Hamas thus continues brainwashing the children of the Gaza Strip with hatred and the use of violence against Israel and the Jewish people, contradicting the moderate image it tries to market to the West.
Nassur the bear: “We want to slaughter [the Jews] so that they leave our land, right?”
(Picture from Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV, September 22, 2009, courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center
Overview
1. On September 22, 2009 Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV, its satellite channel in the Gaza Strip, broadcast an episode of its children’s program called “Pioneers of Tomorrow.” One of the figures was an actor in a bear’s costume named Nassur (“victor” in Arabic), who spoke lines specifically calling for the massacre of the Jews and slaughtering them to expel them from the land of the Palestinians, i.e., Israel (See Appendix I). In the past Hamas made extensive use of children’s programs using figures of animals which children like (for example, Farfour, the Palestinian Mickey Mouse and Nahool the little bee) for anti-Israeli, anti-Semitic incitement and to glorify suicide bombing attacks in the minds of children (See Appendix II).
2. Using children’s programs for incitement is one aspect of the Hamas policy to shape the minds of a new generation with the radical Islamic ideology of hatred for Israel so that they join the ranks of Hamas in the future to continue the armed terrorist campaign against Israel. That policy contradicts the image Hamas is trying to project of itself in its smile spin for the West.1 The policy is implemented though the formal and informal educational systems in the Gaza Strip, both controlled mostly by Hamas (television, radio, the press, the Internet and children’s books, summer camps and the participation of children in Hamas’ political activities2). In addition, Hamas wages a relentless struggle against UNRWA’s attempts to add subjects to its curricula which Hamas finds unacceptable (such as the Holocaust of the Jewish people during the Second World War as part of human rights studies3).
3. The perception of children and adolescents as important target audiences for intensive political-religious indoctrination is also a conspicuous trait of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah, inspired and supported by Iran, instills children and adolescents with the ideology of radical Shi’ite Islam, hatred of Israel (and the West) and support for terrorism inorder to raise a new generation of operatives and supporters. To that end the Iranians and Hezbollah have established an extensive network of educational, religious and cultural institutions and devote a great deal of attention to informal education (scouts, summer camps, publishing children’s books, etc.)4
Hezbollah -- A role model for Hamas?
Sheikh Abd al-Latif Musa
Armed jihadist operative in the Sheikh Al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah mosque in Rafah
The Imam Mahdi Scouts, Hezbollah’s scouting movement, marching through a street in Lebanon. The pictures are of Hassan Nasrallah, Khomeini and Khamenei (Al-Manar TV, October 20, 2006).
A booklet entitled The Evil [Arik] Sharon published by the Imam Mahdi Scouts, Hezbollah’s scout movement. It has issued other booklets, including The Jihad Youths and Sayid Abbas Moussawi, Senior Shaheed of the Islamic Resistance [i.e., Hezbollah].
4. Four appendices follow illustrating Hamas hate industry aimed at children in the Gaza Strip:
i Appendix I: A call for the slaughter of the Jews in a recent episode of “Pioneers of Tomorrow” broadcast by Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV.
ii Appendix II: The “Pioneers of Tomorrow” as a platform for Hamas incitement targeting children.
iii Appendix III: Indoctrination at Hamas summer camps in the Gaza Strip.
iv Appendix IV: Hamas uses the Internet for incitement.
Appendix I
A call for the slaughter of the Jews in a recent episode of
“Pioneers of Tomorrow” broadcast by Hamas’ Al-Aqsa T
5. An episode of “Pioneers of Tomorrow” was broadcast by Al-Aqsa TV on September 22, 2009,5 featuring a bear named Nassur [“victor”] who said, “There won’t be any more Jews or Zionists, with the help of Allah. They will be wiped out...” Later on Nassur the bear says, “So just as we visit the Ka’aba [in Mecca] [nowadays], everyone [i.e., all the Muslims] will visit Jerusalem.”
6. During the program a young viewer called the studio. The child said his father, who had been an operative in the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’ military-terrorist wing) died as a shaheed. The bear asked him, “What do you want to do to the Jews who shot your father,” and the child answered, “I want to kill them.” Then Saraa [Barhoum], the young host of the program, held the following dialogue with the bear Nassur:
Saraa: “We don’t want to do anything to [the Jews], just to make them leave our land.”
