Hamas ( , an acronym of Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Islamic "Hamas is a radical Islamic fundamentalist organization that has stated that its highest priority is a Jihad (holy war) for the liberation of Palestine ..." Peace and War: The Arab–Israeli Military Balance Enters the 21st Century, by Anthony H. Cordesman, 2002, p. 243
"One of the secrets behind the success of Hamas is that it is an Islamic and national movement at one and the same time ..." "Hamas: Palestinian Identity, Islam, and National Sovereignty", by Meir Litvak, in Challenges to the Cohesion of the Arabic State, by Asher Susser, 2008, p. 153. "Hamas is an Islamic fundamentalist movement founded in 1987 ..." Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues, by Gus Martin, 2009, p. 153
"Hamas is an Islamic jihadist organization ..." Why Israel Can't Wait: The Coming War Between Israel and Iran, by Jerome R. Corsi, 2009, p. 39. "Understanding Islamism", Crisis Group Middle East/North Africa Report N°37, March 2, 2005
"The New Hamas: Between Resistance and Participation". Middle East Report. Graham Usher, August 21, 2005
organization, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the Middle East including Qatar. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union, EU keeps Hamas on terror list despite court ruling, 27/03/2015
Brussels Keeps Palestinian Hamas Movement on EU Terror Blacklist, 27.03.2015
Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini on the decision to appeal the Judgment regarding Hamas, 19/01/2015See also: Hamas#International designation of Hamas Canada, Israel, Egypt, Japan,問10．ハマスとは何ですか。Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.' 日本は、ハマスを、国連安保理決議1373に基づいて、外国為替及び外国貿易法（外為法）に基づく資産凍結措置の対象としています。'On the basis of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373, Japan applies to Hamas the frozen assets measures in accordance with its Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law (Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Control Law).'According to Michael Penn, (Japan and the War on Terror: Military Force and Political Pressure in the US-Japanese Alliance, I.B. Taurus 2014 pp.205-206), Japan initially welcomed the democratic character of the elections that brought Hamas to power, and only set conditions on its aid to Palestine, after intense pressure was exerted by the Bush Administration on Japan to alter its policy. and the United States."Country reports on terrorism 2005" Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization. ' Hamas's Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades,' Australian National Security:'Like its parent, Hamas is a multifaceted, well organised and relatively moderate organisation renowned for its extensive social service networks in the Palestinian Territories.' The organization is banned in Jordan. It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran,'Hamas is not a terrorist organization:Iran,' Iran Daily 1 May 2015. Russia,"How to Confront Russia's Anti-American Foreign Policy" The Heritage Foundation. June 27, 2007 Norway, criticizes Norway on Hamas,' Views and News from Norway, 6 May 2011: Israeli President Shimon Peres has criticized the Norwegian government’s refusal to classify Hamas as a terrorist organization.' Switzerland,Daniel Möckli, 'Switzerland’s Controversial Middle East Policy,' Center for Security Studies, Zurich Vol.3, No. 35, June 2008 Brazil,Juliana Barbassa, 'Brazil Terrorism Laws: No One Is A Terrorist,' Huffington Post 3 September 2015. Turkey, BBC News. June 4, 2010 China, and Qatar.Mirren Gidda,'Hamas Still Has Some Friends Left,' Time 25 July 2014. Hamas was founded sometime in 1988Amal Jamal, The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005, Indiana University Press, 2005 p.197 n.21.Dates differ, between December 1987-January 1988, and August 1988 soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which in its Gaza branch had been non-confrontational towards Israel, refrained from resistance, and was hostile to the PLO.Helena Lindholm Schulz The Reconstruction of Palestinian Nationalism: Between Revolution and Statehood, Manchester University Press, 1999 p.76 Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), http://www.ict.org.il"Israeli Official Says Hamas Has Made Abbas Irrelevant" The New York Times, February 27, 2006 The group has later stated that it may accept a 10-year truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders and allows Palestinian refugees from 1948, as well as their descendants, to return to what is now Israel.Efraim Inbar. Hamas ( , an acronym of Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist organization.Anthony H. Cordesman.Peace and War: The Arab–Israeli Military Balance Enters the 21st Century. Greenwood Publishing Group. 2002. p. 243: "Hamas is a radical Islamic fundamentalist organization that has stated that its highest priority is a Jihad (holy war) for the liberation of Palestine."Meir Litvak. "Hamas: Palestinian Identity, Islam, and National Sovereignty," in Asher Susser (ed.) Challenges to the Cohesion of the Arabic State. Moshe Dayan Center for Middle Eastern and African Studies. Tel Aviv University. 2008. p. 153: 'One of the secrets behind the success of Hamas is that it is an Islamic and national movement at one and the same time,' It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and, since 2007, has been the governing authority of the Gaza Strip.Richard Davis. Hamas, Popular Support and War in the Middle East: Insurgency in the Holy Land. Routledge. 2016. pp. 67-69.Tariq Mukhimer. Hamas Rule in Gaza: Human Rights Under Constraint. Palgrave Macmillan. 2012. pp. vii, 57. Hamas was founded in 1987,Fatah agrees to celebrate Hamas anniversary in Gaza. JTA, 7 December 2012.Amal Jamal. The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005. Indiana University Press. 2005. p. 197. n.21. Dates differ, between December 1987-January 1988, and August 1988. soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, which in its Gaza branch had been non-confrontational towards Israel, refrained from resistance, and was hostile to the PLO.Helena Lindholm Schulz The Reconstruction of Palestinian Nationalism: Between Revolution and Statehood, Manchester University Press, 1999 p.76 Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from "Israeli occupation" and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.Hamas (Islamic Resistance Movement), http://www.ict.org.il"Israeli Official Says Hamas Has Made Abbas Irrelevant" The New York Times, February 27, 2006 The group has stated that it may accept a 10-year truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders and allows Palestinian refugees from 1948, including their descendants, to return to what is now Israel,Efraim Inbar. Israel's National Security: Issues and Challenges Since the Yom Kippur War. Routledge, Dec 21, 2007. p. 193
The military wing of Hamas has launched attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Tactics include suicide bombings, and since 2001, rocket attacks. Hamas's rocket arsenal, though mainly consisting of short-range homemade Qassem rockets,Mark Perry, ‘Gaza’s Bottle Rockets,’ in Gideon Rose (ed) https://books.google.it/books?id=GuWwBAAAQBAJ&pg=PT110 Clueless in Gaza, Foreign Affairs, 2014 p.110:’most of Hamas’ arsenal is homemade rockets that are decidedly incapable of inflicting mass civilian casualties, flattening apartment blocks, or causing conflagrations that consume entire cities. “Hamas’ rockets can kill people and they have,” a counter-intelligence veteran of the U.S., CIA who spent his career monitoring Israeli and Palestinian military capabilities, told me recently, “but compared to what the Israelis are using, the Palestinians are firing bottle rockets.” also includes long-range weapons that have reached major Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa.The Growing Reach of Hamas’s Rockets. 193 although clarifying that this does not mean recognition of Israel or the end of the conflict. Hamas's military wing objected to the truce offer. Analysts have said that it seems clear that Hamas knows that many of its conditions for the truce could never be met. The military wing of Hamas has launched attacks against Israeli civilians and soldiers, often justifying them as retaliatory, in particular for assassinations of the upper echelon of their leadership. Tactics have included suicide bombings and, since 2001, rocket attacks. Hamas's rocket arsenal, though mainly consisting of short-range homemade Qassam rockets,Mark Perry, 'Gaza's Bottle Rockets', in Gideon Rose (ed) Clueless in Gaza, Foreign Affairs, 2014 p.110: 'most of Hamas' arsenal is homemade rockets that are decidedly incapable of inflicting mass civilian casualties, flattening apartment blocks, or causing conflagrations that consume entire cities. "Hamas' rockets can kill people and they have," a counter-intelligence veteran of the U.S., CIA who spent his career monitoring Israeli and Palestinian military capabilities, told me recently, "but compared to what the Israelis are using, the Palestinians are firing bottle rockets." also includes long-range weapons that have reached major Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa.The Growing Reach of Hamas's Rockets. The New York Times. July 2014 The attacks on civilians have been condemned as war crimes and crimes against humanity by human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch.Israel/PA: Suicide Bombers Commit Crimes Against Humanity. Human Rights Watch
In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a decisive majority in the Palestinian Parliament, defeating the PLO-affiliated Fatah party. Human Rights Watch
In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a plurality in the Palestinian Parliament, defeating the PLO-affiliated Fatah party. Following the elections, the Quartet (the United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) made future foreign assistance to the PA conditional upon the future government's commitment to non-violence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected those changes, which led to the Quartet suspending its foreign assistance program and Israel imposing economic sanctions on the Hamas-led administration.http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/68794.pdf In March 2007, a national unity government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was briefly formed, but this failed to restart international financial assistance. Hamas New York Times, June 18, 2010 "The pact did not succeed in restoring the flow of aid and did not last. Clashes between the two groups steadily escalated until gunmen loyal to Hamas took control of Gaza in June, ousting the remnants of Fatah."
