Toyor Al-Janah

In 1994, the Palestinian Jordanian Khaled Maqdad founded the children's choir Toyor al-Janah, which became highly successful. In 2008, Maqdad established the television channel of the same name. The headquarters is located in Amman, the capital of Jordan, while broadcasting takes place from Bahrain. The channel primarily features music videos for children. In addition to the TV program, Toyor al-Janah TV is also active online across various social media and video platforms, including YouTube, where it has over 30 million subscribers. Many videos reach hundreds of millions of views, with the music video “Mama Brought a Baby” (ماما جابت بيبي) by Jana Miqdad amassing over a billion views. Besides the Arabic content, there is also an English YouTube channel.

Controversies

In 2010, Toyor al-Janah released the music video “When We Die as Martyrs” (لما نستشهد بنروح الجنة), with then-ten-year-old Dima Bashar and her older brother Muhammad Bashar as the main singers. The song's lyrics addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from a Palestinian perspective – both the singers and the channel's founder are Palestinian – where the children sang lines such as “When we die as martyrs, we go to heaven” and “There is no childhood without Palestine.” Additionally, they recited a prayer: “Oh God, grant victory to Islam and the Muslims. Oh God, help the children of Palestine.” The video also depicted battle scenes with children dressed as Israeli soldiers, who are shot at the end after having previously shot Palestinian children.

The song was viewed millions of times and made headlines in both Israel and the Arab world. Saudi journalist Fawzia Nasir al-Na’im sharply criticized the video, calling it an indoctrination of children. The video is no longer available on Toyor al-Janah's YouTube channel, but copies exist on YouTube. A few months later, Toyor al-Janah performed during a three-day visit to the Gaza Strip.