Saraa Barhoum Samir Abu Muhssen Mohammad Ramadan Hazim Al-Sha'arawi
Seasons:
4
Episodes:
17
Tomorrow's Pioneers (رواد الغد Arabic romanization: Ruwād al-Ghad; also known as The Pioneers of Tomorrow) is a Palestinian "children's program" that aired from April 13, 2007 to October 16, 2009 on the Palestinian Hamas-affiliated television station, Al-Aqsa TV (مرئية الأقصى قناة الأقصى). The show features young host Saraa Barhoum and her co-host, a large costumed animal as they perform skits (or "scenes") and discuss life in Palestine in a talk show fashion with call-ins from children (typically of age 9–13 with some as young as 3). Presented in a children's educational format similar to such shows as Sesame Street or Barney and Friends, Tomorrow's Pioneers is highly controversial as it contains antisemitism, anti-Americanism, and other anti-Western themes.
Why It Sucks
It portrays Americans, and especially Jewish people incredibly negatively.
It's very wrong in its teachings. As a Hamas-funded program, it obviously teaches terrorism to children.
Promotes child soldiers and suicide bombers.
It's basically a series of recruitment videos for Hamas.
It has evil rip-off versions of cartoon characters such as Mickey Mouse (Farfour), Maya Bee (Nahool), Bugs Bunny/Roger Rabbit (Assoud), and Winnie the Pooh (Nassur).
The first episode has Farfour getting punished not because he was rooting for the Israelis, but because he spoke English. In that particular episode, Saraa and Hazim keep saying that it is terrorist talk.
A horrifying scene in which an actor dressed as an Israeli government official beats Farfour to death after the latter calls him a terrorist. This scene is insulting and disturbing to both Mickey Mouse fans and little kids
Farfour isn't actually the only character that dies, every other character on the show that's not named Saraa, Uncle Hazim and Nassur (a Winnie the Pooh rip-off), dies in a horrifying way at the finale of every season.
Nahool dies after she becomes seriously ill and the Israeli authorities refuse to allow her family to take her to an Egyptian hospital for treatment.
Assoud dies in hospital after the Israeli Air Force attacks his town.
The "children's songs" are actually propaganda songs that praise Hamas.
The show has repetitive plots. On every episode, it glorifies terrorism.
The voice acting for Farfour is plain awful, as if a sick elderly man took the place.
It was said that Diane Disney Miller got a letter from the director of Tomorrow’s Pioneers, saying that the creators denied that the show was teaching evil, and he demanded the network not pull the show off the air.
Reception And Criticism
Tommorrow's Pioneers was panned by critics and audiences alike, with many considered it to be one of the worst shows of all time. Criticisms concerning the content and methods employed in the broadcast of Tomorrow's Pioneers have come from a variety of sources. Israeli officials and critics from the Anti-Defamation League have denounced the program as incendiary and outrageous in content. Watchdog groups, Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI have described the show as "anti-Israeli," and PMW has commented on the show's "champion[ing of] violence, promot[ion of] hatred of Israel and preach[ing] about world Islamic supremacy." Within the Arabic community, critics have suggested that the show has potential to introduce bias in children at an age when they are unable to properly differentiate between political viewpoints.
