Israeli state TV video shows children singing about Gaza

[Ohlalalalala]

"Within a year we will eliminate them all.” A video by Israel's public broadcaster of children singing about Gaza has caused a backlash online, including among many Israelis.

This is so wrong.

Sounds like a recipe for future peace. No doubt someone will be along shortly to tell us about how Palestinian children are indoctrinated to hate.

This is an awful thing to do to children.

I know it is worse for the victims of genocide but to destroy you own childrens' hearts like that is beyond evil

Horrible.

But I’ve seen so many videos of Israelis chanting, celebrating and wishing death to arabs/muslims that I’m not even suprised that they teach the kids young.
I mean racism/bigotry starts from home.

And I’ve also noticed that everything Israel claims that Palestinians do, is actually what Israelis themselves are doing. (I’ve seen Israelis claim that Palestinians hate them. Not that I could blame them if they did, of course).
Funny that.

Well that is genuinely disgusting

I think it’s not true that the video was produced ‘by Israeli state TV’. I understand it was tweeted / retweeted by them though and then the tweet was hastily deleted.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/clip-of-israeli-kids-singing-of-wiping-out-nations-enemies-elicits-outrage/

I haven't listened to the song but I have heard about it from Israeli media, where everyone I've heard of condemns it. Of course it's disgusting. It's not representative of how the vast majority of Israelis feel though. My family in Israel are relatively right-wing (I am more of a lefty) but not even they think this song is appropriate.

I see a lot of posters on here saying that Israel always accuses Palestinians of things they themselves do - did no one else see the videos of Palestinians celebrating the massacre on 7th October? Did it just pass you all by? The same thing happened after 9/11. Stop gaslighting by saying that doesn't happen. It does. It's not just Israelis who are capable of despicable hatred. Palestinians are too. It's really quite absurd that people seem to pretend otherwise.

*Cue people exclaiming "oh but they were only celebrating because they've been oppressed for so long", pretending that Israelis haven't also suffered and been blown up by suicide bombs etc in that same time period, and that the decision to celebrate the murder of others is perfectly reasonable. But only for one side.

You are comparing that crowd of out of control vicious Palestian adults going berserk after the Hamas massacre with a an adult organised brushed and polished group of smiling child singers singing about annihilating Palestinian.

They are different very different sorts of groups. Nothing can compare with the horror of that jeering crowd, but the cleaned up, manipulated Israeli children’s’ version is also really very sinister.

As for other like for like comparisons there is a vast discrepancy between Palestinian deaths and Israeli deaths over the last 75 years.

I think lots of people swallowed Israels hasbara, they believed that Israel was a forward thinking, western style society. So it's really jarring then when you realise that actually it really, really isn't.

Also, to me it does feel worse when the oppressor is cheering on the massacre of the people they have been oppressing for decades, rightly or wrongly, it just does. There is something about a people who have been suffocating the rights of Palestinians for decades, cheering on them being killed in massive numbers for over a month now, so not just an initial reaction but a sustained kind of glee that is just stomach churning.

There's plenty of footage of more organised Palestinian horrors too, like children with Hamas headbands and fake machine guys chanting "death to the Jews". A couple of days after the massacre in Israel, there were people gathering in Ramallah to celebrate with children wearing Hamas headbands. This wasn't an impromptu celebration of death.

I do agree though, this song is disgusting and sinister. I'm not disputing it and I'm not going to excuse it. It's in extremely poor taste for so many reasons and I don't understand that way of thinking.

That is vile. I agree with @OuiOuiKitty's post.

I haven't listened to the song but I have heard about it from Israeli media, where everyone I've heard of condemns it. Of course it's disgusting. It's not representative of how the vast majority of Israelis feel though. My family in Israel are relatively right-wing (I am more of a lefty) but not even they think this song is appropriate.

That’s good to know but where did it come from? Who on Earth thought this was a good idea?

On Nov. 19, 2023, The Electronic Intifada, an online publication that focuses on Palestinian perspectives, claimed that a video showing Israeli children singing about the "annihilation" of Gaza had been shared, then deleted, on Israeli public broadcaster Kan News’ online platforms.

