The Palestinian Authority version of Sesame Street, which unilaterally determined that “Palestine” is Arab, will be off the air because of American funding Cuts.
In 2010, PA Sesame Street – Sharaa Simsim – featured a video called “A Gift from Grandmother, which began with a little girl excitedly exclaiming, “We're off to Palestine!”
Since then, “Palestine” has remained a term in history books – the name of the Land of Israel used during the British Mandate.
Failing to establish the Palestinian Authority as a country through agreed upon negotiations with Israel under the Oslo Accords, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas circumvented the “peace process” and succeeded in gaining PA membership n the United Nations agency UNESCO after failing to win United Nations Security Council approval for full membership in the international body.
The U.S. Congress carried out its threat and held back $192 million in funding for USAID programs for the Palestinian Authority. One of those programs is PA Sesame Street, which has been on the air for five years.
A small part of the American funds was released last month, but it is unlikely to be used for other projects.
Mainstream media reported this week that Sharaa Simsim “promoted a message of peace and tolerance,” as almost all sesame Street programs do. However, in a region that is hyper-sensitive to political innuendoes, the subtle recognition of “Palestine” was another ostensibly innocent expression of the de facto existence of the Palestinian Authority as an independent country.
The U.S. State Department has poured billions of dollars into Judea, Samaria and Gaza the past 40 years in cultural and political programs aimed at promoting Arab sovereignty there.