Hamas

"Hamas" is also the former name of the Movement of Society for Peace, a political party in Algeria.

The Hamas emblem shows two crossed swords, the Dome of the Rock, and a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip).

Hamas, acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic: حركة المقاومة الاسلامية, literally "Islamic Resistance Movement" and Arabic for 'zeal'), is a Palestinian Islamist movement and the democratically elected representive government of the Palestinian territories. Hamas is closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood and its stated goal is to "remove Israel from the map" [1], and to establish an Islamic theocracy in the area that is currently Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip. In pursuit of this, Hamas affirms a right to engage in military struggle. [2]

In the general elections of January 2006, sponsored by the Bush administration, Hamas obtained a clear and undisputed victory. Nearly 80% of the population participated. This victory was a surprise to everybody, including members of Hamas itself.

Hamas is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Israel, and its attacks targeting Israeli civilians and other human rights abuses have been condemned by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.

The organization is particularly popular among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, though it also has a following in the West Bank, and, to a lesser extent, in other Middle Eastern countries and throughout the Palestinian diaspora. The movement's popularity stems from its provision of welfare and social services to the Palestinian poor and its paramilitary activities, which include making generous payments to the families of suicide bombers, as well as from the perceived corruption of the Fatah party. Outside the Arab world, Hamas is primarily known for its suicide bombings against Israel.

Background

Hamas started as an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in the 1970s and was built from the ground up in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, attracting members through preaching and charitable work before spreading its influence into trade unions, universities, professional organizations and local government political races beginning in December 2004.[3]

Hamas regards historic Palestine - present-day Israel as well as the Palestinian territories - as an inalienable Islamic waqf or religious bequest, which can never be surrendered to non-Muslims. It asserts that struggle (jihad) to wrest control of the land from Israel is a religious duty incumbent on every Muslim individually (fard `ain). This position is more radical than that now held by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), which in 1988 recognized Israel's sovereignty. Hamas does not recognize Israel as a sovereign state and refers to it as the "Zionist entity", a common hostile term for it in Arab political rhetoric. It has, however, dropped from its electoral manifesto the call for its destruction.[4]

According to the Washington Institute, Hamas views the Arab-Israeli conflict as "a religious struggle between Islam and Judaism that can only be resolved by the destruction of the State of Israel." [5] Hamas uses both political activities and violence to pursue its goal of establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and the secular Palestinian Authority. As of 2004, Hamas' strength is concentrated in the Gaza Strip and a few areas of the West Bank. Israeli military operations during the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2002 put pressure on Hamas in the West Bank following several bombings in Israel for which Hamas claimed responsibility. Hamas has also engaged in peaceful political activity, such as running candidates in West Bank Chamber of Commerce elections. Hamas runs an extensive social service network including medical clinics, educational facilities and programs that support families of Palestinians killed in Israeli attacks. While the group boycotted the 2005 Palestinian presidential election, it did participate in 2005 municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In those elections it won control of over one third of Palestinian municipal councils, besting Fatah, which has traditionally been "the biggest force in Palestinian politics." [6] With this electoral success behind it, Hamas contested the 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.

On January 26, 2006 Hamas announced that they had won a majority of seats in the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council, thereby supplanting the ruling Fatah party. In response, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei has said that he and the rest of the Palestinian Authority will resign, leaving Hamas to form a new government. After the victory, Israeli Human Rights organizations have called on Hamas to stop the terror campaign against civilians and to avoid using war crimes as a tool to achieve political solution.

According to UPI, Israel supported Hamas starting in the late 1970s as a "counterbalance to the PLO". [7] At that time, Hamas focus was on "religious and social work".

Name

Hamas is an abbreviation of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic: Islamic Resistance Movement). The acronym corresponds to an Arabic word, meaning "enthusiasm, fire, ardor, fervor, zeal, fanaticism" (The Hans Wehr Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic). Its military wing is known as the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades to commemorate Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, the father of modern Arab resistance, killed by the British in 1935. Armed Hamas cells also sometimes refer to themselves as "Students of Ayyash," "Students of the Engineer," or "Yahya Ayyash Units," to commemorate Yahya Ayyash, an early Hamas bomb-maker who was assassinated by Israel in 1996 for designing explosive devices used in operations that killed more than 50 Israelis.

Beliefs

The Hamas Covenant, written in 1988, states that the organization's goal is to "raise the banner of God over every inch of Palestine," i.e. to eliminate the State of Israel (and any secular Palestinian state which may be established), and to replace it with an Islamic Republic.

The thirty-six articles of the Covenant detail the movement's Islamist beliefs regarding the primacy of Islam in all aspects of life. The Covenant identifies Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and considers its members to be Muslims who "fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors." Hamas describes resisting and quelling the enemy as the individual duty of every Muslim and prescribes revolutionary roles for all members of society; including men and women, professionals, scientists and students.

