The Palestinian Government last night shelved a controversial children’s show aired by a Hamas television station in which a Mickey Mouse lookalike calls for Israel to be vanquished and Islam to “lead the world”.

Tomorrow’s Pioneers, which attracted complaints from Israeli groups, is hosted by Farfur, a character dressed in a full bodysuit resembling Walt Disney’s famous cartoon hero.

He and a young female co-host instruct their young viewers on Hamas’s militant brand of Muslim piety. “We will restore to this nation its glory, and we will liberate Al-Aqsa [Jerusalem's Arab name], with Allah’s will, and we will liberate Iraq, with Allah’s will, and we will liberate the Muslim countries invaded by murderers,” Farfur said in one show.

After complaints by Israeli watchdog groups and amid growing furore in the US, the Palestinian Information Minister, Mustafa Barghouti, an independent member of the Hamas-led Government, said that he had ordered broadcasts of Tomorrow’s Pioneers to be suspended while its content was being reviewed.

“I demanded that Hamas suspend the programme and they have withdrawn it, because it was wrong to use a programme directed at children to convey political messages,” Mr Barghouti said. “Any media outlet that breaks Palestinian broadcasting law will be penalised by the Information Ministry.”

A Hamas official announced that the organisation’s Al-Aqsa Television station was considering a possible change to the show’s format. The next episode is scheduled for broadcast tomorrow.

Disney declined to comment, but Diane Disney Miller, a daughter of the company’s founder, told the New York Daily News: “What we’re dealing with here is pure evil and you can’t ignore that.”

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