Hamas

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Hamas, acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic: Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Islamist paramilitary and political organization. It was founded by Ahmed Yassin and Mohammad Taha in late 1987 as an outgrowth of the Muslim Brotherhood and is dedicated to the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in Palestine. Hamas is led by Khaled Mashaal. Hamas's heartland is the Gaza Strip, but it also operates in the West Bank.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and more recently the European Union. Part of its support rests on its provision of welfare and charity for the Palestinian poor as well as its militarized views. Hamas is known in the West for its tactic of suicide bombings against Israel, especially civilians in busy city areas. Hamas also attacks the Israeli military and security forces in its effort to end the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and also to destroy Israel (which the group sees as occupied Palestinian land).

Background

Hamas regards Palestine as an Islamic homeland that can never be surrendered to non-Muslims and asserts that waging holy war (jihad) to wrest control of Palestine from Israel is a religious duty for Palestinians. This position is in stark contrast to that of the secular PLO, which in 1988 officially recognized Israel's right to exist.

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."

Hamas uses both political activities and terrorist actions such as suicide bombings to pursue the goal of establishing a Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and the secular Palestinian Authority. As of 2004, Hamas's strength is concentrated in the Gaza Strip and a few areas of the West Bank. Hamas strength in the West Bank has been reduced dramatically by the Israeli military operations during the Al Aqsa Intifada in 2002 following several bloody bombings that Hamas took responsibility for. Hamas has also engaged in peaceful political activity, such as running candidates in West Bank Chamber of Commerce elections.

The Name

Hamas is an abbreviation of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic: Islamic Resistance Movement), and the name itself is colloquial Arabic for "enthusiasm". Its military wing is usually named 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 name themselves Students of Ayyash, Students of the Engineer or Yahya Ayyash Units, to commemorate Yahya Ayash, the bomb engineer responsible for the deaths of more than 50 Israelis and killed in 1996.


Beliefs

The founding charter of Hamas, written in 1988, states that its goal is to "raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine", i.e. to eliminate the State of Israel (and any secular Palestinian state which may be established), and replace it with an Islamist theocracy or muslim state

The charter cites a number of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories; it claims that The Protocols of the Elders of Zion are genuine; and that the Freemasons, Lions Club, and the Rotarians all secretly "work in the interest of Zionism." Hamas members further allege that the Jewish people are collectively responsible for the French Revolution, "Western colonialism", Communism, and both World Wars.

Top Hamas leaders are promoters of holocaust denial. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi held that the Holocaust never occurred, that Zionists were behind the action of Nazis, and that Zionists funded Nazism.

History

Hamas was funded directly and indirectly during the 1970s and 1980s by various states including Saudi Arabia and Syria. The political/charitable arm of Hamas was officially registered and recognised within Israel at this time. Most experts agree that while Israel never supported Hamas directly, it did allow it to exist to oppose the secular Fatah movement of Yasser Arafat. The group abstained from politics throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, concentrating on moral and social issues such as attacks on corruption, administration of awqaf (trusts) and organizing community projects. Towards the mid-1980s, however, the movement underwent a takeover by the militant faction led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. For a while, he preached immediate violence and was arrested by Israel for that. However he was released when he promised to stop the preaching, and the movement was allowed to continue.

The acronym "Hamas" first appeared in 1987 in a leaflet accusing Israeli intelligence services of undermining the moral fibre of Palestinian youth as part of their recruitment of "collaborators". The use of force by Hamas appeared almost contemporaneously with the first Intifada, beginning with "punishments against collaborators", progressing to Israeli military targets and eventually actions targeted 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 highly militarized state with military draft.

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

  1. 1967-1976: Construction of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip in the face of "oppressive Israeli rule".
  2. 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.
  3. 1981-1987: Political influence through establishment of the mechanisms of action and preparation for armed struggle.
  4. 1987: Founding of Hamas as the combatant arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and the launching of a continuing jihad.

Since Hamas underwent a take-over in the mid-1980s (before that time being an organization with an extremely limited political scope), many experts might agree that Hamas's "real" history begins only from that time.

Whilst this reflects the activities of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, their colleagues in the West Bank had a very different development, with less emphasis at the beginning on the creation or control of public institutions. The Muslim Brotherhood movement 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 - 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.

Pro-Israel commentators have recently suggested that there is a close relationship between the leadership of the PLO and Hamas.

On January 26, 2004, senior Hamas leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi offered a 10-year hudna in return for complete withdrawal from all territories captured in the Six Day War, and the establishment of a state. There had earlier been some talks within Hamas about doing this but this time, according to him, "the movement has taken a decision on this". Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said recently the group could accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Rantissi stated 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." Rantissi said the truce could last 10 years, though "not more than 10 years." [1] (See Hudna)

On March 22, 2004, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike. Following Yassin's death, Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi replaced him as the leader of Hamas. On March 28, he 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 killed in an airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces, five hours after a fatal suicide bombing by Hamas. With the death of Rantissi, the top three Hamas leaders in Gaza have been killed since August 2003. As a result, Khaled Mashaal, overall leader of Hamas, who is based in Syria, said Hamas should not disclose the name of its next leader in Gaza. [2]

On April 2, 2004, according to the Boston Globe, a United States federal judge in Providence, Rhode Island, found Hamas guilty in a civil lawsuit resulting from the 1996 murder of Yaron Ungar and Efrat Ungar in Israel. Hamas was ordered to pay the family of Yaron and Efrat Ungar $116 million. The court has not yet ruled regarding the liability of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO.

