Muppets Bringing Peace to the Middle East

TEL AVIV, Israel (Hollywood Reporter) - Where countless politicians and diplomats have failed, Elmo, Cookie Monster and their "Sesame Street" buddies are on a mission to promote peace and tolerance in the Middle East.

A programing experiment using the Muppet characters was launched six months ago and was widely welcomed by parents, educators and the media. But the Muppets are not without their critics in Israel, the Palestinian Authority (news - web sites) and Jordan.

Sesame Workshop partnered with local producers to create "Sesame Stories," an adventurous initiative to use new and existing "Sesame Street" characters to foster respect and understanding among children in the region.

Gary Knell, president and chief operating officer of Sesame Workshop, says in an interview that producers knew that not everybody would be open to the idea of Elmo & Co. teaching Israeli kids to respect Palestinians and vice versa.

"It's a highly charged environment, and the press is going to reflect some of that," Knell says. "Yes, some Israeli reports accused us of being lackeys of the Palestinians, while another article accused us of being lackeys of the Bush White House and charged that Elmo was carrying the will of the White House to the Middle East. A Jordanian Internet site accused us of being Zionist lap dogs."

Knell stresses that the majority of media reports about the Muppets experiment had been positive.

"Sesame Stories" is now airing as three parallel productions on Jordan Television, the HOP! Channel in Israel and the Ma'an Network in the West Bank and Gaza.

Daniella Hellerstein, whose family emigrated to Israel three years ago from the United States, says she encourages four young kids to watch the show.

"I like the overall message -- tolerance and respect -- and I support the effort 100%," she says. But she adds: "My children don't completely appreciate the point of the characters -- they don't differentiate between the Jewish and Arab characters."

Havi Livne, another mother in the region, welcomes the show unreservedly. "Suddenly, a program is dealing with Arabs not just as terrorists. For me, it opened a window to talk with the children about something very important. And it's very important for me to know it's shown in the Palestinian Authority and Jordan."

Ayman El Bardawil, director of Ramallah-based independent broadcaster Al Quds Educational Television, a co-producer of the Palestinian Authority version, reports that "the children are happy about it. The feedback we've been getting is very good."

Sesame Workshop's Knell says that there have been problems other than inflammatory media reports to overcome during the past months. Just living and working in such a highly charged environment is a challenge for the producers. "One day there was a bus bombing (in Israel), and our producers dropped everything to get to the scene because they feared their children might be on the bus.

"Then one of the Palestinian writers -- on his way to a production meeting --was strip-searched in the street by Israeli soldiers. Now you know he's not coming into that meeting in a good mood."

Funny, but the version of this story that was in the International Jerusalem Post this week tells a somewhat different story. www.jpost.com does not put stories from the international version on the web (at least not where I can find them).

Anyhow, in the 19 March, 2004 edition of the International Jerusalem Post, there is a two page story (pp 24-25) about how Sesame Street has been introduced into Israel. It is produced by three separate production companies, one for Jordanian TV, one for the Palestinian Authority TV, and one for Israeli TV.

Speaking of the Israeli version, "'We wanted an Arab Israeli child to be proud of [his/her] family, culture, and heritage shown on the screen. A Jewish child sometimes lives a few miles away [from an Arab child] and has no glimpse into his house. We want to demystify, reduce stereotypes,' says Alona Abt, executive director at the Israeli HOP-TV children's channel, where Sesame Stories airs on weekends."

The version produced and broadcast by Israeli TV shows characters from several cultures (especially Jewish and Arab). "But the Israeli segments do regularly introduce sympathetic Arabic-speaking children and adults in animation and live action segments. A principal human character is Ibtisam, a creative, energetic art student who is good friends with her Jewish neighbor, Tzahi, an inventor and craftsman.

"In the opening segment of the season when Ibtisam comes to borrow glue from Tzahi, and sprinkles the conversation with Arabic words, Tzahi's two red and orange Muppet assistants - Brosh and Noah, who had just had a fight, learn through humor, and listing to Tzahi and Ibtisam, that friends can have differences and still remain close."

OK so far. This looks pretty much like the version reported by Yahoo, doesn't it? Well, do you think there are Jewish characters on the PA or Jordanian versions?

"Even so, they are convinced that they are planting the seeds for children to 'open sesame' to one another - even if the shows are separate and asymmetrical, with the Palestinian and Jordanian shows opting not to include Jewish characters."

"Shari Rosenfeld, the US-based project manager for Sesame Stories, told the Post that having a child with a kippa (yarmulke) on the Palestinian program, for example, would be considered provocative to Palestinians at this time.

"'A kippa seems for Palestinians highly associated with the image of settlers,' she says. '[The show] has to be something acceptable to children and parents and not be inflammatory in any way.'

"The reverse situation - an Arabic garment shown on the Israeli program - wouldn't necessarily be a parallel, she says."

So, as usual, Israel is going the "extra mile" trying to be nice to the Arabs, and the Arabs are not only not reciprocating, but are making extra effort to continue the problems.

The Top 10 Reasons Sesame Street Never Caught On With The Palestinians
By Laurence Simon & John Hawkins

10) People couldn't understand why Snuffleupagus didn't have any humps.

9) Grover was stoned to death after someone claimed he was a spy for the Mossad.

8) Bert and Ernie defile Islam with their obvious homosexual perversity.

7) Palestinian Grouch rumored to have sold his trash to Jews. Killed as a collaborator!

6) Cookie Monster spent too much time eating cookies and not enough time teaching kids how to make molotov cocktails to throw at tanks.

5) The Tickle Me Elmo dolls didn't come with the popular "suicide bomber accessory kit."

4) Big Bird captured and eaten by Hizbollah terrorists.

3) Linda and Maria refused to wear their burkahs.

2) Kermit the Frog was live on the scene with a Muppet News Flash, but was then beaten by Hamas extremists for airing unfavorable coverage of Jihadist killers.

1) Lessons of friendship and understanding took valuable time away from suicide bomber pre-school homework.

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