes of peace with Israel. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to work towards forging a new government with Hamas, a U.S. designated terrorist organization, has sparked calls for America to pull its financial aid to the PA-controlled West Bank.
Earlier this week, as part of the ongoing reconciliation between the Palestinian factions, the PA announced it is sending 3,000 police to assist Hamas in Gaza, police whose training may have been underwritten by funds donated by the U.S. and other nations. Those funds were granted to the PA on the explicit understanding that they should not be used in any way to support Hamas.
Whilst possible action to remove U.S. funding from the Palestinian Authority is considered, the children of Gaza and of many other countries in the Middle East continue to be raised on a diet of hatred and violence, Stalinsky said.
“You definitely see similar things on Al Manar TV [Hezbollah TV in Lebanon], but also in Egypt, where they are notorious for a lot of children’s TV shows espousing anti-Semitism,” Stalinsky said. “Anti-Semitism on Arab TV is everywhere in the Middle East.”
Paul Alster is an Israel-based journalist who can be followed on Twitter @paul_alster and at www.paulalster.com