Backgrounder: Hamas. Council of Foreign Relations. August 27, 2009, "In the summer of 2007, Hamas tensions with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah man, came to a head and Hamas routed Fatah supporters, killing many and sending others fleeing to the West Bank. The result was a de facto geographic division of Palestinian-held territory, with Hamas holding sway in Gaza and Fatah maintaining the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority government in the West Bank town of Ramallah." Tensions over control of Palestinian security forces soon erupted in the 2007 Battle of Gaza, after which Hamas took control of Gaza, while its officials were ousted from government positions in the West Bank. Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, on the grounds that Fatah forces were no longer providing security there. In 2011, Hamas and Fatah announced a reconciliation agreement that provides for creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government."Palestinian rivals Hamas and Fatah sign reconciliation deal" The Guardian (UK), May 4, 2011 Progress stalled, until an April 2014 agreement to form a compromise unity government, with elections to be held in late 2014. In 2006, Hamas used an underground cross-border tunnel to capture the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, holding him captive until 2011, when he was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Since then, Hamas has continued building a network of internal and cross-border tunnels,Inside the tunnels Hamas built: Israel's struggle against new tactic in Gaza war. The Guardian which are used to store and deploy weapons, shield militants, and facilitate cross-border attacks. Destroying the tunnels was a primary objective of Israeli forces in the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. Hamas, its military wing, together with several charities it runs, has been designated as a terrorist organization by Israel (1989), the United States (1996), Canada (2002), the European Union (2001/2003), Japan (2006) and Egypt (2015), and was outlawed in Jordan (1999). It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, China, and Brazil. An EU court found the EU's earlier designation flawed, but its decision has been appealed by the European Council. It is a point of debate in political and academic circles over whether or not to classify Hamas as a terrorist group. Etymology
Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase حركة المقاومة الاسلامية or Harakat al-Muqāwama al-Islāmiyya, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement". The Arabic word 'Hamas' (حماس) means "enthusiasm" or "zeal". The Hamas covenant interprets its name to mean "strength and bravery". The Arabic word 'hamas' (حماس) means "courage" or "zeal".Martha Crenshaw, John Pimlott. International Encyclopedia of Terrorism. Routledge. 2015. p. 415. The Hamas covenant interprets its name to mean "strength and bravery".Jennifer Jefferis. Hamas: Terrorism, Governance, and Its Future in Middle East Politics. ABC-CLIO. 2016. p. 119. Aims
Hamas, as its name (Islamic Resistance Movement) implies, aims to liberate Palestine from the Israeli occupation by resisting it.hamas - about us
And according to Hamas armed branch Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades:
"To contribute in the effort of liberating Palestine and restoring the rights of the Palestinian people under the sacred Islamic teachings of the Holy Quran, the Sunnah (traditions) of Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and the traditions of Muslims rulers and scholars noted for their piety and dedication."Al-Qassam Brigades - about us
Al-Qassam Brigades aims to liberate all of Palestine from what they describe as Zionist occupation, and to achieve the rights of the Palestinian people that were robbed by the occupation, and it consider itself part of the movement of a project of national liberation. Leadership and structure
thumb|Map of key Hamas leadership nodes. 2010
thumb|Current leader, Khaled Meshaal
Hamas comprises three interrelated wings – the social welfare and political wings, which are responsible for the social, administrative, political, and propaganda activities of Hamas, and the military wing, which is engaged in covert activities, such as acting against suspected collaborators, gathering intelligence on potential targets, procuring weapons, and carrying out military attacks. Consultative councils
The Majlis al-Shura (consultative council) is the group's overarching political and decision making body. It includes representatives from Gaza, the West Bank, Israeli prisons, and the exiled external leadership, the Political Bureau. Under this Shura council are committees responsible for supervising Hamas activities, from media relations to military operations. In the West Bank and Gaza, local Shura committees answer to the Shura council and carry out its decisions. Hamas's highest decision-making body is its Political Bureau, which consists of 15 members. Before the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, it operated in exile in Damascus, Syria. The bureau is elected by members who select their representatives in local Consultative Councils in specific geographic regions. The councils then nominate representatives to the General Consultative Council, and the Political Bureau is elected by members of the General Consultative Council. Military wing
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing formed in 1992, is named in commemoration of influential Palestinian nationalist Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. Armed Hamas cells sometimes refer to themselves as "Students of Ayyash", "Students of the Engineer", or "Yahya Ayyash Units",Kushner, Harvey W. (2002). Encyclopedia of Terrorism, p.160 Sage Publications, ISBN 0-7619-2408-6 to commemorate Yahya Ayyash, an early Hamas bomb-maker killed in 1996. Since its establishment, the military capability of Hamas has increased markedly, from rifles to Qassam rockets and more."Hamas's Tactics: Lessons from Recent Attacks", By Jamie Chosak and Julie Sawyer. The Washington Institute for Near East Policy. October 19, 2005
While the number of members is known only to the Brigades leadership, Israel estimates the Brigades have a core of several hundred members who receive military style training, including training in Iran and in Syria (before the Syrian Civil War). Additionally, the brigades have an estimated 10,000 operatives "of varying degrees of skill and professionalism" who are members of Hamas or their supporters and the internal security forces. These operatives can be expected to reinforce the Brigades in an "emergency situation".The HAMAS Terror Organization – 2007 update Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Although the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades are an integral part of Hamas, they also operate independently of Hamas, and at times contrary to Hamas' stated aims.al-Qassam Brigades: Details of the organisation Australian Government National Security September 15, 2009 Most analysts agree that although differences of opinion between the Hamas military and political wing exist, Hamas's internal discipline is strong enough to contain them."Who controls Hamas – Haniya or Mashaal?", The Sunday Times, by Stephen Farrell in Gaza and Nicholas Blanford, July 10, 2006 Political scientists Ilana Kass and Bard O'Neill liken Hamas's relationship with the Brigades to the political party Sinn Féin's relationship to the military arm of the Irish Republican Army.The dDadly Embrace: The Impact of Israeli and Palestinian Rejectionism on the Peace Process University Press of America, Ilana Kass & Bard E. O'Neill, 1997, p. 267 To further explain the relationship, they quote a senior Hamas official: "The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade is a separate armed military wing, which has its own leaders who do not take their orders from [Hamas] and do not tell us of their plans in advance." However, according to former U.S. Department of Treasury official and terrorism expert Matthew Levitt, the Hamas Political Bureau operates as the highest ranking leadership body determining the policy of the Hamas organization and has responsibility for directing and coordinating terrorist acts. Hamas' founder, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, stated in 1998: "We can not separate the wing from the body. 2010
thumb|Current leader, Khaled Meshaal
