Amid Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza to stop rocket attacks against its civilian population, an Iranian children’s TV show taught toddlers to embrace “martyrdom” and hate their Jewish “enemies.”
“We all loathe those enemies. We all loathe them. We are furious at them. We identify with the Palestinian children,” said the female host of the program on Iran’s Channel 1 Monday, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI
The host, noting the children were wearing traditional Palestinian kaffiyeh scarves as a sign of solidarity, said the “enemy” was turning “the oppressed children of Gaza into martyrs.”
“Except for strolling down the street and looking for a flower to smell, these children didn’t do anything,” the host said. “They didn’t understand what war is. They didn’t understand what murder, massacre, and crime are. They didn’t understand what evil is. But before they had time to grow up, they got a taste of the enemy’s evil.”
Israel has maintained it is targeting only Hamas sites and leaders tied to the rocket attacks. But the terrorist group has placed its operations within residential areas, resulting in unintentional civilian casualties. Hamas, on the other hand, is aiming its missiles at Israeli population centers.
The TV host asked the Iranian children what they would do if they were in the place of the Palestinian children, “Would we surrender, or would we fight back?”
The children replied in unison: “Fight back.”
A child chimed in: “We would all get together so we could fight. …”
The TV host finished the child’s sentence: ” … the enemies and the bad people. That’s right, we would struggle against them and fight them.”
The host declared she is willing to be a martyr for Islam.
“I am willing to sacrifice myself. I am willing to sacrifice my arms, my legs, and all my limbs, my family, and my property, in order to achieve my goals,” she said.
Hamas, through it’s Al-Aqsa TV, has aired similar programs for children in the Palestinian territories. One program featured a Mickey Mouse-knockoff who taught children to fight for Israel’s destruction and Islam’s domination over the world.
In the show’s final episode, the mouse was “martyred” by Israel “while defending his land,” a teen TV hostess declared.
As WND reported, Hamas launched a children’s website in 2002, encouraging kids to follow the example of terrorist suicide bombers.
WND also reported the children’s website featured comic strips encouraging hatred of Israelis, who are defined as “evil Zionists.”