Palestinian Media Watch Bulletin, July 9, 2009.
The Hamas TV children’s program Tomorrow’s Pioneers 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: “ the children of the Shahida 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.
The re-enactment:
An actress representing Riyashi is shown preparing a bomb in front of a child
actress representing her daughter. The daughter follows her mother around and
sings: “Mommy, what are you carrying in your arms instead of me? A toy or a
present for me?”
Mother Riyashi does not answer and soon is seen leaving home while the
daughter sings: “Come back quickly, Mommy.”
The actress-daughter then sees the TV report of her mother’s suicide bombing,
and sings to her dead mother: “Instead of me you carried a bomb in your
hands. Only now I know what was more precious than us.”
As the daughter sings this revelation in the re-enactment video, the TV camera
in the studio shifts for a moment to a close-up of Riyashi’s son staring at the
video of his mother. Then the camera goes back to the video, showing his
mother with the Israeli soldiers, who all suddenly disappear in the smoke of the
massive explosion of her bomb.
The broadcast of the video re-enactment stops before the end of the full music
video, and the camera returns to the children in the studio.
Child hostess Saraa summarizes for the children and viewers:
“These are the children of the Shahida , the heroic Jihad fighter who
sacrificed all that she had for the sake of her homeland. She cared less about
her own flesh and blood, and for their sake, she sacrificed for Allah…
We say to the occupier, that we will continue in the footsteps of the Shahida,
the Jihad fighter Reem Riyashi, until we liberate our homeland from your hands,
usurper.”
PMW note: In the full music video re-enactment, the daughter promises to
follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a suicide terrorist, and the video
ends as the daughter opens her mother’s drawer and picks up a stick of
dynamite. The full video has been broadcast regularly on Hamas TV from 2007
through 2009. Click here to view the complete Hamas music video.
Two years ago, Hamas TV interviewed terrorist Reem Riyashi’s two children
about their mother’s suicide attack, discussing with the children how many
Jews their mother had killed.
The following is the transcript of the 2007 interview with Riyashi’s children on
Hamas TV:
Interviewer: “We are now going to the two children of Reem Riyashi, the
Martyrdom-seeker, and Jihad fighter Duha and Muhammad.
Duha, do you love Mommy? Where did Mommy go?”
Duha: “To Paradise”
Interviewer: “What did Mommy do?”
Duha: “Became a Shahida .”
Interviewer: “She killed Jews, right?
How many did she kill, Muhammad?”
Muhammad: “What?”
Interviewer: “How many Jews did she kill?”
Muhammad: “Five.”