Hamas inherited from its predecessor a tripartite structure that consisted in the provision of social services, of religious training and military operations under a Shura Council. Traditionally it had four distinct functions: (a) a charitable social welfare division (dawah); (b) a military division for procuring weapons and undertaking operations (al-Mujahideen al Filastinun); (c) a security service (Jehaz Aman); and (d) a media branch (A’alam).Levitt 2006 pp.10-11. Hamas has both an internal leadership within the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, and an external leadership, split between a Gaza group directed by Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook from his exile first in Damascus and then in Egypt, and a Kuwaiti group (Kuwaidia) under Khaled Mashal.Levitt, 2006 pp.11-12. The Kuwaiti group of Palestinian exiles began to receive extensive funding from the Gulf States after its leader Mashal broke with Yasser Arafat's decision to side with Saddam Hussein in the Invasion of Kuwait, with Mashal insisting that Iraq withdraw.Sara Roy, Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Social Sector, Princeton University Press, Rev.ed. 2013 p.30. The exact nature of the organization is unclear, secrecy being maintained for fear of Israeli assassinations and to conceal operational activities. Formally, Hamas maintains the wings are separate and independent. Matthew Levitt maintains this is a public myth. Davis argues that they are both separate and combined for reasons of internal and external political necessity. Communication between the political and military wings of Hamas is difficult, owing to the thoroughness of Israeli intelligence surveillance and the existence of an extensive base of informants. After the assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi the occasional political direction of the militant wing diminished, with field commanders given discretional autonomy on operations.Davis 2016 pp.44-45. Consultative councils
The governing body is the Majlis al-Shura. The principle behind the Council is based on the Qur'anic concept of consultation and popular assembly (shura), which Hamas leaders argue provides for democracy within an Islamic framework.A. Hovdenak, 'Hamas in Transition:The Failure of Sanctions,' in Michelle Pace, Peter Seeberg (eds.), The European Union's Democratization Agenda in the Mediterranean, Routledge, 2013 pp.50-79 p.64. As the organization grew more complex and Israeli pressure increased it needed a broader base for decisions, the Shura Council was renamed the 'General Consultative Council', elected from members of local council groups and this in turn elected a 15-member Politburo (al-Maktab al-Siyasi)Peter Mandaville,Islam and Politics, Routledge, 2014 Rev.ed, p.282. that made decisions at the highest level. Representatives come from Gaza, the West Bank, leaders in exile and Israeli prisons.Benedetta Berti, Armed Political Organizations: From Conflict to Integration, JHU Press, 2013 p.88. This organ was located in Damascus until the Syrian Civil War led it to transfer to Qatar in January 2012, when Hamas sided with the civil opposition against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.Mohammed Ayoob, Will the Middle East Implode?, John Wiley & Sons, 2014 p.47. Social Services Wing
Hamas developed its social welfare programme by replicating the model established by Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.For them, charity and the development of one's community are prescribed by religion, and, at the same time, are to be understood as forms of resistance.Tristan Dunning,p.136. In Islamic tradition dawah (lit.'the call to God') obliges the faithful to reach out to others by both proselytising and by charitable works, and typically the latter centre on the mosques which make use of both waqf endowment resources and charitable donations (zakat) to fund grassroots services like nurseries, schools, orphanages, soup kitchens, women's activities, library services and even sporting clubs within a larger context of preaching and political discussions.Levitt, pp.16-23. In the 1990s, some 85% of its budget was allocated to the provision of social services.Phillips p.78 It has been called perhaps the most significant social services actor in Palestine. By 2000 it or its affiliated charities ran roughly 40% of the social institutions in the West Bank and Gaza and, with other Islamic charities, by 2005 was supporting 120,000 individuals with monthly financial support in Gaza.Lihi Ben Shitrit, Righteous Transgressions: Women's Activism on the Israeli and Palestinian Religious Right, Princeton University Press, 2015 p.71. Part of the appeal of these institutions is that they fill a vacuum in the administration by the PLO of the Palestinian territories, which had failed to cater to the demand for jobs and broad social services, and is widely viewed as corrupt.David L. Phillips,From Bullets to Ballots: Violent Muslim Movements in Transition, Transaction Publishers, 2011 p.75. As late as 2005, the budget of Hamas, drawing on global charity contributions, was mostly tied up in covering running expenses for its social programmes, which extended from the supply of housing, food and water for the needy to more general functions like financial aid, medical assistance, educational development and religious instruction. A certain accounting flexibility allowed these funds to cover both charitable causes and military operations, permitting transfer from one to the other.Davis,pp.47ff. The dawah infrastructure itself was understood, within the Palestinian context, as providing the soil from which a militant opposition to the occupation would flower.Levitt, p.23:'In a 1995 lecture, Sheikh Jamil Hamami, a party to the foundation of Hamas and a senior member of its West Bank leadership, expounded the importance of Hamas' dawa infrastructure as the soil from which militancy would flower.' In this regard it differs from the rival Palestinian Islamic Jihad which lacks any social welfare network, and relies on spectacular terrorist attacks to recruit adherents.Levitt, pp.25-26. In 2007, through funding from Iran, Hamas managed to allocate at a cost of $60 million, monthly stipends of $100 for 100,000 workers, and a similar sum for 3,000 fishermen laid idle by Israel's imposition of restrictions on fishing offshore, plus grants totalling $45 million to detainees and their families.Mohsen Saleh, The Palestinian Strategic Report 2006, Al Manhal, 2007 p.198. Matthew Levitt argues that Hamas grants to people are subject to a rigorous cost-benefit analysis of how beneficiaries will support Hamas, with those linked to terrorist activities receiving more than others.James J. F. Forrest, 'Conclusion', in James Dingley, Combating Terrorism in Northern Ireland, Routledge, 2008 pp.280-300 p.290. Israel holds the families of suicide bombers accountable and bulldozes their homes, whereas the families of Hamas activists who have been killed or wounded during militant operations are given an initial, one-time grant varying between $500–$5,000, together with a $100 monthly allowance. Rent assistance is also given to families whose homes have been destroyed by Israeli bombing though families unaffiliated with Hamas are said to receive less.Phillips p.81.Levitt, pp. 122–123. Until 2007, these activities extended to the West Bank, but, after a PLO crackdown, now continue exclusively in the Gaza Strip.Davis, p.48. After the 2013 Egyptian coup d'état deposed the elected Muslim Brotherhood government of Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Hamas found itself in a financial straightjacket and has since endeavoured to throw the burden of responsibility for public works infrastructure in the Gaza Strip back onto the Palestinian National Authority, but without success.Davis, pp.48-49. Military wing
