Palestine TV calls off airing of first Palestinian soap opera

Sep 5, 2008, 14:12 GMT

Ramallah - The official Palestine Broadcasting Corporation (PBC) has cancelled the airing scheduled for this week of a new soap series, Matabb (Arabic for 'speed bump').

Producer Fareed Majari confirmed Friday the cancellation, which members of the production team said came as a complete surprise.

They said no grounds were given, but speculated political reasons may be behind it, with some of the topics being dealt with in the series seen as too liberal for official Palestinian 'state' television.

Officials at the PBC told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Friday that the German-funded series - the first homemade Palestinian soap opera - was not cancelled, but postponed until certain scenes were changed.

Yehya Barakat, the director of programmes at PBC, denied the asked for changes constituted censorship. 'Rather, it is an attempt to make sure that no scenes offensive to any party will be aired on an official television station,' he said.

He said an official committee had reviewed the series and decided not to broadcast it for the time being, until the required changes were made.

The first episode had been expected to be aired on Palestine TV on Monday, first day of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, with producers hoping for high ratings as Muslim families gather at their homes in the evenings to break the day's fast.

It is now only being shown on local television stations belonging to the privately owned Ma'an television network and operating in the main Palestinian autonomous cities in the West Bank.

Barakat said he was not fully aware of the committee's reasons for not airing the show, saying he had just returned home from a trip abroad and has not yet seen the committee's report.

However, other PBC officials who preferred not to be named told dpa that the makers of the series had rushed to announce the broadcast on Palestine TV before obtaining official, final approval.

They said some scenes were found offensive to the general Palestinian public and therefore could not be aired on Palestine TV, an official and nationalist institution.

Among others, certain scenes failed to show the Israeli occupation in a negative enough light, they charged. The officials mentioned one scene in which a Palestinian gives a flower to Israeli soldiers at an army checkpoint in the West Bank.

They insinuated the series was influenced by the fact that it was funded by Germany's Goethe Institute and the European Commission, which would not back programmes that do not encourage coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians.

Observers said Palestine TV, owned by the West Bank administration of moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of the secular Fatah party, is already struggling with claims by the rival radical Hamas movement that is too pro-Israel. According to the observers, broadcasting the series would give Hamas more ammunition for its claims.

Aside the portrayal of daily life under occupation, the series also deals with other aspects of modern Palestinian society in a way which could enrage conservatives, including such themes as the role of women, love, relationships, and even domestic violence.

The show centers around Palestinians working for a non- governmental organization (NGO) in Ramallah, focusing on the love affair between young Sameera, a hijab-wearing environmentalist, and Abdullah who is infatuated with her.

Two other key characters are Majeed and his wife Wafa, who wants more independence.

The production team said it had debated about how to deal with the Israelis, and ultimately decided to include a positive Jewish character, Shlomit, a lawyer who helps the Palestinians after one of them gets arrested by the military.