Titled "Friendship Song," the video in question featured a group of children reportedly singing in a re-recording of an old song originally written by Israeli poet Haim Gouri after the 1948 war that led to the creation of the state of Israel, but with amended lyrics referring to Gaza. David Sheen, an independent filmmaker and writer, translated these new lyrics for The Electronic Intifada into English from Hebrew. Per his translation, the children sang:

Autumn night falls over the beach of Gaza

Planes are bombing, destruction, destruction

Look the IDF is crossing the line

to annihilate the swastika-bearers

In another year there will be nothing there

And we will safely return to our homes

Within a year we will annihilate everyone

And then we will return to plow our fields

The above video is indeed real and was created by Israeli advocacy group The Civil Front, which frequently does public campaigns to support the Israeli armed forces. The children in the slickly-produced video wore black T-shirts with the same blue logo as that on The Civil Front’s YouTube page.

The video was also available on the group's YouTube page and was published on Nov. 19, 2023:

While the video was not created by Kan News, it was shared on Kan News' website with the new lyrics before being deleted. The archived link is available here. The same video was shared on Kan News’ X account, @kannnews, before being deleted, but the post remains archived here. While @kannnews has no check mark to signal its authenticity, its content is frequently reposted by the broadcaster's main X account, @kann. Kan’s official website directly links to the @kann X account.

We ran the lyrics in the archived link through Google Translate and found the translation was very similar to the above lyrics shared by The Electronic Intifada:

Autumn night is falling on the Gaza coast

Planes are shelling, destruction, destruction

Here the IDF is crossing the line

To eliminate the swastika bearers

In another year there will be nothing there

And we will return safely to our home within a year

We will eliminate them all

And then return to plowing our fields

Middle East Eye reported that the new lyrics were co-written by Ofer Rosenbaum, the chairperson of The Civil Front, and Shulamit Stolero (according to the Jewish Press).

Jewish Press, a U.S.-based news organization that describes itself as an “advocate on behalf of the State of Israel,” also covered the removal of the video from Kan News’ platforms. The report claimed that the children in the video ranged from the ages of 6 to 12 years old and were singing an updated version of Gouri’s poem. The children were reportedly among those evacuated “from the Gaza envelope settlements.”

https://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/actual-video-shows-israeli-children-002000401.html

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7403163/Palestinian-children-dress-terrorists-play-attacking-Israelis.html

'We are coming to Gaza. We are coming to Lebanon. We will come to Iran. We will come everywhere'

Shay Golden, on Israel's Channel 14, threatens Palestinians, stating that they can't imagine how many will be killed and slaughtered. He states that these killings will not be witnessed in all Arab history.

Golden further elaborates that even if Israel needed to boycott the entire world, they would be 'prepared to fight the United States and the entire world'

Evil disgusting monster!

Brings to mind the phrase "when someone tells you who they are, listen".
Speech such as this isn't new, Israeli politicians have recently outright said they want to destroy Gaza and kill Palestinians, yet so many supposedly intelligent political leaders bleat on about a right to self defence. Either extreme naivete, stupidity or wilful ignorance.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/13/world/middleeast/israel-tv-news-channel-14-netanyahu.html

'We are coming to Gaza. We are coming to Lebanon. We will come to Iran. We will come everywhere”

And this speech was broadcast on a TV channel? Are there no laws against hate speech in Israel ? (genuine question)

This song doesn’t represent the sentiment in Israel but what some did after 7-10 represents what Palestinians feel?

The video has been actively and widely condemned in Israel.

I don't remember saying all Palestinians supported Hamas' massacre and taking hostages. Please point out where I said it so I can edit my comment. Thanks.

apologies. Your comparison made me think that

God this thread is so depressing.
Both sides just want to erradicate each other.
So much hate.

Hear hear. Both sides are despicable in so many ways

It's not really comparable is it though. Yes celebrating murder of any kind is wrong. But you can't expect people that have been under a daily brutal occupation, their people killed daily in droves, to feel a smidge of sympathy for their oppressors? Especially ones that make it known they want nothing but the complete annihilation of the indigenous people of the land.