Nassur the bear: “We want to massacre them so that they leave, right?”
Saraa: “Yes. That’s right. We will use every means to make them leave our land.”
Nassur the bear: “If they don’t want [to go] quietly, with words or talks, we will have to slaughter them.”
Pictures courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch
Pictures from “Pioneers of Tomorrow,” broadcast by Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV on September 22, 2009
(Pictures courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
Pictures courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch
Pictures from “Pioneers of Tomorrow,” broadcast by Hamas’ Al-Aqsa TV on September 22, 2009
(Pictures courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
Appendix II
The “Pioneers of Tomorrow” as a platform for Hamas incitement targeting children.
7. Al-Aqsa TV, established by Hamas in 2006, is the most important of its media. To indoctrinate the younger generation, it broadcasts children’s programs with strong incitement against Israel, the Jewish people and sometimes the West. The following examples are from “Pioneers of Tomorrow” programs broadcast in the past.
8. In the second half of May 2007, the program introduced a life-sized Mickey Mouse (which it called Farfour). It was used to transmit themes of hatred and anti-Israeli incitement in the spirit of Hamas’ ideology: preaching the Islamic takeover of the world, the continuation of violence and terrorism [“the resistance”], the destruction of Israel, the “liberation” of the Al-Aqsa mosque, and the “liberation” of Iraq and other Arab-Muslim countries “invaded by murderers.” After Western criticism, Farfour was removed from the program and the audience was told he had been “killed by the Israelis.”
Al-Aqsa TV, May 10, 2007, courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch
Farfour in “Pioneers of Tomorrow”
(Al-Aqsa TV, May 10, 2007, courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
9. In June 2007 Farfour was replaced by Nahool the little bee, “Farfour’s cousin.” the figure of Nahool was also used as a tool for incitement, including anti-Semitism and the glorification of suicide bombing attacks:
Al-Aqsa TV, July 13, 2007, pictures courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch
Nahool asks the children to follow the path of the suicide bombers for revenge on the enemies of Islam, who murdered the prophets [an anti-Semitic description of the Jews used by Muslims], and the murderers of innocent children [i.e., the Israelis] (Al-Aqsa TV, July 13, 2007, pictures courtesy of Palestinian Media Watch).
Appendix III
Indoctrination at Hamas summer camps in the Gaza Strip
10. Every year Hamas runs summer camps for Gazan children and adolescents to keep them busy during the summer vacation. Hamas uses the camps as important platforms to indoctrinate the youth with the movement’s radical ideology in order to raise another generation of Hamas operatives and supporters. Thus, along with sporting and social activities the children receive political indoctrination and semi-military training.6
Safa News Agency website, August 11, 2009
Palestinian youths at a Hamas summer camp, 2009, wearing green Hamas caps and training with wooden and plastic rifles. The banner at the upper right, hung on a building of typical school design, reads “Allah is our goal, [the] messenger [Muhammad] is our role model, the Qur’an is our law, jihad is our path and death [in jihad] for the sake of Allah is our most exalted hope”7 (Safa News Agency website, August 11, 2009).
11. Political and Islamic indoctrination is implemented in a variety of ways: there are slogans on posters, T-shirts and caps; senior Hamas operatives visit to preach to the campers; the biographies of shaheeds are studied; posters of shaheeds are distributed; children and adolescents participate in Hamas political activities; and there are Qur’an-memorization sessions with prizes given to those who excel.
Hamas summer camp website, summer 2009
Photo from Hamas’ PALDF forum, July 13, 2009
Children from a Hamas summer camp wearing green Hamas caps in a demonstration protesting the so-called Israeli “siege” of the Gaza Strip (Hamas summer camp website, summer 2009)
Children wearing shrouds to give the false impression that the so-called “siege” starves children to death (Photo from Hamas’ PALDF forum, July 13, 2009).
Boys attending a Hamas summer camp and wearing green Hamas caps carry a poster of Sayid Siyam, the late minister of the interior in the Hamas de-facto administration and head of its national security who was killed by the IDF in Operation Cast Lead. The photograph was taken in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City (Maktoub website, June 28, 2009).
