This week, "Al-Mutamyazoon," the weekly children's show on Hamas' Al-Aqsa TV, included a segment showing puppets Kuku, a bird, and Fufu, a chick, discussing the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel. The puppets repeatedly declared that the Palestinians will "return as victors" to Tel Aviv, Haifa, Acre, Jaffa, Ashdod, and other Israeli cities.

The following are excerpts from the show, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on May 2, 2008.

Kuku: "We will persevere, Allah willing, and we will return to our land, Allah willing. We will return to Jaffa, Acre, Lydda, Ramle, and Ashdod. We will return to all these cities, Allah willing."

Fufu: "Kuku, where are you from?"

Kuku: "I am from Tel Rabi'a, which they have named Tel Aviv. Allah is our support. I say that we must return to our homes, and to our lands, God willing."...

...Fufu: "What's now, Kuku? Are we done for? Will we never return to our cities, Kuku?"

Kuku: "What are you saying, Fufu? We must never say such things. We must return to our land, Allah willing. We will return to Jaffa, Tel Al-Rabi', Lydda, and Ramle. All those who emigrated to Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Iraq, and America will come to their country with their heads held high."[...]

...Kuku: "These years have made it clear to us that we must return to our lands, Allah willing, and that we must defeat the enemies of Allah."...

Aviv is spring in Hebrew. Tel means a hill (both in Hebrew and in Arabic). The founders of the city of Tel-Aviv choose empty sand dunes to build their city. Initially they called it "Ahuzat Bait" (meaning an home/an estate in Hebrew) and only later they named it Tel-Aviv after a phrase in one of Herzel's books in which he discussed how Jews will come back to their homeland that is now mostly in ruins and will make it bloom [Also from Ezekial].

A few years ago I started to hear from Palestinians that Tel-Aviv was built on an old Palestinian village called "Tel-Rabi'a" (in Arabic Rabi'a is .... (drum roll) spring!) Very original. The problem is that there never was such a Palestinian village.

I checked and rechecked old maps and history books. There is no such thing as "Tel-Rabi'a." I even went to look for it in Palestinian Nakba web sites - those who claim to list every village that was left by Palestinians. (I am not going into the whole nakba debate now - those who wish can read history books by Karsh and others) in any case: No Tel-Rabi'a what so ever.

There were two small villages north of the original 1906/1909 Tel-Aviv: One called Sheikh Munis which was north of the Yarkon river. The place had several families and indeed in the fighting in 1948 it was abandoned (again i don't want to get into reasons now. I am just looking at what villages existed back than). There was also another village called Sumeil which was not really a village as it was inhabited by Bedouins from the Jordan river valley. They came around 1910 and actually found work in the young city being built in the sand dunes. Further south near Jaffa (an Arab town no doubt) there was Manshia, and further east a village called Shalem. Both are frequently mentioned in history of 1948 but no Tel-Rabia.

Why am I telling you this ?

Because I am sure once Hamas started telling people the Tel-Rabi'a the story it will catch on. In a few weeks there will be few web sites mentioning it (in English), a month later there will be a dot on Google Earth (there are already thousands of such "villages" all over the Israel map in Google Earth) and at some point I am sure Wikipedia will have the Tel-Rabia article in which at first it will be described as "disputed" (due to the Wikipedia policy of showing both sides of every argument), but after some time the pro pal editors will win and the dispute will be over. Tel-Rabi'a will become part of history. Just watch.