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.
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