Tomorrow's Pioneers
Tomorrow's Pioneers is a Palestinian children's television show that was broadcast by the Hamas-affiliated television station Al-Aqsa TV from 13 April 2007 to 16 October 2009. Directed by Hazim Al-Sha'arawi, the show is hosted by a young Saraa Barhoum and a large costumed character, who perform skits and discuss life in Palestine in a talk show fashion with call-ins from young children. Presented in a children's educational format similar to shows like Sesame Street and Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, Tomorrow's Pioneers teaches Islamist morals and values, periodically quoting the Hadith and Quran. According to various news outlets and western sources, the show also contains antisemitic, anti-American, and other anti-Western themes. Palestinian Media Watch has characterised the show's messages as "hostile", while others have argued that criticism of the show adds to negative stereotyping of Muslims in general.
Tomorrow's Pioneers also gained attention from Disney, who ordered that the first co-host, Farfour, be written out of the show due to his strong resemblance to Mickey Mouse. In direct response, Farfour was killed in the fifth episode in what the show referred to as a martyrdom, and he was replaced by his cousin, a giant bumblebee named Nahoul, who served as the show's second co-host. Following Farfour's success, Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti lobbied to have the show shut down, although this ban was later lifted, and in 2008, United States Representative Joe Crowley submitted House Resolution No. 1069, which demanded that Hamas accept all previously established peace agreements with Israel.
The show's English translation, provided by MEMRI, attracted the attention of commentators, including CNN Arabic department and Brian Whitaker of The Guardian, who noted that the translation contained multiple errors, undue emphases, and possible bias. In response, MEMRI president Yigal Carmon was invited onto political commentator Glenn Beck's programme, where Carmon declared MEMRI's translation of the show to be more accurate than CNN's Arabic translation.
Background
Tomorrow's Pioneers revolves around a host, originally Saraa Barhoum, and a costumed character performing comedic or educational skits and discussing life in Palestine in a talk show fashion with call-ins from children. Directed by Hazim Al-Sha'arawi, the show is considered the successor to an earlier Hamas-broadcast radio programme that Al-Shara'awi also moderated called Afnan and Aghsan.In Palestine, Hamas-funded social, cultural and children's institutions have become an integral part of their agenda. These institutions engage in incitement, social radicalization and recruitment. Hamas considers media as a "decisive weapon" that effectively spreads information in support of the organization and its ideologies via newspapers, leaflets, websites, television, radio, affiliated mosques, and supporting vocal groups. On 9 January 2006, after Hamas won the Palestinian legislative election, the organisation launched its own channel, Al-Aqsa TV, targeted at both Palestinian and global audiences. Moreover, the children's shows broadcast on Al-Aqsa TV spread Hamas's ideologies, exemplified by Tomorrow's Pioneers.
Characters
Saraa Barhoum (April 2007 – October 2009)
Saraa Barhoum, who hosted Tomorrow's Pioneers, was around 10–11 years old when the show started. Saraa's uncle,, is a Hamas spokesman. In an August 2007 interview, Saraa said she wanted to be a doctor, and if not that, then a martyr. Saraa is not present after the original run of the show; instead, a new host named Maryam takes her place.Uncle Hazim (April–May 2007)
Hazim Al-Sha'arawi, the show's creator and moderator, has appeared in a few episodes as Uncle Hazim. In the show, he often plays the role of the disciplinarian when his nephew, Farfour, does something wrong; in episode 101, he chides Farfour for speaking in English, and in episode 104, he initially holds Farfour responsible for cheating on his exam before realising that Farfour's home was bombed by the Jews and that he had to leave his notes behind in order to survive.Farfour (April–June 2007)
Farfour, a mouse whose design resembles Mickey Mouse, is a costumed character with a high-pitched voice who co-hosted Tomorrow's Pioneers with Saraa. On the show, Farfour has expressed pro-Islamist views, stating that the two of them "are laying the foundation for a world led by Islamists" and they "will return the Islamic community to its former greatness" by liberating Jerusalem and Iraq, among other locations. In episode 103, he simulates shooting an AK-47 and throwing grenades. In episode 105, Farfour is depicted as being beaten to death during an interrogation by an Israeli who is trying to acquire the key and title to "Tel al-Rabi", a fictional Palestinian settlement that was occupied and renamed to Tel Aviv.Response from Disney
The Disney corporation initially had no public statement on the use of Mickey Mouse's image in the Farfour character. Disney CEO Robert Iger later said the company was "appalled by the use of character to disseminate that kind of message", explaining the initial lack of response due to the expectations that the TV show would not have any effect, and "it should have been obvious how the company felt about the subject". Walt Disney's daughter, Diane Disney Miller, asserted to the press that "t's not just Mickey, it's indoctrinating children like this, teaching them to be evil." In a response letter, Tomorrow's Pioneers director Fathi Hamad said that the show was "trying to install in our children's memories the interest in lift the siege on our people and support for the usurper entity of our land and killing our children.... he Palestinian people continue to struggle not indifferent to such are left with the executioner and victim." The story arc in which Farfour was killed off and replaced by Nahoul was created by Al-Sha'arawi, and came in direct response to actions by the Disney family.Several months after Disney's response, Hamas again made use of Disney characters 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 a 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 the reference to The Lion King. In September 2008, Fatah began broadcasting a competing children's show on the official Palestinian Authority TV network. This programme featured the Mickey and Minnie Mouse characters, who appeared in an episode where children honoured Dalal Mughrabi, a young woman who participated in the 1978 coastal road massacre.
Nahoul (July–February 2008)
Nahoul is a bumblebee character with a high-pitched voice who co-hosted Tomorrow's Pioneers with Saraa following Farfour's death. When introduced on Friday, 13 July 2007, he promised "revenge upon the enemies of God, the murderers of the prophets", and "continue in the path of Farfour – the path of Islam, of heroism, of martyrdom, of the mujahideen." On the show, Nahoul has stated such things as: "We will liberate Al-Aqsa from the filth of the criminal Jews", and "We will go on Jihad when we grow up." In episode 204, Nahoul visits the zoo, where he proceeds to swing cats by their tails and throw them around their cage. He later throws stones into a cage of lions, taunting them with his stinger. After the incident, Saraa chastises him against doing it again, citing a story in the Hadith in which a woman went to hell for starving her cat. In February 2008, it was revealed that Nahoul was very sick and in need of an operation. Although Nahoul and his parents travelled to Al-Arish, Egypt, for medical treatment, but they were denied permission to leave Gaza by Israeli authorities. He dies in what the show calls "a martyr's death".In 2013, Nahoul was resurrected, this time with a different bumblebee costume. His stance on Jewish people remains the same, stating that they should be stoned and beaten until their faces "turn red as a tomato". In another episode, Maryam explains to Nahoul the concept of negotiations, which involves forgiving the Zionists for the deaths of numerous martyrs, as well as the division of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but she later said that she chose the path of resistance. On 28 July 2014, the actor who played Nahoul and Karkour the chicken, Muhammad al-Alrir, was killed by Israeli missiles due to his affiliation with Hamas.