Tomorrow's Pioneers

Tomorrow's Pioneers
Farfur, in an episode of the series, mimes carrying a rifle.
Created by	Hazim Al-Sha'arawi
Starring	Farfur Saraa Barhoum Hazim Al-Sha'arawi as the moderator
Country of origin	Palestinian National Authority
Production
Running time	60 minutes per episode
Original release
Network	Al-Aqsa TV
Release	April 13, 2007

Tomorrow's Pioneers is a weekly children's program, shown since April 13, 2007 on the official Palestinian Hamas television station, 'Al-Aqsa TV' . The program used a Mickey Mouse look-alike, named Farfur (or Farfour, "from "Far" as in mouse" in Arabic); the character later been "killed by an Israeli", replaced by a bumblebee that's been killed due to "being denied access to an Israeli hospital" and is currently using a bunny rabbit character.

The show, brought to wider attention by Palestinian Media Watch, deals with Islamic traditions and lifestyles; some as innocuous as the importance of daily prayers and drinking milk to more radical messages of Islamic supremacy, the loathing of Israel and the United States and indoctrination of the young viewers with teachings of "Resistance Jihad."

Israeli officials have denounced the program as incendiary and outrageous while other critics such as the Anti-Defamation League have stated that the show promotes anti-American, anti-Israel, and anti-Semitic sentiments.

The show's producer claimed, in response, that the program is "about Palestinian kids express[ing] their feeling[s] regarding what they witness."

Characters

Nahoul (deceased)

After Farfour was killed by an Israeli, his cousin Nahoul took on his relative's path of martyrdom. When introduced on Friday, July 13, 2007, he promised "revenge upon the enemies of God, the murderers of the prophets," continuing the work "of the Jihad warriors."

Nahoul has found his death by being sick and being denied access to Israeli hospitals and was replaced by a bunny rabbit.

Saraa Barhoum

Saraa is a young girl, who wears a hijab. As of an August 2007 interview, she was 11 years old. In the interview, she commented that she wanted to be a doctor, or if that pursuit was unsuccessful, a martyr. In real life, her father is a university professor.

Farfur (deceased)

The main character, Farfur (which translates into "mouse", or rather a diminutive of fi'r, mouse in Arabic), is a costume character mouse with a high-pitched voice. The Western media has pointed to Farfur as a blatant copy of Mickey Mouse.

On the show, Farfur has stated such things as: "You and I are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists" and "We will return the Islamic community to its former greatness, and liberate Jerusalem, God willing, liberate Iraq, God willing, and liberate all the countries of the Muslims invaded by the murderers." He simulates shooting an AK-47 and throwing grenades.

In an episode aired June 29, 2007, Farfur is beaten to death by an Israeli who was trying to buy his land. Farfur calls the Israeli a "terrorist."

Other Palestinian children's programs have allegedly used the Mickey Mouse image to incite radical activities. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a 1998 episode of the program The Children's Club on official Palestinian Authority television had a "Mickey Mouse"-type figure amidst children praising suicide attacks against Israelis.

Episodes

Note: The show is aired on Fridays and is re-broadcasted on Mondays.

• April 13 & 16, 2007: Farfur remarks to Saraa of the intention of, "[setting the] cornerstone for world leadership under Islamic leadership" with "our beloved children". He also teaches about the importance of prayer. Later on he states, "Yes, we, tomorrow's pioneers, will restore to this nation its glory, and we will liberate Al-Aqsa, with Allah's will, and we will liberate Iraq, with Allah's will, and we will liberate the Muslim countries, invaded by murderers." (Video Clip 1) (Video Clip 2)

• April 20 & 23, 2007: Farfur sings about "answering" the Gaza Strip town of Rafah with AK-47s. Later, he sings "It is the time of death". Episode includes a call-in segment. Many of the calls contain anti-Semitic and anti-Israel sentiments. Farfur mentions George W. Bush, Ariel Sharon, Shaul Mofaz, Ehud Olmert, and Condoleezza Rice by name, exclaims that "we will win". He remarks after Sharon's name that, "Ah, Sharon is dead."

• April 27 & 30, 2007: The hostess explains to Farfur that one must aspire to memorize the entire Quran... "Because we want to lead the world, so [therefore] we want to memorize the [entire] Quran."

• May 11 & 14, 2007: Farfur prepares for and takes his year-end examinations. He cheats during the test and is asked why by an Al-Aqsa news reporter. His excuse is "Because the Jews destroyed my home and I left my books and notes under the rubble." He soon learns cheating is forbidden and fails the test. In response, he tells viewers, "I'm calling on all children to read more and more to prepare for exams because the Jews don't want us to learn." (Video Clip 1) (Video Clip 2)

• June 27 & 30, 2007: Farfur is "beaten to death by an actor posing as an Israeli official trying to buy Farfur's land." Saraa states, "Farfur was martyred while defending his land," adding that Israelis are "the killers of children."(Video Clip 1) (Video Clip 2) The episode has what seems to be an editorial mistake as a brief flash of a "Farfour in prison" sign is shown at 4:06 into the MEMRI clip (Video 1), just before Farfour is declared as a martyr.

