PA children's program compares Israel to evil Smurf cartoon character Gargamel who destroys the Smurf village
Official PA TV children’s program The Best Home about Palestinian Land Day.
Official PA TV host: “In honor of Land Day I would like to tell all our friends, and remind them, and I want us to remind each other so that we won’t forget our land from 1948 (i.e., Israel), which is the period of the Nakba (i.e., “the catastrophe,” Palestinian term for the establishment of the State of Israel), our children friends, the period in which our land was occupied in 1948, and which continued also in the occupation of 1967, which is the Naksa(i.e., "the setback," Palestinian term for Israel's victory in the Six Day War)children friends, and until Land Day [which occurred on] March 30, 1976.
I want to remind you again. I reminded you last year, and this year I’ll remind you, children friends, that Land Day followed the Israeli occupation forces’ expropriation of thousands of Dunams of the lands of the Galilee (northern Israel): Sakhnin, Deir Hanna and Arraba. The triangle of land which is the Galilee. As a result, the public and our people in the 1948 [areas] grew very angry, and of course there were clashes between the occupation forces and our youth and six of [our young people] died as Martyrs (Shahids). Since then we mark Land Day every year. That’s why we don’t want to forget our lands that were lost in 1976 or our lands that were lost in 1967 or our lands that were lost in 1948.”
My land segment of the program on Jaffa:
“Hello [host] Walaa and hello my friends, the children, welcome to My land. Today we will be introduced to a new Palestinian landmark, which is the city of Jaffa. Jaffa is an Arab city located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean sea.”…
Official PA TV host: “We’ve returned to you, children friends. Now we’ll see and listen together to the opinions of our children friends, and to what they would like to say on Land Day, of course, after we went and saw the Palestinian landmark together. We will hear from Sham. Sham what would you like to say today?”
Girl named Sham: “I want to say today that there are children who don’t know that this land that Israel occupied is ours, they think it’s theirs… the children should know that – ”
Official PA TV host: “[they should] know that those are lands that were taken from us, right?”
Girl nods.
Official PA TV host: “Muhammad, what would you like to say in honor of Land Day?”
Muhammad: “This land is our land. They took it from us with force and occupation, but it will stay ours and they will leave it.”…
Official PA TV host: “Will we grow tired and forget it?”
Muhammad: “No, they will leave it and we won’t forget it because it’s our land.”
Official PA TV host: “In other words, we will continue living with hope until our land is restored. Right? We won’t forget it. Bravo… Alright, shall we go back and listen to what Sham has to tell us? She’ll perform a passage [from a play] for us. Don’t forget that she feels that this section – even though it’s about Gargamel (i.e., evil character in the Smurfs, a children’s comic) who came and destroyed the village – is similar to the occupation that came and destroyed Palestine. Right?”
Girl: “Grandpa Smurf asks the Smurfs: ‘Any news?’
One of the Smurfs says to him: ‘No Grandpa Smurf, we didn’t find anything.’
Smurfette says: ‘He destroyed everything and didn’t leave us anything.’
Now it’s my turn: ‘Everything drowned Grandpa Smurf, no food or water remains.’
Another one says: ‘We’ll all starve to death, we can’t live this way. Ohhh I’m tired.’
Grandpa Smurf says: ‘Smurfs, I know the situation is difficult and there is a lot of destruction, but our village needs us. We have undergone so many hard situations and we managed to overcome them together… if we unite we can restore our village.’”
Official PA TV host: “Good, good, in other words you’re also calling for unity with your words and your performance – we need to unite so that we can restore what we lost. Right?”
Girl nods her head
Official PA TV host: “Bravo, Bravo Shamshouma.”
Official PA TV host: “What would you like to say on Land Day?”
Girl: “On Land Day I want to say: Our land, we won’t leave you, we will do all we can to return to living on you.”
Official PA TV host: “Bravo, bravo. We will restore it to us and we will return to living on it… We say to the land that was stolen from us: Don’t continue to be very angry, because of course we always remember you and you will return to us [one] day. A day will come when we restore you. Of course all our little, and big friends and everybody remembers that there is a land that was taken from us in 1948, 1967 and also in 1976.”
Land Day – annual commemoration of the general strike and demonstrations organized by Israeli Arab residents of the Galilee on March 30, 1976 to protest the Israeli government's decision to expropriate land in the Galilee for security and building purposes, which it later implemented. During the protests, demonstrators burnt tires, blocked roads, and threw rocks and firebombs. Six demonstrators were shot and killed by the Israeli army and police. Israeli Arabs and Palestinians consider Land Day a national day.