Does Big Bird know street to Mideast peace?

The European Union is hoping Big Bird will help usher in Middle East peace through a television series based on the popular U.S. program “Sesame Street.”

Teaching the next generation of Israelis and Palestinians to love, accept and have empathy for their neighbors is the aim of “Sesame Stories,” which is partly funded by the EU, reports the BBC.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in 2001 appearance on “Sesame Street”

Called Hikayat Simsim in Jordan and the Palestinian territories and Sippuray Sumsum in Israel, the program employs the same format as the U.S. show, which targets children 4-7 years old.

The Israeli version has been on the air since September, and the show began in the Palestinian territories and Jordan Oct. 26.

“They’re really based on universal stories about respect and understanding,” Gary Knell, director of worldwide versions of the show, told BBC World Service.

Other efforts internationally to reflect local issues include an HIV-positive Muppet named Kami that appears on the South Africa version.

“We wanted to localize the show and make it relevant for the local population,” Knell told the BBC.

The Middle East versions have created three local Muppets, he said. The Jordanians have Tonton and Jiddo, Palestinians have Tareem and Haneem, and children in Israel will watch Noach and Brosh.

The storylines have not reached the point where Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims meet, but Knell hopes “that soon we’ll have the day when that can happen.”

“But we also wanted to build into the Israeli version the diversity that exists within Israel – in fact the two human hosts on the show, one is an Israeli Jew, one is an Israeli Arab,” he told the British news service.

Already, one storyline has Israeli and Arab friends sharing a peaceful protest together after one Muppet makes too much noise with its drums, according to Deutsche Welle, the German radio and TV network. In another, a Jewish girl and her Arab friend compare hair colors: “Look, my hair is a bit darker than yours!”

Another attempt at “Sesame Stories” began about six years ago as an Israeli-Palestinian joint effort that sought to build on the momentum of the 1993 Oslo accords. Each program contained Hebrew and Arabic segments that were built around the notion Israeli and Palestinian children could become friends, the New York Times reported. But the unraveling of the Oslo process led to the show’s current concept of seeking to humanize historic enemies through separate but parallel stories.

“We’ve realized that the goal of friendship was beyond realism, given where things are now,” said Charlotte Cole, vice president of international research for the Sesame Workshop in New York, in a 2001 Times interview.

The EU, which is funding the project’s $8 million cost along with donors such as the Ford Foundation, is expressing optimism, however.

“In times of heightened fear, conflict and violence, this project offers children in the region a different experience and one they can share across borders,” the Commission said in a statement.

It added, the EU decided to fund episodes of the series “in the belief that ignorance of others fuels the ongoing conflict in the region.”

Knell said he wants to see the program develop along with the peace process.

“There are places where there are different stages of conflict, and you can be in a stage where there is armed conflict, where social lessons can be done in a certain way,” he told the BBC. “Then there are times of reconciliation, when you can be more overt about connecting people or concepts.”

I want to be a suicide bomber

However, the shows in the Palestinian territories likely will have competition with programming selling a completely different message.

As WorldNetDaily reported, for example, Palestinian Authority television produced a “Sesame Street”-like children’s program called the “Children’s Club” – complete with puppet shows, songs, Mickey Mouse and other characters – focused on inculcating intense hatred of Jews and a passion for engaging in and celebrating violence against them in a perpetual “jihad” until the day the Israeli flags come down from above “Palestinian land” and the Palestinian flag is raised.

In one song on the “Children’s Club,” very young children are shown singing songs about wanting to become “suicide warriors” and to take up “a machine gun” to direct “violence, anger, anger, anger” against Israelis.

During the show, which featured children aged 4-10, one young boy sings, “When I wander into Jerusalem, I will become a suicide bomber.” Afterward, other children stand to call for “Jihad! Holy war to the end against the Zionist enemy.”

In another segment, a boy who appears to be no more than 8 or 9 years old chants: “My patience has run out. All Arab existence cries for revenge” against the Jews in Israel.

Ambassador Elmo

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was a guest-star on the U.S. production “Sesame Street” two years ago, stepping in when puppet character Elmo and his friends argued over who would get to sing the alphabet song.

Kofi Annan meets “Sesame Street’s” Elmo

Annan said after the taping he hoped he showed children “the spirit of the U.N., a spirit of understanding, sharing and working together.”

He said some politicians needed to be more like the characters in the show.

“Elmo and his friends will tell us, it’s the way they are, they tell it straight,” Annan said. “Keep it simple and it brings you back to earth. I think that is very important, we all need that.”

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