The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing was formed in either mid-1991Aoibhín de Búrca, Preventing Political Violence Against Civilians: Nationalist Militant Conflict in Northern Ireland, Israel And Palestine, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014 pp.100-102.Mohammad Najib and Roland Friedrich 'Non-Statutory Armed Groups and Security Sector Governance,' in Roland Friedrich, Arnold Luethold (eds.), Entry-points to Palestinian Security Sector Reform, DCAF, 2007 pp.101-127 p.103.This date is based on a Hamas operation that assassinated the rabbi of the Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom inside the Gaza Strip. or 1992,under the direction of Yahya Ayyash, a Hamas field-commander and bomb-maker assassinated by Israel in 1996. It was constituted from units associated with the earlier al-Jihad wa Da’wa, an umbrella group that had gathered in militants from various Islamic resistance cells like the Al-Mujahidun al-Filastiniun (Palestinian fighters).Davis,pp.110-111. established by Salah Shehade in 1986.Najib p.103. The wing takes its name from the prewar militant Palestinian nationalist Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam, though Hamas cells sometimes refer to themselves as "Students of Ayyash", "Students of the Engineer", or "Yahya Ayyash Units". At the outset, weapons were hard to come by, and the organization began to resort to intermittent kidnappings of soldiers to secure arms and munitions. This approach had been justified two years earlier when, in the wake of the killing of some 20 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces dispersing protestors at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1990, Hamas had declared every Israeli soldier a legitimate target.Alincée Van Engeland,'Hamas,' in Jeffrey Ian Ross (ed.)Religion and Violence: An Encyclopedia of Faith and Conflict from Antiquity to the Present, Routledge 2015 pp.319-323: p.319. Ayyash, with a degree in electrical engineering, quickly improved Hamas's strike capacity by developing IEDs and promoting the tactic of suicide bombings.Davis, p.111. By the time of the Al-Aqsa Intifada, Hamas's laboratories had devised a primitive form of rocketry, the Qassam 1,which they first launched in October 2000, carrying a 500 gram warhead with a throw range of 4 kilometres. Both propellant and the explosive were manufactured from chemical fertilizers, though TNT was also tried.Mohannad Sabry,Sinai: Egypt's Linchpin, Gaza's Lifeline, Israel's Nightmare, British Academic Press, 2015 p.65. Over the next 5 years of the conflict, a 3 kilogram warhead armed version with a strike range of 6-8 kilometres, the Qassam 2, was also producedNajib p.107 and in an incremental rise, these rocket types were fired towards Israeli settlements along the Gaza Strip:4 in 2001,35 in 2002, 155 in 2003,281 in 2004, and 179 in 2005. By 2005, the Qassam 3 had been engineered with a 12-14 kilometre range and a 15 kilo warhead. By 2006, 942 such rockets were launched into southern Israel.Sabry p.67. During the War with Israel in 2008-9, Hamas deployed 122-mm Grad rocketry with a 20-40 kilometre range and a 30 kilogram warhead and a variety of guided Kornet antitank missiles.Sabry, p.73. By 2012 Hamas had engineered a version of the Fajr-5 rocket, which was capable of reaching as far as Tel Aviv, as was shown after the assassination of Ahmed Jabari in that year. In the 2014 war its advanced rocketry reached Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.Jefferis,p.119. Hamas deployed its increasingly sophisticated rocketry to replace its martyrdom operations.Najib p.107. While the number of members is known only to the Brigades leadership, Israel estimates the Brigades have a core of several hundred members who receive military style training, including training in Iran and in Syria (before the Syrian Civil War).Mathieu Guidère, Historical Dictionary of Islamic Fundamentalism, Scarecrow Press, 2012 p.173. Additionally, the brigades have an estimated 10,000-17,000 operatives,Shitrit, p.71.Najib p.106. forming a backup force whenever circumstances call for reinforcements for the Brigade. Recruitment training lasts for 2 years. The group's ideology outlines its aim as the liberation of Palestine and the restoration of Palestinian rights under the dispensations set forth in the Qur'an, and this translates into three policy priorities:
To evoke the spirit of Jihad (Resistance) among Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims; to defend Palestinians and their land against the Zionist occupation and its manifestations; to liberate Palestinians and their land that was usurped by the Zionist occupation forces and settlers.Najib p.105. According to its official stipulations, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades' military operations are to be restricted to operating only inside Palestine, engaging with Israeli soldiers, and in exercising the right of self-defense against armed settlers. They are to avoid civilian targets, to respect the enemy's humanity by refraining from mutilation, defacement or excessive killing, and to avoid targeting Westerners either in the occupied zones or beyond.Najib pp.105-106. In practice, Hamas altered its approach restricting actions to 'legitimate military targets' by extended them to Israeli civilians after 7 years. Though between 1996 and 2001 it generally refrained from targeting Israeli civilians,Najib p.106 it adopted sporadic suicide bombings in the wake of the Cave of the Patriarchs massacre>when an Israeli settler in military fatigues, Baruch Goldstein, shot dead 29 Muslims at prayer in 1993.R.Kim Cragin,'Learning to Survive:The Case of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)', in James JF Forrest (ed.), Teaching Terror: Strategic and Tactical Learning in the Terrorist World, Rowman & Littlefield, 2006 pp.189-204 p.196.Erlich Reese, Robert Baer, Conversations with Terrorists: Middle East Leaders on Politics, Violence, and Empire, Routledge, 2016 p.28.Dunning, p.34. After the Al Aqsa revolt, the Brigades were behind most of the suicide bombings in Israel, a measure it defended as a form of 'reciprocity'. Down to 2007, the Brigades are estimated to have lost some 800 operatives in conflicts with Israeli forces. The leadership has been consistently undermined by targeted assassinations. Aside from Yahya Ayyash (5 January 1996), it has lost Emad Akel (24 November 1993) Salah Shehade, (23 July 2002), Ibrahim al-Makadmeh, (8 March 2003) Ismail Abu Shanab, (21 August 2003) Ahmed Yassin (March 22, 2004) and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi,( April 17, 2004).,Harry Raymond Hueston, Paul G. Pierpaoli Jr., Sherifa Zahar, 'Hamas' in Priscilla Roberts (ed.) Arab-Israeli Conflict: The Essential Reference Guide, ABC-CLIO, 2014 pp.676-71 p.67. After Israel arrested hundreds of its members in May 1989, Hamas regionalized its command system to make its operative structure more diffuse, and minimalize the chances of being detected.Jeroen Gunning, 'Hamas:Harakat al-Muqamama al-Islamiyya,' in Marianne Heiberg, Brendan O'Leary, John Tirman (eds.), Terror, Insurgency, and the State: Ending Protracted Conflicts, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2007 pp.123-155 p.134. The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades groups its fighters in 4-5 man cells, which in turn are integrated into companies and battalions. Unlike the political section, which is split between an internal and external structure, the Brigades are under a local Palestinian leadership, and disobedience with the decisions taken by the political leadership have been relatively rare.Najib pp.107-108-
Although the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades are an integral part of Hamas, the exact nature of the relationship is hotly debated. They appear to operate at times independently of Hamas, exercising a certain autonomy.Joyce Davis https://books.google.com/books?id=GxwbNesHJBkC&pg=PA100 Martyrs: Innocence, Vengeance, and Despair in the Middle East, Palgrave Macmillan, 2004 p.100.Mandaville, p.282.Matthew Levitt,Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks, Rowman & Littlefield 2008 pp.89f.John L.Esposito, Islam and Violence, Syracuse University Press 1998 p.231. Some cells have independent links with the external leadership, enabling them to bypass the hierarchical command chain and political leadership in Gaza. Ilana Kass and Bard O'Neill, likening Hamas's relationship with the Brigades to the political party Sinn Féin's relationship to the military arm of the Irish Republican Army. quote a senior Hamas official as stating: "The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigade is a separate armed military wing, which has its own leaders who do not take their orders from Hamas and do not tell us of their plans in advance." Ilana Kass & Bard E. O'Neill, The Deadly Embrace: The Impact of Israeli and Palestinian Rejectionism on the Peace Process, National Institute for Public Policy/ University Press of America 1997, p. 267. Matthew Levitt on the other hand argues vocally for the idea that Hamas's welfare institutions act as a mere façade or front for the financing of terrorism, and dismisses the idea of two wings as a 'myth'.Julie C.Herrick,'Non-State Actors: A Comparative Analysis of Change and Development Within Hamas and Hezbollah,' in Bahgat Korany (ed.), The Changing Middle East: A New Look at Regional Dynamics, American University in Cairo Press, 2010 pp.167-195, p.179. He cites Sheikh Ahmad Yassin stating in 1998: "We can not separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body."
