Hamas militants have enlisted Mickey Mouse to broadcast their message of Islamic dominion to their most impressionable audience, little kids.
RAMALLAH, WEST BANK: The Palestinian government has told a Hamas-run television channel to pull a controversial children's cartoon in which a Mickey Mouse look-alike urged resistance against Israel.
"A politically-oriented children's television programme was withdrawn by the Al-Aqsa TV station today following a request by the ministry of information," said a statement from the ministry in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Information minister Mustafa Barghuthi said the programme adopted a "mistaken approach" to the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation and that it was wrong to use children's programmes to convey political messages.
In the programme called 'Tomorrow's Pioneers' broadcast on Fridays, a Mickey Mouse look-alike named Farfur and a little girl urged resistance against Israel and the United States -- along with the importance of daily prayers and drinking milk.
The programme drew strong protests from Israeli and Jewish groups with the Anti-Defamation League slamming the station for promoting a message of radical Islam, anti-Semitism and hatred of the West.
"When you take a Mickey Mouse-like character and deliberately use it to promote an ideology of hatred, obviously it's going to have an impact on children and their thinking," said Abraham Foxman, ADL national director.
"For all of their attempts to appear more moderate, Hamas is still willing to indoctrinate children into their culture of hate," added Foxman.
When contacted by AFP, Al-Aqsa television refused to comment.
Hamas is the senior partner in the Palestinian national unity government and is blacklisted as a terrorist organisation in the West.
The Islamist movement controls a television and radio network both called Al-Aqsa and has just launched a newspaper.
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