Iran's Sahar 1 TV station is currently airing a weekly series titled "For You, Palestine," or "Zahra's Blue Eyes." The series premiered on December 13, and is set in Israel and the West Bank. It broadcasts every Monday, and was filmed in Persian but subsequently dubbed into Arabic.
The story follows an Israeli candidate for Prime Minister, Yitzhak Cohen, who is also the military commander of the West Bank. The opening sequence of the show contains graphic scenes of surgery, and images of a Palestinian girl in a hospital whose eyes have been removed, with bandages covering the sockets.
In Episode 1, Yitzhak Cohen lectures at a medical conference on the advances being made by Israeli medicine regarding organ transplants. Later in the episode, Israelis disguised as UN workers visit a Palestinian school, ostensibly to examine the children's eyes for diseases, but in reality to select which children's eyes to steal to be used for transplants.
In Episode 2, the audience learns that the Israeli president is being kept alive by organs stolen from Palestinian children, and an Israeli military commander is seen kidnapping UN employees and Palestinians.
Sahar TV also broadcast an interview with the director of the series, a former Iranian education ministry official, who discussed his motivations for making a series "about children."
The following are excerpts from the first two episodes, and from the interview with the series' director. To view clips from the series, visit www.memritv.org. In the coming weeks, MEMRI will continue to monitor and translate future episodes of the series.
Episode 1
To view clips from the first episode, visit http://memritv.org/clip/en/420.htm:
TV Reporter: "Mr. Yitzhak Cohen, the military commander of the West bank and one of the main candidates in the elections … will talk about the medical progress made by Israel, which will have a major impact on global medicine and on human organ transplants."
Yitzhak Cohen: "Recently, we had great success in the field of transplanting and cloning human organs, and we can declare with full confidence that all the people on this planet - be they white, black, yellow, or red – will all enjoy the marvelous medical accomplishments that we have made in these fields. We believe that the Lord has given us these possibilities and capabilities, which require us to provide all the needy in the world with the accomplishments of our gifted people in the fields of human organ transplant and rehabilitation. We give this as a gift to mankind!"
Crowd: "Yitzhak Cohen! Yitzhak Cohen! Yitzhak Cohen! Yitzhak Cohen!"
Cut to West Bank Classroom
Camp Nurse: "They have come to prevent the spreading of an eye disease. We must let them examine the children."
Teacher: "OK…"
Doctor: "Open your eyes, my dear. Good. Come, yes. And you. Good. You too… God bless you. Good."
Camp Nurse: "What kind of a program is this? Why aren't you examining everyone? Why are they taking pictures? What's going on here?!"
Doctor: "Calm down please. We are only doing our duty…"
Yitzhak Cohen (on TV screen):"We are the best of the races in the world. Our land should extend from the Euphrates to the Nile. The oil lies between the Euphrates and the Nile… The whole world will be shaken by the oil shortage problem. This is a difficult stage that will determine the fate of the entire world, and all eyes will be upon this region."
Cut to Israeli Meeting
General: "This is the one! Here you go, Doctor."
Doctor: "Here you go, sir. Take a look."
Yitzhak Cohen: "Who is this?..."
Military man: "Zahra Abd Al-Rahman Muhammad. Age: seven; blood type: O+."
General: She lives in the central refugee camp. Eye color - green."
Yitzhak Cohen: "Good."
Doctor: "Her physical condition is not bad."
Yitzhak Cohen: "What is her medical condition?"
Doctor: "Not bad, but she needs better care."
Yitzhak Cohen: "Excellent. Bring her here. Prepare everything for her. Treat her like a princess."
General: "Sir, there are 32 children that you haven't seen yet, and there is also a ship docked at the shore with a cargo of artificial fetuses…"
Yitzhak Cohen: "This one! Her eyes remind me of my wife." [1]
Episode 2
To view clips from the second episode, visit http://memritv.org/clip/en/431.htm:
Doctor: "Welcome, sir, the president is in the operating room."
General: "The president is indebted to you. He still can't believe that he has been granted his life back, even though he suffers from old age and heart failure."
Yitzhak Cohen: "He shouldn't think it was easy..."
General: "His family knows everything that is going on. We've shown the president a list of operations we've preformed on people, including the examinations. The old man was very pleased. He couldn't believe that we got 32 hearts - 32 beating hearts!"
Yitzhak Cohen: "From now on we will accomplish more important things. We will revive all the dying people, whichever way we want."
General: "Sir, the unit is ready to move towards the refugee camp."
Yitzhak Cohen: "Good, you had better be with them. You know how important this girl is to me."
Cut to West Bank Classroom
Teacher (to students): "Alright, write down: The last Friday … of the month of Ramadan … was called … by Imam Khomeini … who is mourned by most of the Islamic world and who led the Islamic revolution in Iran - he called it 'Global Jerusalem Day.'"
Nurse: "We didn't see any symptoms in the children."
Doctor: " In the early stages of this disease there are no symptoms. We will first take the children who might have contracted the disease."
Nurse: "Where are you taking them, and for how long?"
Doctor: "To hospital with an advanced laboratory. Those who are healthy will return quickly. Don't worry too much."
Israeli unit commander: "There you go. I told you we wouldn't be long."
UN hostage: "I'll file a complaint against you."
Israeli unit commander: "Why?"
UN hostage: "You have abused UN uniforms and its name."
Israeli unit commander: "This is a humanitarian act… If you dare open your mouth even once and talk about what happened, I will look for you everywhere, and finish you off. Understood?"
Child: "Uncle Ahmad, why don't we have lands like this that we could cultivate, and build houses on? Why, Uncle Ahmad? Tell me."
Uncle Ahmad: "Everything you see, the lands, the water, the air, and the birds, everything used to belong to us."
Child: "So where are they?"
Uncle Ahmad: "They exist … in our hearts. They built these settlements on our lands by force."
Camp Nurse: "All of this is the land of Palestine, our land, the land of our forefathers. How does the poem you recite in school go? Oh Palestine, Oh Jerusalem… This is our country, but the Zionists took it from us by force. We fought for our homeland, and we will keep fighting, do you understand? Do you? We have sacrificed martyrs for it, and we will continue to sacrifice everything until we liberate our land…" [2]
Interview with the Writer and Director of the Series
To view clips from the interview, visit http://memritv.org/clip/en/422.htm:
Ali Derakhshni: "I, Ali Derakhshni, screenwriter and director of the series 'Zahra's Blue Eyes' … started working on this project when I was active in the [Iranian] education ministry, 17 years ago."
Interviewer: " In the film 'Zahra's Blue Eyes' there is a beautiful idea, as best as I recall: A girl with blue eyes. A Zionist father who is an army officer, sees these eyes and tries to steal them for his son."
Ali Derakhshni: "Theodore [Yitzhak Cohen's son] is a boy who symbolizes Israel. He has lost his kidneys, and he was paralyzed, and he wanted to rebuild his body.
"The major film companies are under the Zionists' influence. We are at the beginning of the road. Fortunately, the Iranian Islamic Republic and our Islamic regime have made many films and series like 'Zahra's Blue Eyes,' which is a film about children." [3]
