Palestinian TV show sparks controversy

Why are children singing about holy wars and pledging to become suicide warriors? That was the question posed last night at Stiteler Hall to an audience that viewed The Children's Workshop, a short documentary that featured excerpts from The Children's Club, a Palestinian television show that reaches thousands of children daily. The Children's Club, which is produced by Palestinian Authority TV and funded in part by American aid dollars, has often been compared to Sesame Street -- complete with lovable characters, catchy songs and smiling children. The presentation was organized by College senior David Crystal on behalf of the University group Yamin Nachon, "a non-militant and non-extremist right-wing Zionist organization." In a speech after the video, Crystal said his goal in presenting the documentary was to "show a side of the PLO-Israeli conflict that is almost completely unseen" and to place pressure on the American government to "cease U.S. funding of shows like these." The tape of clips was compiled by the Jerusalem-based peace organization Peace for Generations. The children were often shown stating promises of death for their country and many children stated that they held a "heartfelt conviction to launch Jihad" -- or holy war -- against Israel, according to the subtitles. Crystal said that a copy of the documentary has been sent to every member of Congress in hopes of preventing further funding. After Crystal's speech, in which he deemed Palestinian behavior a violation of the 1993 Oslo accords, the audience members engaged in an impromptu and often intense debate on the content of the video. Wharton freshman Azad Badakhsh argued that the excerpts were "taken out of context" and only represented one side of the argument. College sophomore Alex Abrams agreed that the argument was not presented fairly and stated that Israel, too, is guilty of violating the peace accords. Abrams added that it "doesn't make sense to incite hatred of Palestinian children." Another question was put forth by College sophomore Aurit Lazerus when she asked, "How do you resolve this?" Lazerus contended that the "message is reflective" of the people behind it and added that even without funding, the "message and sentiment" would still be present in Palestinian society.