On April 18, 2004, Hamas secretly selected a new leader in the Gaza Strip fearing that he will be killed if his identity is known. (NYT)

As of late April 2004, it is believed that the new leader of Hamas in Gaza is Mahmoud A-Zahar, the second-in-command, Ismail Haniya, and third in authority is Sa'id A-Siyam. [3]

As of 2004, Israeli military and intelligence sources believed that the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip has been significantly weakened by targeted assassination and Israeli military operations that came in response to a number of very bloody suicide attacks in 2002 and 2003 (see below). Israeli sources have supported this assertion by noting that no prominent attacks have been carried out or claimed by West Bank based Hamas militants (whereas bombings by Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades did occur), even though reputedly Hamas leadership had ordered an escalation of attacks, especially after the assassinations of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. The West Bank has been placed under a significant level of Israeli military control during Operation Defensive Shield launched in the spring of 2003 severly limiting the mobility and organization of the remaining Hamas members.

In the Gaza Strip, on the other hand, Hamas was generally seen as a major force, rivaling Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. Apparently, its social base in Gaza was very considerable.

In 2004 in a prelude to the planned Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces have carried out a number of incursions in Gaza settlements, seeking to draw out into the open and kill Hamas-affiliated gunmen who have often engaged Israeli soldiers in skirmishes. This was done, presumably, to make it harder for a weakened and bloodied Hamas to claim the withdrawal as their own hard-won victory. Awareness of high casualties during such incursions have led the Hamas leadership to call its activists to avoid putting themselves in the line of fire needlessly.

Activities

Hamas militants, especially those in the Izz el-Din al-Qassam Brigades, have conducted many attacks, including large-scale suicide bombings against Israeli civilian targets. These include the Passover massacre in March 2002, in which 30 people were killed; the Jerusalem bus 20 massacre in November 2002 (11 dead); the Jerusalem bus 2 massacre in August 2003 (23 dead); and many more. In total, hundreds of Israeli civilians were killed in these suicide attacks between the years 2000 and 2004. Hamas uses female suicide bombers, including a mother of six and a mother of two children under the age of 10. Anonymous Israeli military sources state that the women were allowed to commit these terrorist acts in place of being the victims of an honor killing. Hamas denies this. [4][5] Unlike Fatah, Hamas does not use child suicide bombers (as of March 2004).

Hamas has also attacked Israeli military and security forces targets (mostly inside the West Bank and Gaza Strip and occasionally inside Israel), suspected Palestinian collaborators, and Fatah rivals.

Recently, Hamas has used Qassam rockets to hit Israeli towns in the Negev, such as Sderot. The introduction of the Qassam-2 rocket has allowed Hamas to attack large Israeli cities such as Ashkelon, bringing great concern to the Israeli populace and many attempts by the Israeli military to stop the proliferation and use of the rockets.

In addition to its paramilitary and terrorist activities, Hamas has many relief and education programs. These programs are viewed variously as part of an integrated para-state policy, as propaganda and recruitment exercises, or both.

Hamas has an unknown number of hardcore members and tens of thousands of supporters and sympathizers. It receives funding from Palestinian expatriates, from Iran, and from private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and in other Arab states. Some fundraising and propaganda activity take place in Western Europe, North America and South America. Like Hezbollah, Hamas has been known to use illicit drug sales to raise funds for its operations.

In addition to its paramilitary activities, Hamas funds a number of charitable activites, primarily in the Gaza Strip. These include religious institutions, medical facilities, and social needs of the area's residents. The work of Hamas in these fields is in addition to that provided by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). The charitable trust Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was accused in December 2001 of funding Hamas.

Hamas is believed to operate dozens of websites. A current listing can be found at Internet-Haganah (External link below). The main website of Hamas provides translations of official communiques and propaganda in Farsi (see Persian language), Urdu, Malay, Russian, English, and Arabic.

In the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority is losing control to Hamas, namely the Jabaliya refugee camp and the neighboring neighborhood of Jabaliya in the north of the Strip and the Dir al-Balah area in the center of the Strip, Abasan to the south of it and the Dahaniyeh region in the south.

In 2004, a federal court in the United States found Hamas guilty in a civil lawsuit regarding the 1996 murders of Yaron and Efrat Ungar near Beit Shemesh, Israel. Hamas has been ordered to pay the families of the Ungar's $116 million. As of April 2004, the court has not yet ruled on the liability of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO for providing safe haven to Hamas.

See also

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