Hamas-run television defied Israel and the Palestinian Government on Friday by airing a controversial children's show with a Mickey Mouse lookalike preaching resistance and Islamic domination.
Israel and Jewish groups have slammed the Al-Aqsa television channel for allowing the copycat mouse "Farfur" and a girl co-star to urge resistance against Israel and the United States, and for its overtly Islamist message.
Padded out with Islamic songs and calling cities in Israel part of Palestine, Friday's episode apparently sought to prepare children for their end-of-year examinations.
Asked by an Al-Aqsa reporter why he looked around to see what his friends were writing, Farfur -- whose name means butterfly -- answered: "Because the Jews destroyed my home and I left my books and notes under the rubble."
"I'm calling on all children to read more and more to prepare for exams because the Jews don't want us to learn," said Farfur who failed the test.
Broadcast weekly for an hour, the show also featured a short film recalling the anguish of little girl Huda Ghalya, whose family was killed on a Gaza beach last June in a blast for which Israel denied responsibility.
"Anyone who wants to go to the sea will be killed," said Farfur.
"Yes Farfur, but also they killed her family because we are Palestinian," interjected reporter Hazem Sharawi, before calling for Islamic rule and for Spain to be returned to Muslim rule as after the 8th century Moorish invasion.
"Palestine will return free and Andalus will return soon. Hello Egypt, Damascus and Algeria. Islam will return for all whole world," he said.
Friday's show also taught tomorrow's pioneers that the cities of Jaffa, Haifa and Acre, in modern-day Israel, in addition to Jerusalem, belong to their country. Songs are sung about Palestine and about facing the enemy.
Friday's broadcast came after the Palestinian information ministry asked Al-Aqsa to withdraw the programme for review, but minister Mustafa Barghuti said he would reserve judgement until watching the latest installment.
"They have said they will change it and improve it, and we will see," he told AFP.
Earlier this week, Barghuthi said the programme had 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.
On Thursday, the chairman of the Al-Aqsa board, Fathi Hamad, refused to bow to pressure to cull the programme or to doctor its content, slamming an Israeli and Western plan "to attack Islam and the Palestinian cause".
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.