Social welfare
Hamas has a welfare wing providing social services to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including running relief programs and funding schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. "Hamas" – Council on Foreign Relations. Updated January 7, 2009
Books: Kingdom of God The New Statesman May 7, 2007; "Using Israeli estimates, [Matthew Levitt, senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy] reckons Hamas probably has an annual budget of between $70m and $90m, 80 to 85 per cent of which it spends on its political work and its extensive networks of schools, clinics and welfare organisations, while 15 to 20 per cent goes on military operations."
In particular, Hamas funded health services where people could receive free or inexpensive medical treatment. Hamas greatly contributed to the health sector, and facilitated hospital and physician services in the Palestinian territory. On the other hand, Hamas's use of hospitals is sometimes criticised as purportedly serving the promotion of violence against Israel.Emerson, Steven. "Why Does The New York Times Love Hamas?" January 6, 2009. November 14, 2009. Charities affiliated with Hamas are known to financially support families of those who have been killed or imprisoned while carrying out militant actions or supporting such actions. Families typically receive a one time grant of $500 to $5,000, and those whose homes have been destroyed by the Israel Defense Forces have their rent paid for temporary housing. Families of militants not affiliated with Hamas sometimes receive less. Hamas has funded education and built Islamic charities, libraries, mosques and education centers for women. They also built nurseries, kindergartens and supervised religious schools that provide free meals to children. When children attend their schools and mosques, parents are required to sign oaths of allegiance. Refugees, as well as those left without homes, are able to claim financial and technical assistance from Hamas.Peter Hilsenrath
The work of Hamas in these fields supplements that provided by the United Nations Relief Works Agency (UNRWA). Despite building materials needing to be smuggled into the territory, luxury beach resorts and tourist facilities operated by the interior ministry have been constructed by Hamas government–linked charities, including gardens, playgrounds, football fields, a zoo and restaurants aimed to provide employment and low cost entertainment for citizens. Some Palestinians have complained about the admission fee, criticizing Hamas for charging them to use "government-owned" property. Goals
Hamas' 1988 charter states that Hamas "strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine" (Article Six) and that "Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it." Article Thirty-One of the Charter states: "Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions—Islam, Christianity and Judaism—to coexist in peace and quiet with each other."
After the elections in 2006, Hamas co-founder Mahmoud Al-Zahar did not rule out the possibility of accepting a "temporary two-state solution", and stated that he dreamed "of hanging a huge map of the world on the wall at my Gaza home which does not show Israel on it". Xinhua reports that Al-Zahar "did not rule out the possibility of having Jews, Muslims and Christians living under the sovereignty of an Islamic state". In late 2006, Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, said that if a Palestinian state was formed within the 1967 lines, Hamas was willing to declare a truce that could last as long as 20 years, and stated that Hamas will never recognize the "usurper Zionist government" and will continue "jihad-like movement until the liberation of Jerusalem". Hamas is one body."Matthew Levitt p.34. Finances and funding
At the 1993 Philadelphia conference, Hamas leaders' statements indicated that they read George H. W. Bush's outline of a New World Order as embodying a tacit aim to destroy Islam, and that therefore funding should focus on enhancing the Islamic roots of Palestinian society and promoting jihad in the occupying territories.Levitt p. 148. Hamas's budget, calculated to be roughly $US70 million (2011), is derived in large part (85%) from foreign, rather than internal Palestinian, sources. Only two Israeli-Palestinian sources figure in a list seized in 2004, while the other contributors were donor bodies located in Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Britain, Germany, the United States, United Arab Emirates, Italy and France. Much of the money raised comes from sources that direct their assistance to what Hamas describes as its charitable work for Palestinians, but investments in support of its ideological position are also relevant, with Persian Gulf States and Saudi Arabia prominent in the latter. Matthew Levitt states that Hamas also taps money from corporations, criminal organizations and financial networks that support terror,Levitt, pp. 143-144. and is believed to engage in cigarette and drug smuggling, multimedia copyright infringement and credit card fraud. Vittori states that, more than other similar organizations, it is particularly careful about keeping resources for its militant, political and public works activities separate. The United States, Israel and the EU have shut down many charities and organs that channel money to Hamas, such as the Holy Land Foundation for Relief.Colin P. Clarke, Terrorism, Inc.: The Financing of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Irregular Warfare: The Financing of Terrorism, Insurgency, and Irregular Warfare, ABC-CLIO, 2015 p. 97. Between 1992 and 2001 this group is said to have provided $6.8 million to Palestinian charities of the &57 million collected. By 2001 it was alleged to have given Hamas $13 million, and was shut down shortly afterwards.Interpal and Development and the Al-Aqsa Charitable Foundation Fund. pp. 146, 154-159. About half of Hamas's funding came from states in the Persian Gulf down to the mid 2000s. Saudi Arabia supplied half of the Hamas budget of $50 million in the early 2000s,Marsh E. Burfeindt, 'Rapprochement with Iran', in Thomas A. Johnson