Appendix IV
Hamas uses the Internet for incitement
12. Al-Fateh is an online Hamas children’s magazine (accessed through a link on Hamas’ Palestine-Info website) published weekly in London. It is another tool in the hands of Hamas to indoctrinate children with hatred for Israel and the Jewish people, encourage violence and terrorism, and inculcate the younger generation with Hamas’ radical Islamic ideology. For example:
Hatred, terrorism and anti-Semitism...
From a January 2009 issue of Al-Fateh
From a January 2009 issue of Al-Fateh: The picture is entitled “Gaza, may Allah bring you victory.” A child wearing a the uniform of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’ military-terrorist wing, holds a Palestinian flag. The picture heads an article which reads, in part, “Palestine is a problem for every Muslim, even if he is in the farthest corner of the world... Tell them about the land of Palestine, the Islamic land which will remain Islamic [forever]. There is no existence for the Zionists on it, regardless of what they do, if they destroy and spill [Palestinian] blood. Tell them about their ancestors and about the ancestors of the Jews, and differentiate between them. [The Jews] violate agreements, kill the innocent, turn lies into truth and truth into lies...Their fraud will be lost [forever]. As to our ancestors, they were great and mighty, abided by agreements...Tell them about the slyness of the Jews towards our prophet Muhammad, slyness which will continue until the end of days. The Jews cannot be trusted, it doesn’t matter how much they try to present themselves as innocent of crime and terrorism.”
Photo from the Al-Fateh forum, April 2009
From the Al-Fateh forum, April 2009
The Israel soldier as a child-killer: Cartoon from Al-Fateh, Hamas’ children’s magazine, May 2009, often recycled. The title reads “Hunters of children.” It was drawn by Hamas-affiliated Omaya Joha, notorious for her vicious anti-Israeli anti-Semitic cartoons.
A posting on the Al-Fateh forum, September 2009, about the shaheed Khaled Mahmoud al-Zahar, son of senior Hamas figure Mahmoud al-Zahar, an Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades operative who died in a targeted killing. The posting glorifies Khaled al-Zahar, and ends by saying “May Allah have mercy on the shaheed Khaled and on all our pure shaheeds. May Allah let us meet him in paradise above, by the grace of Allah.”
Photo from the Al-Fateh forum, April 2009
From the Al-Fateh forum, April 2009
The late Sheik Ahmed Yassin with Palestinian children. He is described as an exemplary figure, the founder and leader of Hamas, killed by the “murderers of the prophets,” the “cowardly Jews and Zionists” (Photo from the Al-Fateh forum, April 2009).
A posting about a Gazan youth with a black belt in karate whose leg was injured, according to the claim, by IDF fire during Operation Cast Lead. The child is quoted as saying that if he competes abroad with an Israeli rival, he will either “force him to surrender” or “kill him with karate chops” (From the Al-Fateh forum, April 2009).
Photo from the Al-Fatah forum, June 2009
Children brought to look at the bodies of babies to instill them with
hatred for Israel (Photo from the Al-Fatah forum, June 2009.)
1 For further information about Hamas’ smile spin and its objectives, see our August 3, 2009 bulletin “Hamas is conducting a “smile spin” for the West, particularly the United States...”
2 For further information see our June 11, 2009 bulletin “The hate industry: Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) continue to inculcate the values of hate and support of terrorism in Palestinian children.”
3 For further information see our September 6, 2009 bulletin “The battle for hearts and minds in the Gaza Strip: Hamas attacks UNRWA for planning to teach the Holocaust in its schools...” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e082.pdf.
4 For further information see our June 7, 2007 bulletin “Hezbollah as a case study of the battle for hearts and minds” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hezbollah_e_0607.pdf and our September 7, 2008 bulletin “Hezbollah uses its summer camps to indoctrinate youngsters with radical Shi'ite Islamic ideology...” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/d_03e.pdf.
5 The program can be viewed on the Palestinian Media Watch website, http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=1339, and on YouTube, http://hwww.youtube.com/watch?v=jwN2M6ZIIRU .
6 For further information see our August 16, 2009 bulletin “Hamas summer camps in the Gaza Strip integrate social activities with political and Islamic indoctrination and semi-military training” at http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/hamas_e078.pdf.
7 The banner on the building was deciphered through the use of several photographs
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