A still from the clip
Arab song for kids: Allah loves martyrs
Children's website, TV channel broadcasting Birds of Paradise songs praising 'heroes' like Hamas leader Yassin
Anti-Israel television for children: The Birds of Paradise band has released a new song in which children express their desire to be shaheeds (martyrs).
The song, sung by young children on the Birds of Paradise television channel, includes the lyrics, "When we die as shaheeds we'll go to paradise. No, don't say we're young. This life has made us old. Without Palestine, what significance is there to our lives? Even if they give us the whole world, we'll never forget her (Palestine)."
During the song, an older man appears. "Children, we must keep our religious commandments," he sings. "There is no god but Allah, and Allah loves shaheeds."
At the end of the song, the children sing, "Allah watch over the children of Palestine. Allah will make our prayers come true."
The channel has also produced other songs against Israel, such as "The lion cubs of Gaza" and "The upright ones – the return to Palestine."
The songs are broadcast over the station which began operating in Bahrain in January 2008. It was established by Jordanian-Palestinian businessman Khaled Maqdad.
Maqdad, who formed the kids' band of the same name in 1994, has raised funds over the years to set up the station, which specializes in broadcasting the band's clips. In addition to the children's songs, there are also an abundance of love songs to the homeland and songs praising "heroes like (Sheikh) Ahmad Yassin," the wheelchair bound founder of Hamas whom Israel assassinated in March 2004.
"This is a private low-budget project," Maqdad said in a past interview with the al-Jazeera newspaper Al-Shuruq. "The channel has captured the hearts of millions of children. It succeeds where the educational system has failed, such as multiplication table songs. It helps teachers work on it with the children."
