Israel Matzav

'Palestinian' child abuse: Suicide bomber's children shown re-enactment of mother's death on Hamas TV kids' show

The Hamas TV children's program Tomorrow's Pioneers - the same show that brought us Farfour the Mouse, Nahoul the Bee, Assoud the Jew-eating Rabbit and the 'lovely' Saraa (Fawzi Barhoum's niece) - 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.

Let's go to the videotape.



You can find the full video that the kids were watching here. Here's a summary of that video's story:

Abhorrent as such images might seem, the story behind them is even more wrenching. Aired on a TV channel run by the Islamic militants of Hamas, the two-minute re-enactment was based on the life of Reem Riyashi, 22, a Palestinian mother of two who blew herself up in a suicide attack against Israeli soldiers at a Gaza border crossing in January 2004. Riyashi is hailed as a courageous resistance fighter among Palestinians throughout Gaza and the West Bank, but the truth about what drove her to such a terrible act is much more complex. Palestinians in Gaza and Israeli internal-security experts who studied the background of her case say Riyashi's husband had discovered that she was having an affair with a senior Hamas commander. Among conservative Palestinians, as in other parts of the Islamic world, an adulterous woman is often punished with death. Riyashi was given a second option: she could become a martyr. In a video statement released hours before her death, Riyashi, garbed in a militaristic uniform and holding a semiautomatic rifle, sounds tough. "I have always wished to knock at the door of heaven carrying skulls belonging to the sons of Zion," she says. But the pained expression on her chubby, homely face conveys considerably more ambivalence about the idea of annihilating herself to kill Israelis and restore her family's "honor."

Riyashi's children were interviewed on Hamas Television in March 2007. The video I posted at the time has been marked 'removed by user' but Palestinian Media Watch has reposted it. Let's go to the videotape.



What kind of effect do you think this haves on young children's minds? I'll tell you one thing for sure: It does not prepare them to live normal, peaceful lives.

The manner in which the 'Palestinians' abuse their children is abhorrent. The way the rest of the world puts up with it is even worse.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:06 PM