On Hamas TV, Child Wants to Become an Engineer to “Blow Up Jews”

As the school year begins in the United States and elsewhere, the “what do you want to be when you grow up?” conversation probably is occurring in thousands of classrooms, with parents and teachers encouraging children to dream of future occupations as teachers, doctors, inventors and the like. Yet, on al-Aqsa TV, a Hamas affiliate, children are encouraged to become murderers.

A clip of a Sept. 4, 2015 broadcast, translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) shows several Palestinian Arab children in the Gaza Strip, being interviewed by a host for al-Aqsa TV. The children, looking no more than elementary school age, are clad in small versions of military fatigues.

The al-Aqsa host asks one child, “What do you want to be when you grow up, Muhammad?” The young boy replies that he wants to be a member of the “al-Qassam brigades”—a U.S.-listed terror group named after Sheikh Izz al din al-Qassem, a Syrian terrorist who murdered Jews and British officials in 1930’s British mandate for Palestine.

Asserting that the boy’s career choice is “fine,” the smiling host asks another child about his aspirations. Seemingly unsatisfied with the response that the boy wants to become an “engineer,” the host asks, “Why do you want to become an engineer?”

“So that I can blow up the Jews,” the child responds.

Apparently relieved, the host doesn’t discourage such homicidal goals, but does try to impart to the child politically correct language for murder that may be more palatable to some Western audiences. “You want to blow up the Jews? No, we want to blow up the Zionists. You mean the occupation, right? Okay, so that is why you want to become an engineer.”

With prompting from the host another child then offers advice to the other children:

“Keep waging Jihad, and Allah willing, when you grow up, you will wage resistance against [murder] the Jews.”

Despite being run by a U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas, al-Aqsa TV was considered a legitimate news group as recently as two years ago by the Newseum, a Washington, D.C.-based museum that bills itself as an “interactive museum of news and journalism.” The Newseum has a memorial wall that “honors fallen journalists” who died during the course of their work. As CAMERA has noted, the memorial includes deceased employees of propaganda arms of terrorist groups and dictatorial regimes such as those in Syria and Iran. Two al-Aqsa TV “journalists” are listed as well (“Newseum Discredits Itself,” May 13, 2013).

Despite the Newseum’s pledge to “reevalute” its standards for inclusion on the wall , over two years later it still pays tribute to fallen terrorists online. The title of journalist by extension would apparently cover the aforementioned Hamas TV host as well.

The translated clip by MEMRI can be found here.—Sean Durns