(ed.), Power, National Security, and Transformational Global Events: Challenges Confronting America, China, and Iran. CRC Press. 2012. pp. 185-235 p. 198. but, under U.S. pressure, began cut its funding by cracking down on Islamic charities and private donor transfers to Hamas in 2004,Jodi Vittori, Terrorist Financing and Resourcing, Palgrave Macmillan, 2011 pp.72-74, p.193 notes 50,51. which by 2006 drastically reduced the flow of money from that area. Iran and Syria, in the aftermath of Hamas's 2006 electoral victory, stepped in to fill the shortfall.Levitt p.173.Joshua L. Gleis, Benedetta Berti, Hezbollah and Hamas: A Comparative Study, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012 p.156. Saudi funding, negotiated with third parties like Egypt, remained supportive of Hamas as a Sunni group but chose to provide more assistance to the PNA, the electoral loser, when the EU responded to the outcome by suspending its monetary aid.Robert Mason, Foreign Policy in Iran and Saudi Arabia: Economics and Diplomacy in the Middle East, I.B.Tauris, 2015 pp. 48-49 Iran in the 1980s began by providing 10% of Hamas's funding, which it increased annually until by the 1990s it supplied $30 million. It accounted for $22 million, over a quarter of Hamas's budget, by the late 2000s. According to Matthew Levitt, Iran preferred direct financing to operative groups rather than charities, requiring video proof of attacks.Levitt, pp. 172-174. Much of the Iran funding is said to be channeled through Hezbollah. After 2006 Iran's willingness to take over the burden of the shortfall created by the drying up of Saudi funding also reflected the geopolitical tensions between the two, since, though Shiite, Iran was supporting a Sunni group traditionally closely linked with the Saudi kingdom.Lawrence Rubin, Islam in the Balance: Ideational Threats in Arab Politics. Stanford University Press, 2014 p. 104 The US imposed sanctions on Iran's Bank Saderat, alleging it had funneled hundreds of millions to Hamas.Jalil Roshandel, Alethia H. Cook, The United States and Iran: Policy Challenges and Opportunities, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. p. 104. The US has expressed concerns that for Hamas obtains funds through Palestinian and Lebanese sympathizers of Arab descent in the Foz do Iguaçu area of the tri-border region of Latin America, an area long associated with arms trading, drug trafficking, contraband, the manufacture of counterfeit goods, money-laundering and currency fraud. The State Department add that confirmatory information of a Hamas operational presence there is lacking.Mark P. Sullivan, 'Latin America: Terrorism Issues'. Congressional Research Service. 14 July 2009. p. 4. After 2009, sanctions on Iran made funding difficult, forcing Hamas to rely on religious donations by individuals in the West Bank, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia. Funds amounting to tens of millions of dollars raised in the Gulf states were transferred through the Rafah Border Crossing. These were not sufficient to cover the costs of governing the Strip and running the al Qassam Brigades, and when tensions arose with Iran over support of President Assad in Syria, Iran dropped its financial assistance to the government, restricting its funding to the military wing, which meant a drop from $150 million in 2012 to $60 million the following year. A further drop occurred in 2015 when Hamas expressed its criticisms of Iran's role in the Yemeni Civil War.Davis, p.173. History
Gaza Islamic roots and establishment of Hamas
Hamas rose as an offshoot of the Gaza Mujama al-Islamiya branch of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,Ziyād Abū ʻAmr, Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza: Muslim Brotherhood and Islamic Jihad, Indiana University Press, 1994 p.16.Rashmi Singh, Hamas and Suicide Terrorism: Multi-causal and Multi-level Approaches, Routledge, 2013 p.153 n.70. which had been actively encouraged by Israel to expand as a counterweight to the influence of the secular Palestine Liberation Organization .Andrew Higgins, 'How Israel Helped to Spawn Hamas', The Wall Street Journal 24 January 2009.Levitt, p.24 p. 24: "Scholars and historians on both sides ... agree that from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s the [Muslim] Brotherhood benefited from the Israeli government's support of non-violent Islamist Palestinian factions, believing these groups would function as a useful counterweight to the secular nationalist Palestinian groups ..."Philip Mattar (ed.,) Encyclopedia of the Palestinians, Infobase Publishing, 2005 p.195: 'the Brotherhood was even quietly assisted by Israel I authorities in the hopes that it could serve as an alternative to the PLO',Riaz Hassan, Life as a Weapon: The Global Rise of Suicide Bombings, Routledge, Revised ed.2014 p.80-Amr p.31.Ahmad Yassin stated 'the PLO is secularist. It cannot be accepted as a representative unless it becomes islamic' p.31; 'Politically speaking, Islamic fundamentalists were sometimes regarded as useful to Israel because they had their conflicts with the secular supporters of the PLO . . .the Israeli military governor of the Gaza Strip, Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, once told me how he had financed the Islamic movement as a counterweight to the PLO and the Communists . . .In 1980, when fundamentalist protesters set fire to the office of the Red Crescent Society in Gaza, headed by Dr Haidar Abdel-Shafi, a Communist and PLO supporter, the Israeli army did nothing, intervening only when the mob marched to his home and seemed to threaten him personally'.p.35 and had since 1973 been quiescent and non-confrontational towards Israel.Helena Lindholm Schulz The Reconstruction of Palestinian Nationalism: Between Revolution and Statehood, Manchester University Press, 1999 p.76 Aside from developing Islamic charities to provide humanitarian assistance to Palestinians, it emphasized social justice (adala) and the subordination of the world to the sovereignty of God (hakmiyya). Hamas was founded in 1987,Amal Jamal, The Palestinian National Movement: Politics of Contention, 1967-2005, Indiana University Press, 2005 p.197 n.21.Dates differ, between December 1987-January 1988, and August 1988 soon after the outbreak of the First Intifada, the first popular uprising against the Israeli occupation. Creating Hamas to participate in the revolt was regarded as a survival measure to enable the Brotherhood itself, which refused to fight against Israel,The World Almanac of Islamism: 2014, American Foreign Policy Council/Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 (Hamas pp.272-278). to hold its own against other competing Palestinian nationalist groups. By forming a military wing distinct from its social charity organizations, it was hoped that the latter would be insulated from being targeted by Israel.Joshua L. Gleis, Benedetta Berti, Hezbollah and Hamas: A Comparative Study, Johns Hopkins University Press, 2012 p.119:'In truth, the creation of Hamas as a separate entity from the Muslim Brotherhood was done precisely to prevent Israeli authorities from targeting the organizations' greater activities, in the hopes that it would leave them relatively immune. Moreover, Hamas was created essentially because the Islamicists connected to the Muslim Brotherhood feared that without their direct participation in the first Intifada, they would lose supporters to both the PIJ and the PLO, the latter of which was anxious to reassert itself in the Palestinian territories after being marginalized following its expulsion from Lebanon. As authors Mishal and Saela, explain, "The Mujamma's decision to adopt a 'jihad now' policy against 'enemies of Allah' (through the creation of Hamas) was thus largely a matter of survival.'
Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin was convinced that Israel was endeavouring to destroy Islam, and concluded that loyal Muslims had a religious obligation into destroy Israel.Laura Neack, The New Foreign Policy: Power Seeking in a Globalized Era, Rowman & Littlefield 2008 p.101. The short term goal of Hamas was to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from Israeli occupation . The long-term aim sought to establish an Islamic state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas Charter (1988)
The foundational document, the Hamas Charter (mīthāq ḥarakat), is dated 18 August 1988, and contains bothantisemitic passages, characterizations of Israeli society as Nazi-like in its cruelty,Ronni Shaked, 'Ethos of Conflict of the Palestinian Society,' in Keren Sharvit, Eran Halperin (eds.), A Social Psychology Perspective on The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Celebrating the Legacy of Daniel Bar-Tal, Springer, 2016 Volume 2 pp.133-149 p.142. and irredentist claims that have never been revoked despite what some observers say are later policy changes in the organization regarding Israel,According to Khaled Hroub,Hamas: A Beginner's Guide, Pluto Press 2006 p.33: 'The Charter was written in early 1988 by one individual and was made public without appropriate general Hamas consultation, revision or consensus, to the regret of Hamas's leaders in later years. The author of the Charter was one of the 'old guard' of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip, completely cut off from the outside world. All kinds of confusions and conflations between Judaism and Zionism found their way into the Charter, to the disservice of Hamas ever since, as this document has managed to brand it with charges of 'anti-Semitism' and a naïve world-view' Hamas leaders and spokespeople have rarely referred to the Charter or quoted from it, evidence that it has come to be seen as a burden rather than an intellectual platform that embraces the movement's principles.'Khaled Hroub, 'A "New Hamas" through its new documents', Journal of Palestine Studies, vol. 35, No. 4, Summer 2006, Issue 140, pp. 6-28, p.6, cited Michael Schulz, 'Hamas Between Sharia Rule and Demo-Islam,' in Ashok Swain, Ramses Amer, Joakim Öjendal (eds.),Globalization and Challenges to Building Peace, pp.195-2011:'Hamas continues to be characterized with reference to its 1988 charter drawn up less than a year after the movement was established in direct response to the outbreak of the third intifada and when its raison d'être was armed resistance to the occupation. Yet when its election and post-election documents are compared to the charter, it becomes clear that what is being promoted is a profondly different organization' and the Jews,'The non-Zionist Jew is one who belongs to the Jewish culture, whether as a believer in the Jewish faith or simply by accident of birth, but . .(who) takes no part in aggressive actions against our land and our nation...Hamas will not adopt a hostile position in practice against anyone because of his ideas or his creed but will adopt such a position if those ideas and creed are translated into hostile or damaging actions against our people.' (1990)Khaled Hroub, p.34.Giandomenico Picco, Gabrielle Rifkind, The Fog of Peace, I.B.Tauris, 2014 pp.47-48 It declares all of Palestine waqf property endowed by God to Muslims,Gabriel Weimann,Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges, US Institute of Peace Press, 2006 p.82. with religious coexistence under Islam's wing.Jim Zanotti, Hamas: Background and Issues for Congress, DIANE Publishing, 2011 p.15. The charter rejects a two-state solution, envisaging no peaceful settlement of the conflict apart from jihad.Zanotti, p.15.Roberts p.68 :'The Charter condemns world Zionism and the efforts to isolate Palestine, defines the mission of the organization, and locates that mission within Palestinian, Arab and Islamic elements. It does not condemn the West or non-Muslims, but does condemn aggression against the Palestinian people, arguing for a defensive jihad. It also calls for fraternal relations with the other Palestinian nationalist groups'. It states that the movement's aim is toraise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned' (Article 6)Shaul Mishal, Avraham Sela,The Palestinian Hamas: vision, violence, and coexistence Columbia University Press, 2006 p.178. and adds that, 'when our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims,Mark A. Tessler A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Indiana University Press, 1994 pp.546,696for which the whole of the land is non-negotiable, a position likened, without the racist sentiments present in the Hamas charter, to that in the Likud party platform and in movements like Gush Emunim. For Hamas, to concede territory is seen as equivalent to renouncing Islam itself.Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, Melbourne University Press 2012 p.219 n.53.Ayala H. Emmett, Our Sisters' Promised Land: Women, Politics, and Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence, University of Michigan Press, 2003 pp.100-102.Glenn Frankel, Beyond the Promised Land: Jews and Arabs on the Hard Road to a New Israel, Simon and Schuster, 1996 p.389-391, cites Binjamin Netanyahu as declaring:'You say the Bible is not a property deed. But I say the opposite-the Bible is our mandate, the Bible is our deed'. Yitzhak Rabin at the time charged that "Bibi Netyanyahu is a Hamas collaborator . . Hamas and Likud have the same political goal.'David Whitten Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr,Understanding World Religions: A Road Map for Justice and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 2nd.ed. pp.250-1 for a comparison of similarities regarding ownership of the land in the Likud and Hamas platforms. Louise Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford University Press 2013 p.49:'The Hamas platform calls for full Muslim-Palestinian control of the Mediterranean to the Jordan River – the mirror image of Likud’s platform for Jewish control of the same land.' Padraig O'Malley The Two-State Delusion: Israel and Palestine--A Tale of Two Narratives, Penguin Books 2015 p. 26:’Israel incessantly invokes provisions of Hamas’s charter that call for the elimination of Jews and the destruction of Israel, and its refusal to recognize the state of Israel. . .Hamas also calls attention to the clauses in the Likud charter that explicitly denounce a two-state solution. A double standard, says Hamas.'Noam Chomsky, in Elliot N. Dorff, Danya Ruttenberg, Louis E Newman (eds.), Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices: War and National Security, Jewish Publication Society, 2010 pp.26-7
Decades down the line, Hamas's official position changed with regard to a two-state solution. Khaled Mashaal, its leader, has publicly affirmed the movement's readiness to accept such a division.David Whitten, Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr, Understanding World Religions: A Road Map for Justice and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p.250Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, Melbourne University Press 2012 p.231:'If Israel withdraws to the borders of 1967, it doesn't mean that it gives us back all the land of the Palestinians. But we do consider this as an acceptable solution to have a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967'. When Hamas won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Haniyeh, then president-elect, sent messages to both George Bush and Israel's leaders asking to be recognized and offering a long-term truce (hudna), along the 1967 border lines. No response was forthcoming.Dr. Lorenzo Kamel, 'Why do Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas?,' Haaretz 5 August 2014
Mousa Marzook said in 2007 that the charter could not be altered because it would look like a compromise not acceptable to the 'street' and risk fracturing the party's unity. Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has stated that the Charter is "a piece of history and no longer relevant, but cannot be changed for internal reasons".Ahmed Yousef, senior adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, added in 2011 that it reflected the views of the Elders in the face of a 'relentless occupation.' The details of its religious and political language had not been examined within the framework of international law, and an internal committee review to amend it was shelved out of concern not to offer concessions to Israel, as had Fatah, on a silver platter.Davis, p.41 While Hamas representatives recognize the problem, one official notes that Arafat got very little in return for changing the PLO Charter under the Oslo Accords, and that there is agreement that little is gained from a non-violent approach.Matthew Duss, 'Remember Gaza?,' Tablet Magazine 8 May 2015. Richard Davis says the dismissal by contemporary leaders of its relevance and yet the suspension of a desire to rewrite it reflects the differing constituencies Hamas must address, the domestic audience and international relations.Davis, p.41. The charter itself is considered an 'historical relic.'Wendy Pearlman, Violence, Nonviolence, and the Palestinian National Movement, Cambridge University Press, 2011 p.137. In March 2006, Hamas released its official legislative program. The document clearly signaled that Hamas could refer the issue of recognizing Israel to a national referendum. Under the heading "Recognition of Israel," it stated simply (AFP, 3/11/06): "The question of recognizing Israel is not the jurisdiction of one faction, nor the government, but a decision for the Palestinian people." This was a major shift away from their 1988 charter. A few months later, via University of Maryland's Jerome Segal, the group sent a letter to U.S. President George W. Bush stating they "don't mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders", and asked for direct negotiations: "Segal emphasized that a state within the 1967 borders and a truce for many years could be considered Hamas' de facto recognition of Israel."
