This page is subject to the extended confirmed restriction related to the Arab-Israeli conflict.Tomorrow's Pioneers (Arabic: رواد الغد Ruwād al-Ghad), also known as The Pioneers of Tomorrow, is a Palestinian children's television show[2] that was broadcast by the Hamas-affiliated television station Al-Aqsa TV from April 13, 2007 to October 16, 2009, and featured young host Saraa Barhoum and her co-host Farfour, a large Mickey Mouse-like costumed character, performing skits (or "scenes") and discussing life in Palestine in a talk show fashion with call-ins from children (typically of age 9–13 with some as young as 3).

[3][4] Presented in a children's educational format similar to such other preschool shows as Sesame Street or Barney & Friends, Tomorrow's Pioneers is highly controversial as it contains antisemitism, Islamism, anti-Americanism, and other anti-Western themes.

The show is considered to be the successor to an earlier Hamas-broadcast children's radio program series entitled Ovan and Branches (Arabic: أفنان وأغصان).

"[3] During gaps between shooting Tomorrow's Pioneers, Saraa took the opportunity to develop her singing career and she has performed several concerts in support of her music.

[9] Saraa has seven siblings, her father is a university professor[3] and her uncle, Fawzi Barhoum (Arabic: فوزي برهوم), is a Hamas spokesman.

Farfour (Arabic: فرفور; also rendered as Farfur), a Mickey Mouse-like mouse,[12] is a costumed character with a high-pitched voice who co-hosted Tomorrow's Pioneers with Saraa.

"[20] Nahoul (Arabic: نحول; also rendered as Nahul or Nahool) is a costumed bumblebee character with a high-pitched voice who co-hosted Tomorrow's Pioneers with Saraa following Farfour's martyrdom during an Israeli interrogation.

Assoud (Arabic: أسّود; also rendered as Assud), a Bugs Bunny or Roger Rabbit-like rabbit character whose name means lion, was introduced after his brother, the previous co-host, Nahoul, died of illness.

"[26] On his deathbed, he instructs Palestinian children that they must fight and die to liberate Haifa, Tel Aviv and other Israeli cities.

Due to political instability and regional conflict between Hamas and Fatah parties, the show has not maintained uninterrupted broadcasting.

[34] In September 2008, Fatah also began broadcasting a competing show targeting children on the Official PA TV network.

Palestinian Information Minister, Mustafa Barghouti successfully lobbied to have the show shut down for a time although this ban was later lifted.

The show, brought to Western attention by pro-Israel organizations such as Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI, supposedly deals with Islamic traditions and lifestyles, some as innocuous as the importance of drinking milk, and Muslim customs such as performing one's daily prayers, but also advocates messages of Islamism such as "Resistance Jihad", and the loathing of Israel, the capitalist economic system, the United States, and Western world.

[13] According to Palestinian Media Watch, two animal character co-hosts, the Mickey Mouse look-alike Farfour and Nahoul the bee were used to "champion violence, promote hatred of Israel and preach about world Islamic supremacy."

"[70] 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.

The argument has been advanced that "Israel is following all the Palestinians, large and small, and placing them under a microscope with a predefined concept of culture, media and religion.

"[74] It has also been suggested by a variety of sources that, holding judgment aside, the show's content is simply reflective of the realities of life in the occupied territory.

[4][75][74] Relatedly, it is argued that Zionist critics in particular are disturbed by the fact that the show provides "Arab and Muslim children [with] the opportunity to participate in [a public forum context] to freely express their real feelings [regarding life in] Palestine.

[74] After attracting international attention for its use of the Mickey Mouse-lookalike, Farfour, Palestinian Information Minister Mustafa Barghouti stated the use of the character was a "mistaken approach" and the program was pulled from Hamas-affiliated Al-Aqsa TV and placed under review at his ministry's request.

[77] Al-Aqsa TV board chairman Fathi Hamad replied that the station would neither pull the program, nor change the subject matter.

He stated that "[t]his campaign of criticism is part of a plan orchestrated by the West and the occupying power to attack Islam on the one hand and the Palestinian cause on the other.

[84] In September 2008, Fatah also began broadcasting a competing show targeting children on the Official PA TV network.

1069 in the United States House of Representatives, a resolution "[c]ondemning the use of television programming by Hamas to indoctrinate hatred, violence, and anti-Semitism toward Israel in young Palestinian children.

[88] Brian Whitaker, the Middle East editor for British newspaper The Guardian, wrote in a blog for the newspaper that in the translation of the video, showing Farfour eliciting political comments from a young girl named Sanabel, the MEMRI transcript misrepresents the segment where he asks what she will do, by attributing a sentence said by Farfour, ("I'll shoot"), to the child while ignoring the child's actual reply ("I'm going to draw a picture").

[91] Conservative television host Glenn Beck had planned to run MEMRI's translation on his radio programme but was stopped by his producer.

"[90] Flavorwire negatively reviewed the series as "an abomination of modern cinematic technology" stating that:[92] "it’s shot as one long, static, droning cut, filmed almost entirely within a corner studio whose only décor is makeshift wallpaper of pastel foam alphabet floor mat blocks, and stars the worst Mickey Mouse knockoff ever.

What it lacks visually, though, it makes up for in exciting content, regularly featuring such punchy lines as “How will you sacrifice your soul for the sake of Al-Aqsa?"