• July 6 & 9, 2007: Shahad, 9 year old, shares on the phone this quotation from the Hadith: "The Prophet [Muhammad] said: The Hour [Resurrection] will not take place until you fight the Jews... and the rock and the tree will say: Oh, Muslim, servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and fight him!" (Video Clip)

• July 13 & 16, 2007: Nahoul, bumblebee cousin of the deceased mouse Farfour, takes on the original character's path of martyrdom.

• August 10 & 13, 2007: Nahoul visits the Gaza Zoo, where he enters a cage of domestic cats. Spotting a sleeping cat, he approaches it to hit it; find another cat which he lifts by its tail, neck skin, then kicks; he finds the second cat again, swinging it. He exits the cage "before someone can find me". He then finds a lion's cage, and throws stones at the male and female animals, causing them to furiously escape the barrage within their tight quarters. Nahoul then waves his rear in front of the cage, teasing the female to bat at it, though just beyond range. Back in the studio, Saraa comments "there are many among our beloved children, who do the same as Nahoul", then telling the audience and Nahoul that such behavor was "terrible". A female lion was stolen from this zoo, and returned two years later malnourished, declawed, missing teeth and the tip of her tail, it is unknown whether this is the same animal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ExZVimjST8

• Undated, October 2007: A 2-year-old handles an AK-47, and is being instructed on how to kill. He claims to be a "shaheed" (martyr), and says he wants to be a suicide bomber.

Responses

After attracting international attention for its Mickey Mouse-lookalike, Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti stated it was a "mistaken approach" and that the program was pulled from Hamas-affiliated Al Aqsa TV and placed under review at his ministry’s request.

Al-Aqsa TV board chairman Fathi Hamad replied that the station will neither pull the program, nor change the subject matter. "This campaign of criticism is part of a plan orchestrated by the West and the occupying power to attack Islam on the one hand and the Palestinian cause on the other." An Al-Aqsa TV representative responded to Barghouti's statements, saying that the station will continue to air the show and that "Barghouti misunderstood the issue."

73-year-old Diane Disney Miller, Mickey Mouse creator Walt Disney's last surviving child, commented to the press that, "What we're dealing with here is pure evil and you can't ignore that. It's not just Mickey," that she objects to, "it's indoctrinating children like this, teaching them to be evil. The world loves children, and this is just going against the grain of humanity."

One caller on an undated episode sang about "surrendering herself", but was cut off.

Several months later Hamas television again made use of Disney characters, this time in a five-minute cartoon attacking Fatah. The clip depicted the competing movement and its former local leader Mohammed Dahlan as corrupt and anti-Islamic rats, while portraying Hamas as confident lion based on the Simba character from the 1994 film The Lion King. While Hamas TV executive Hazam Sharawi said the clip was pulled for revising, including removal of the Dahlan depiction, he said there were no plans to remove reference to The Lion King.

Translation controversy

Several commentators, such as CNN's Arabic department, have pointed out translation errors in the transcript of the April 13 show (2007) provided by MEMRI. Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for the Guardian newspaper (UK), wrote in a blog for the newspaper that in the translation of the video, showing Farfur eliciting political comments from a young girl called "Sanabel", the MEMRI transcript misrepresents the segment, by attributing a sentence said by Farfur, ("I'll shoot"), to the child, and ignoring the child's statement ("I'm going to draw a picture").

Whitaker further criticized MEMRI's translation. He and others contested that a statement uttered by the same child, ("We're going to [or want to] resist"), has been given a more aggressive interpretation by MEMRI as ("We want to fight"). Also, where MEMRI translates the girl as saying the highly controversial remark ("We will annihilate the Jews"), Whitaker and others, including Arabic speakers used by CNN, insist that based on careful listening to the low quality video clip, the girl is variously interpreted as saying, "The Jews will[are] shoot[ing at] us" or "The Jews are killing us."

MEMRI defends their translation of the show, Yigal Carmon, founder and President of MEMRI declared, "Yes, we stand by the translation by the very words, by the context, by the syntax, and every measure of the translation."

Parodies

Tomorrow's Pioneers was featured on the July 19, 2007 edition of The Daily Show. The episode included a scene from a fictional Israeli analogue to the show called "Dr. Bagelman's Hour of Hate" and a parody of PBS fund drive segments in which a masked gunman says that programs like Tomorrow's Pioneers depend on the "fanatical support" of "viewers like you."

See also

Child suicide bombers in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

External links

• "Hamas May Revise Jihad-Promoting 'Mickey Mouse' Program", Julie Stahl, CNSNews.com, May 09, 2007
• "Hamas 'Mickey Mouse' wants Islam takeover", Diaa Hadid, Associated Press, May 8, 2007.
• "Hamas kids TV show with militant mouse to air Friday", Atika Shubert, CNN.com, May 15, 2007.
• "A Mickey Mouse Character on Hamas TV Teaches Children about Islamic Rule of the World", MEMRI TV Monitor Project transcript, MEMRI, April 13, 2007.
• June 29 Jerusalem Post article describing the final episode featuring "Farfur".
• "Hamas TV show kills militant mouse character", AP, CNN.com, June 29, 2007.
• "Jihad TV for kids", Mirror, 24/09/2007.