Hamas TV continues to find new ways to teach children to hate with a puppet show in which a young boy learns not to say good things about Jews in fear of looking like a “Zionist collaborator.” The show aired on Al-Aqsa TV on March 11, and was translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).
The show depicts two characters, a young boy named Alloush and his uncle Hassan. Alloush is excited, having learned that the Ibrahimi Mosque – the Muslim term for the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hevron – is now open to Jews and Christians.
The show is apparently referring to Israel's recent decision to include the Tomb of the Patriarchs on a list of national heritage sites. The decision will not affect the current division of the space between Muslim and Jewish worshipers.
His uncle, Hassan, rebukes him harshly, saying, “Are you out of your mind, Alloush?... How can you possibly be happy when a mosque – where we would worship Allah and pray to Him night and day – is turned into a synagogue... and the Jews come to defile it?”
Hassan goes on to say that Jews plan to “steal [the mosque] and then make it like their false Temple.”
'Rise up!'
Alloush and other children should tell their parents and grandparents to “rise up against the criminal Zionists, who are planning to destroy Jerusalem,” Hassan orders. “We must rise against the Zionist criminals, the enemies of Allah, and liberate Jerusalem,” he adds.
While Alloush comes to agree with his uncle, Hassan remains concerned. “Did you tell this to anyone else?” he asks the child. When Alloush confirms that he did not, Hassan says, “Very good. You didn't make us look bad.”
If Alloush had publicly expressed enthusiasm over a decision allowing Jews to visit a holy site, “they would accuse you of being a collaborator. They would think that you are a Zionist collaborator,” Hassan warns. “We must think before we speak. Get it?” he adds.
Those suspected of “collaboration” with Israel are harshly punished, under both the rule of the breakaway Palestinian Authority led by Hamas in Gaza and the Fatah-led PA in Judea and Samaria. Helping Israel arrest terrorists is a crime under PA law, and those found guilty can be sentenced to death.