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November 5, 2005

Iran: Islamist Cartoons For Kids

Today's Sunday Telegraph carries an article about programmes broadcast on Iranian television on Al-Quds Day, 28 October. This day is a festival day to celebrate collective hate for the Israeli nation and people, and this year, children were treated to a range of TV cartoons as a treat.

Except these were not wholesome animated fun, such as Tex Avery material or Disney. The cartoons, two of which have been translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), are rabidly anti-Zionist and also anti-semitic.

The most "adult" of these features a tale of a Palestinian boy named Abd al-Rahman who witnesses his family being slaughtered, with Ma being pounded in the face with a rifle butt and Pa being shot so his blood spatters the orange trees he is cultivating. Abd is introduced to Jassem, who is head of a resistance group.

Jassem: "The man who turned your family into martyrs is one of the most bloodthirsty Israeli officers. May God curse him for his ruthlessness."
Abd Al-Rahman: "Do you know who he is?"
Jassem: "Yes, I know him well. His name is Ariel. He is a criminal through and through. He shows no mercy, not even for children."
[...]
Jassem: "Yesterday, many Israeli soldiers came to the village without warning. They gave the people 15 minutes to leave the village. But the villagers refused to do so, and then, bloodthirsty Ariel gave the order to open fire on the people. All the villagers, including the women and children, were killed.

So Abd is encouraged to strap a belt of grenades to himself, and lie in wait for the Israeli soldiers as they pass in a truck. He leaps into the truck, there is a lot of smoke, and when it clears, the bodies of all are strewn around the road. A kid comes, takes Abd's keffiyeh scarf, and wearing it walks off into a sunset.

Such nastiness is quite dismal, though fairly professionally animated. Less professional, less dismal, but equally insidious is a cartoon of a kid whose Palestinian village is invaded by evil Jewish soldiers, who have long brown noses and red eyes. The soldiers shoot people, frisk women, (including one odd sequence where a soldier fondles a woman's bottom as she is frisked), and then keep the adults prisoner, surrounding the village with barbed wire. They hoist an Israeli flag.

A bright brat sees a grenade on a soldier's waist and has an idea. He gets his friends to gather eggplants (aubergines). Then he runs at a soldier and throws his eggplant. The soldier screams and runs. The other kids follow suit, the Israelis flee, the kids collect the guns, free the adults and all ends happily as the Palestinian flag is hoisted above their village again.

The Telegraph quotes Dan Shaham, a spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in London, who says: "This phenomenon of inciting children to commit suicide attacks is revolting. It corrupts young minds and makes sure conflict continues. President Ahmadinejad is not only dangerous in the here-and-now but the Iranian extremist ideology is affecting future generations. Something needs to be done today."

Ali Ansari, an Iranian analyst from St Andrew's University said the cartoons were "gory stuff" and differed from earlier anti-Israeli propaganda in their preparation and execution. MemriTV stated that they were translating ten of the cartoons. To see the transcript of the Abd al-Rahman cartoon, click here, and to watch it in Windows Media Player, click here. To see the eggplant grenade movie, click here.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at November 5, 2005 9:40 PM

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