ARTS It looks much like any other television studio around the world. In the control room, young producers stare intently at a bank of screens, occasionally fiddling with the dials on the vast console in front of them. In the studio a few steps down, visible through a long glass pane, the smartly dressed host is halfway through his chat show, politely quizzing his guests about the anniversary of a family tragedy.
It is breakfast television, Hamas- style. The time is shortly after 10am, and al-Aqsa TV is broadcasting its daily interview with a victim of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Today, it is the mother and brother of a “martyr”, a Hamas militant killed by Israeli forces 20 years ago. On other days, the show portrays the family of a Palestinian held in an Israeli jail, or a refugee family that was expelled or fled from its home during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
Al-Aqsa TV forms something like the audiovisual arm of Hamas, a crucial complement to the Islamist group’s political and military wing, its social institutions, schools and newspapers. Though the channel claims to be formally independent from Hamas, the ideological overlaps are clear, as is the strong presence of Hamas members and supporters among al-Aqsa’s senior ranks. (The son of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in the Gaza Strip, presents a popular weekly sports programme.)
Based in northern Gaza City, al-Aqsa broadcasts around the clock on its satellite and terrestrial channel. The latter is available to the 1.5m Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, while the satellite programme can be watched throughout the Arab world, and, with a sufficiently large dish, even in Europe and the US.
Al-Aqsa executives say they do not know how many people tune into the channel every day, although according to a poll on a Gulf-based Islamist website, al-Aqsa’s popularity was only trumped by al-Jazeera, the ubiquitous Arab news channel. What is beyond doubt, however, is that in the two years since it went on air, the station has grown sufficiently influential to spark the ire of Israel and the US.
The channel’s critics have latched on to a string of controversial programmes, from a documentary questioning the holocaust to a children’s programme in which a puppet stabbed to death a doll depicting George W. Bush, the US president. Following up on Israeli charges that al-Aqsa TV incites hatred, violence and anti-semitism, US lawmakers are debating a resolution urging the US administration to declare the channel a terrorist organisation.
Samir Abu Mohsin, the deputy head of programming and at 36 the oldest and most experienced television executive at al-Aqsa, dismisses the efforts in Washington as “part of the siege imposed on the Palestinian people”. With US forces facing a “crisis” in Iraq and Afghanistan, US politicians are now going after easier targets such as al-Aqsa TV, he said.
“We don’t belong to Hamas,” says Abu Mohsin, although he concedes that al-Aqsa TV is “close” to the group’s ideology. “The aim of this television channel is to introduce the Palestinian cause to the public – and to broadcast the suffering of the Palestinian people,” he adds.
That aim, along with the channel’s role in spreading the Hamas message, has made al-Aqsa TV essential viewing for anyone keen to understand what is happening in the Gaza Strip and inside the Islamist group that controls the coastal territory. Whenever there is an Israeli incursion into Gaza, al-Aqsa is usually first with the news. Whoever wants to know the Hamas reaction to political events in Jerusalem, the West Bank or Damascus, will switch to the Gaza-based station.
Perhaps surprisingly for a channel with just 200 employees, al-Aqsa has the look of a professionally run, modern satellite station. The countdown to its hourly news bulletins consists of swirling graphics and thumping music that would not look out of place on Fox News. It has correspondents in most Arab countries and in Pakistan, although not much, to Abu Mohsin’s regret, in Europe or the US.
The news programmes do not hide the channel’s ideology: Israel’s government and army are referred to as the “occupation government” and the “occupation army”; no matter what happens, the Hamas point of view will always be prominently represented.
The channel’s commitment to Islamist values can also pose problems. When al-Aqsa broadcast live football matches during this year’s European Championships on its terrestrial channel, it had to appoint a dedicated official charged with hastily cutting in full-screen adverts as soon as the camera panned on to the spectators. The risk of showing an uncovered, scantily dressed female football fan in the crowd was just too great.
But most of the controversy created by al-Aqsa has centred on its children’s programmes. Tomorrow’s Pioneers (pictured), a phone-in show moderated by a young girl and a changing cast of large, furry animal puppets, gained special notoriety. Young viewers call in and sing songs, often praising martyrdom and denouncing Israel and the Jews.
Abu Mohsin dismisses the criticism of al-Aqsa’s children’s programme, and even defends the Bush-stabbing puppet-show. “Every TV channel around the world uses cartoons to convey a message. The idea was exaggerated but it was an expression of the unfair and unjust treatment that Palestinian children receive by the American administration. Palestinian children are killed by American-made rockets and helicopters. And now the American administration is trying to punish us because of a cartoon.”
Back in the studio, Mohammed Hamdan, a university student who works part-time as one of al-Aqsa’s newsreaders, has finished his broadcast. Is he worried about the US threats? “It could be expected,” he says, before adding proudly: “We are carrying the ideology of resistance.”
This article is part of a series on TV around the world. For earlier pieces, visit www.ft.com/arts/tv