The slogan of Hamas is "God is its target, the Prophet is its model, the Qur'an its constitution: Jihad is its path and death for the sake of God is the loftiest of its wishes." Hamas states that its objective is to support the oppressed and wronged and "to bring about justice and defeat injustice, in word and deed." Hamas believes that "the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf (trust) consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgement Day," and as such, the land cannot be negotiated away by any political leader. Hamas rejects "so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences" as incapable of realizing justice or restoring rights to the oppressed, believing "there is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad."

The Hamas Covenant cites the long-discredited anti-Semitic fraud, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, describing it as "the embodiment of the Zionist plan to usurp Palestine". Hamas dismisses the Freemasons, Lions Club, and the Rotarians as organizations promoting "the interest of Zionism." It accuses those organizations, and the "Zionist invasion" in general, of being "behind the drug trade and alcoholism in all its kinds." It should also be noted, however, that a prominent analyst, former British intelligence agent Alistair Crooke, believes that Hamas' actual strategy differs greatly from their stated policy.

Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, a co-founder of Hamas, reiterated beliefs of Holocaust denial as recently as one year before his 2004 death, contending that the Holocaust did not occur in the manner described by Western historians and that Zionists at one time supported and funded Nazi activities. [8]

History

Hamas was funded directly and indirectly during the 1970s and 1980s by various states including Saudi Arabia. The political/charitable arm of Hamas was officially registered and recognized within Israel at this time: indeed Israel supported and encouraged Hamas' early growth in an effort to undermine the secular Fatah movement of Yasser Arafat. Hamas abstained from politics throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, concentrating on social issues such as exposing corruption, administration of waqf (trusts) and organizing community projects. Towards the mid-80s, however, the movement was taken over by a militant faction led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

The acronym "Hamas" first appeared in 1987 in a leaflet accusing the Israeli intelligence services of undermining the moral fiber of Palestinian youth as part of their recruitment of what they termed collaborators. The use of violence by Hamas appeared almost contemporaneously with the First Intifada, beginning with the punishment beating of those working with the Israeli government, progressing to attacks against Israeli military targets and moving on to violence aimed at civilians. As its methods have changed over the last thirty years, so has its rhetoric, now effectively claiming that Israeli civilians are "military targets" by virtue of living in a state with a military draft.

According to the semi-official Hamas biography "Truth and existence," Hamas evolved through five main stages:

1967-1976: Construction of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip in the face of "oppressive Israeli rule";
1976-1981: Geographical expansion through participation in professional associations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and institution building, notably al-Mujamma` al-islami, al-Jam`iyya al-islamiyya, and the Islamic University in Gaza;
1981-1987: Political influence through establishment of the mechanisms of action and preparation for armed struggle;
1987: Founding of Hamas as the combatant arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and the launching of a continuing Jihad.
2006: Is elected the democratic representative government of the Palestinian people. To verify the legitimacy of the election the event was heavily monitored by 950 international observers [9].

While this reflects the activities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the organization in the West Bank developed differently, with less emphasis at the beginning on the creation or control of public institutions. The Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank constituted an integral part of the Jordanian Islamic movement, which for many years had been aligned with the Hashemite regime. Furthermore, the Muslim Brotherhood in the West Bank represented a higher socio-economic profile, consisting of merchants, landowners, and middle-class officials and professionals. By the mid-1980s, the Muslim Brotherhood held a significant portion of the positions in West Bank religious institutions.

On January 26 2004, senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi offered a 10-year truce, or hudna, in return for a complete withdrawal by Israel from the territories captured in the Six Day War, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin stated that the group could accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Rantissi confirmed that Hamas had come to the conclusion that it was "difficult to liberate all our land at this stage, so we accept a phased liberation." He said the truce could last 10 years, though "not more than 10 years." [10] (See Hudna)

On March 22 2004, Yassin was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike. Rantissi replaced him as the leader of Hamas. On March 28, Rantissi stated in a speech given at the Islamic University of Gaza City that "America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God, and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon."

On April 17 2004, Rantissi was also assassinated in an airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces, five hours after a fatal suicide bombing by Hamas. Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas in Syria, said Hamas should not disclose the name of its next leader in Gaza. [11]

On April 18 2004, Hamas secretly selected a new leader in the Gaza Strip, fearing he would be killed if his identity were made public. (NYT). However, Israel believes that the new leader is Mahmoud al-Zahar; the second-in-command, Ismail Haniya; and third-in-command, Sa'id A-Siyam. [12]

As of 2004, Israeli military and intelligence sources believed that the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been significantly weakened by Israeli military operations. Israeli sources have noted that no prominent attacks have been claimed by West Bank-based Hamas members (whereas bombings by the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades continued), even though the Hamas leadership had reputedly ordered an escalation of suicide attacks after the assassinations of Yassin and Rantissi. The West Bank has been under increased Israeli military control since [[Operation