CNN picks up PMW's story on Hamas kids' TV from recent PMW bulletin

Jul 16, 2009

Click here to view CNN's video report

The following is PMW's bulletin of July 9, 2009, which includes
transcripts from the Hamas children's show and other
background information on Hamas children's TV.

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Suicide bomber's children
shown re-enactment of mother's death
on Hamas TV kids' show
by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

The Hamas TV children's program Tomorrow's Pioneers produced a special broadcast in which the two young children of a female suicide terrorist were invited to the TV studio to watch a video re-enactment of their mother's suicide bombing. The terrorist, Reem Riyashi, killed four Israelis in a suicide bombing in 2004.

Calling the terrorist a "Martyr," the bear puppet and star of the program, Nassur, introduces Riyashi's children to the other children in the studio:

"[Our guests are] the children
of the Shahida [Martyr] Reem Riyashi."

Then Muhammad and Duha, the young son and daughter of Riyashi, together with the children in the studio, watch a music video re-enactment of their mother's suicide bombing. While the video is shown, the TV camera shows close-ups of Riyashi's children as they stare at the screen images of their mother's bombing and death.

The re-enactment:

An actress representing Riyashi is shown preparing a bomb in front of a child actress representing her daughter. The daughter follows her mother around and sings:

"Mommy, what are you carrying in your arms instead of me?
A toy or a present for me?"

Mother Riyashi does not answer and soon is seen leaving home while the daughter sings:

"Come back quickly, Mommy."
The actress-daughter then sees the TV report of her mother's suicide bombing, and sings to her dead mother:

"Instead of me you carried a bomb in your hands.
Only now I know what was more precious than us."

As the daughter sings this revelation in the re-enactment video, the TV camera in the studio shifts for a moment to a close-up of Riyashi's son staring at the video of his mother. Then the camera goes back to the video, showing his mother with the Israeli soldiers, who all suddenly disappear in the smoke of the massive explosion of her bomb.

The broadcast of the video re-enactment stops before the end of the full music video, and the camera returns to the children in the studio.

Child hostess Saraa summarizes for the children and viewers:

"These are the children of the Shahida [Martyr], the heroic Jihad fighter who sacrificed all that she had for the sake of her homeland. She cared less about her own flesh and blood, and for their sake, she sacrificed [herself] for Allah...
We say to the occupier, that we will continue in the footsteps of the Shahida, the Jihad fighter Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your hands, usurper."

PMW note: In the full music video re-enactment, the daughter promises to follow in her mother's footsteps and become a suicide terrorist, and the video ends as the daughter opens her mother's drawer and picks up a stick of dynamite. The full video has been broadcast regularly on Hamas TV from 2007 through 2009.

Two years ago, Hamas TV interviewed terrorist Reem Riyashi's two children about their mother's suicide attack, discussing with the children how many Jews their mother had killed.

The following is the transcript of the 2007 interview with Riyashi's children on Hamas TV:

Interviewer: "We are now going to the two children of Reem Riyashi, the Martyrdom-seeker, and Jihad fighter [mother of] Duha and Muhammad.
Duha, do you love Mommy? Where did Mommy go?"
Duha: "To Paradise"
Interviewer: "What did Mommy do?"
Duha: "Became a Shahida [Martyr]."
Interviewer: "She killed Jews, right?
How many did she kill, Muhammad?"
Muhammad: "What?"
Interviewer: "How many Jews did she kill?"
Muhammad: "Five."

[Al Aqsa TV (Hamas), March 8, 2007]

CNN picks up PMW's story on Hamas kids' TV from recent PMW bulletin

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