Zahra's Blue Eyes, also titled For You, Palestine, is an Iranian television series which premiered in 2004 on Sahar 1. It was created by 'Ali Derakhshi, a former official of the Iranian Education Ministry. Set in the West Bank, the plot of the series mostly centers around Israeli military and civilians (all dressed in the traditional clothing of religious Jews) conspiring to steal the eyes of Palestinian children. It was made in Persian but also dubbed into Arabic for further broadcast.
In 2006, it was also shown in Turkish in Germany on Milli Görüs’ TV5.[1] In February 2005, the French Broadcasting Authority ordered the French satellite provider Eutelsat to stop transmitting broadcasts from the Iranian satellite TV channel Sahar 1 because of its broadcast of the series.[2]
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The series, which claims that Israeli doctors are harvesting organs from Palestinian children, and focuses on the campaign of fictional prime-ministerial candidate Yitzhak Cohen, who declares in a speech that Jews "are the best of the races in the world." Cohen becomes obsessed with seizing the eyes of a young Palestinian girl named Zahra. To this end, Israelis pose as United Nations employees who come to a Palestinian school and check children in order to "prevent the spreading of an eye disease" but really want to inspect the class for students with the best eyes. After an extremely graphic surgery, Zahra is left blind by the Israeli doctors.[3]
In episode two of the series, it is revealed 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.
Zahra's Blue Eyes and other original series from Sahar TV were banned in France. The series has received condemnation outside of the Middle East due to its usage of heavily anti-Semitic depictions of Jewish people, particularly Israelis. Additionally, 15 members of the United States Congress, both Democrats and Republicans (including Tom Lantos, then the only Holocaust survivor sitting in the legislature), wrote to the director of the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran to condemn the series. In her book entitled Because They Hate, Brigitte Gabriel wrote of the series: "Did this fellow (the producer) get a peek at the screenplay for the movie The Island, in which people are raised for spare body parts, or did he just catch a preview of coming attractions? As Goebbels said: 'If you repeat a lie long enough it becomes the truth.' That's taqiyya at its best. Or worst, depending on your moral compass."[4]