Hamas TV’s Child Star Saraa

Check out Checkpoint Jerusalem’s excellent post on the use of children of the Arab Israeli war

“Saraa Barhoum fidgets in her swivel chair and plays with the pink lace lining of her frilly top.

When first she speaks, her voice is barely a whisper. She can’t be more than five-feet-tall or weigh 70 pounds.

Her pink bellbottoms cover her feet and drag slightly on the ground. The afternoon sun glints off the sparkly butterflies on her shirt.

She is a bashful and serious 11-year-old who wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

For now, though, she is the first Hamas television Mouseketeer.

Saraa is the young star of “Tomorrow’s Pioneers,” the weekly, hour long Hamas TV kids show that brought the world the militant Mickey Mouse look-alike who was beaten to death by an Israeli interrogator.”

The end part of this story hit me

“On the show, Saraa offers moral lessons to viewers and urges them to do what they can to fight Israeli occupation. After some prodding in an interview, Saraa offered a personal message for Israeli girls her age.

“They have to leave,” she said. “This is our country. They kicked us out and stole our happiness. This is a natural result.”

Within minutes, an explosion hit the building, rattling windows and sending Saraa and the staff rushing outside. At first, no one was sure if it was an accident or an Israeli airstrike. Then, it became clear that the blast was caused by an Israeli missile that missed a car filled with militants and slammed into an empty bedroom on the top floor of a three-story apartment building.

Standing outside the Hamas building with her producer protectively putting his arm around her shoulders, Saraa looked pensive and anxious. Hamas camera crews and an ambulance rushed down the block. Saraa kept quiet and gazed down the street. The coached revolutionary rhetoric disappeared. Instead, she looked like any frightened young girl caught up in events beyond her control.

Then, after it was clear that no one had been killed in the airstrike, Saraa and her producer headed back upstairs to prepare for the next episode of “Tomorrow’s Pioneers.”

If anyone is interested in watching Farfor the mouse being beaten to death by ‘israelis’

also from Hamas TV… a very bizarre video teaching kids to be kind to animals… by abusing animals… Staring Nahool! a very interesting bee.

Finally, a great post by conflict blotter on Hizbullah being nice to Sea Turtles. Kudos to them. Negative points to Amal for being douchebags to Sea Turtles.

” It turns out rare sea turtles nest on a stretch of wildnerness beach between Tyre and Nakoura in south Lebanon. A pair of environmentalists, the owners of the quaint Orange House Bed and Breakfast, have been campaigning to make the beach a protected area, but two different municipalities hold sway over the strip of coast in question. To the south, the Amal Party, headed by Nabih Berri, controls the local council. To the north, Hezbollah runs the show.

The turtles’ leadling local advocates said Amal has refused to protect their half of the beach and the rare turtles that nest there. Berri’s wife, it is said, owns a sea front property and hopes at some point down the road to build a sea front resort on the beach. A campaign to stop local fisherman from using dynamite to fish were met with Amal gunman shooting up the home of the local activists and slashing their dog’s leg. The Hezbollah-controlled municipality, meanwhile, was quick to declare their portion of the beach protected.”

~ by brownbomber on August 14, 2007.