In an April 2008 meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and former U.S. Bush stating they "don't mind having a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders", and asked for direct negotiations: "Segal emphasized that a state within the 1967 borders and a truce for many years could be considered Hamas's de facto recognition of Israel."
In an April 2008 meeting between Hamas leader Khaled Mashal and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, an understanding was reached in which Hamas agreed it would respect the creation of a Palestinian state in the territory seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, provided this were ratified by the Palestinian people in a referendum. Hamas later publicly offered a long-term truce with Israel if Israel agreed to return to its 1967 borders and grant the "right of return" to all Palestinian refugees.Al Jazeera, "Hamas ready to accept 1967 borders". Apr 22, 2008. In November 2008, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh re-stated that Hamas was willing to accept a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, and offered Israel a long-term truce "if Israel recognized the Palestinians' national rights". In 2009, in a letter to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Haniyeh repeated his group's support for a two-state settlement based on 1967 borders: "We would never thwart efforts to create an independent Palestinian state with borders [from] June 4, 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital." On December 1, 2010, Ismail Haniyeh again repeated, "We accept a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967, with Jerusalem as its capital, the release of Palestinian prisoners, and the resolution of the issue of refugees," and "Hamas will respect the results [of a referendum] regardless of whether it differs with its ideology and principles."
In February 2012, according to the Palestinian authority, Hamas forswore the use of violence. Evidence for this was provided by an eruption of violence from Islamic Jihad in March 2012 after an Israeli assassination of a Jihad leader, during which Hamas refrained from attacking Israel. "Israel—despite its mantra that because Hamas is sovereign in Gaza it is responsible for what goes on there—almost seems to understand," wrote Israeli journalists Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, "and has not bombed Hamas offices or installations". Israel has rejected some truce offers by Hamas because it contends the group uses them to prepare for more fighting rather than peace.Israel rejects Gaza ceasefire The Guardian (UK), April 25, 2008 The Atlantic magazine columnist Jeffrey Goldberg, along with other analysts, believes Hamas may be incapable of permanent reconciliation with Israel."Nizar Rayyan of Hamas on God's Hatred of Jews", The Atlantic, (January 2, 2009). Mkhaimer Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University, writes that Hamas talks "of hudna [temporary ceasefire], not of peace or reconciliation with Israel. They believe over time they will be strong enough to liberate all historic Palestine."
Charter
The Hamas Charter (or Covenant), issued in 1988, outlined the organization's position on many issues at the time. It identifies Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and declares its members to be Muslims who "fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors". The charter states "our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious" and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.The Palestinian Hamas By Shaul Mishal, Avraham Sela. Retrieved February 9, 2009. The Charter also asserts that through shrewd manipulation of imperial countries and secret societies, Zionists were behind a wide range of events and disasters going as far back in history as the French Revolution. Among the charter's controversial statements is the following: "The time will not come until Muslims will fight the Jews [and kill them]; until the Jews hide behind rocks and trees, which will cry: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!"Anti-Semitic Motifs in the Ideology of Hizballah and Hamas, Esther Webman, Project for the Study of Anti-Semitism, 1994. ISBN 978-965-222-592-4 The document also quotes Islamic religious texts to provide justification for fighting against and killing the Jews of Israel, presenting the Arab–Israeli conflict as an inherently irreconcilable struggle between Jews and Muslims, and Judaism and Islam, adding that the only way to engage in this struggle between "truth and falsehood" is through Islam and by means of jihad, until victory or martyrdom. The Charter adds that "renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion" of Islam. The charter states that Hamas is humanistic, and tolerant of other religions as long as they do not block Hamas's efforts.Article 31 of the Hamas Charter (1988) Yale Law School: The Avalon Project
Current status of the Charter
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal indicated to Robert Pastor, senior adviser to the Carter Center, that the Charter is "a piece of history and no longer relevant, but cannot be changed for internal reasons"."Mazin Qumsiyeh on the History and Practice Of Nonviolent Palestinian Resistance" Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May–June 2010, pp. 40–42 Hamas does not use the Charter on their website and prefer to use their election manifesto to put forth their agenda.Hamas drops call for destruction of Israel from manifesto The Guardian Retrieved May 28, 2011Hamas Official website Retrieved May 28, 2011 Pastor states that those who quote the charter rather than more recent Hamas statements may be using the Charter as an excuse to ignore Hamas. British diplomat and former British ambassador to the United Nations Sir Jeremy Greenstock stated in early 2009 that the Hamas charter was "drawn up by a Hamas-linked imam some [twenty] years ago and has never been adopted since Hamas was elected as the Palestinian government in 2006". Mohammed Nimer of American University comments on the Charter, "It's a tract meant to mobilize support and it should be amended.... It projects anger, not vision."Prospects for Peace Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2009, pp. 53–54 Ahmed Yousef, an adviser to Ismail Haniyeh, has questioned the use of the charter by Israel and its supporters to brand Hamas as a fundamentalist, terrorist, racist, anti-Semitic organization and claims that they have taken parts of the charter out of context for propaganda purposes. "In fact, the movement has to a certain degree moved on from (the charter's) content simply by participating in the political process, accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and publicly declaring a readiness to explore political solutions with the international community". While Hamas representatives recognize the problem, one official notes that Arafat got very little in return for changing the PLO Charter under the Oslo Accords, and that there is agreement that little is gained from a non-violent approach.Matthew Duss, 'Remember Gaza?,' Tablet Magazine 8 May 2015
The two state solution and Hamas' Charter
Hamas has opposed the two state solution as conceding the rest of Palestine in exchange for just the West Bank and Gaza. Hamas regards Palestine as an Islamic waqf, consecrated for future Muslim generations, no part of which should be yielded. The Hamas 1988 charter states that the movement’s aim is toraise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine, for under the wing of Islam followers of all religions can coexist in security and safety where their lives, possessions and rights are concerned’ (Article 6) The Palestinian Hamas: vision, violence, and coexistence Shaul Mishal, Avraham Sela]
To concede territory has been viewed by Hamas as equivalent to renouncing Islam itself.Ayala H. Emmett, Our Sisters' Promised Land: Women, Politics, and Israeli-Palestinian Coexistence, University of Michigan Press, 2003 pp.100-102. The charter also states that, 'when our enemies usurp some Islamic lands, jihad becomes a duty binding on all Muslims.Mark A. Tessler A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Indiana University Press, 1994 pp.546,696
This is frequently cited as proof that Hamas will not accept a two-state solution, and Israeli governments have refused to negotiate with Hamas on the ground that it does not acknowledge Israel’s legitimacy, though Khaled Mashaal, its leader, has publicly affirmed the movement’s readiness to accept such a division.David Whitten, Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr, Understanding World Religions: A Road Map for Justice and Peace, Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p.250Peter Beinart, The Crisis of Zionism, Melbourne University Press 2012 p.231:’If Israel withdraws to the borders of 1967, it doesn’t mean that it gives us back all the land of the Palestinians. But we do consider this as an acceptable solution to have a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967’. When Hamas won a majority in the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Haniyeh, then president-elect, sent messages to both George Bush and Israel's leaders asking to be recognized and offering a long-term truce (hudna), along the 1967 border lines. No response was forthcoming.Dr. Lorenzo Kamel, 'Why do Palestinians in Gaza support Hamas?,' Haaretz 5 August 2014
History
Early Islamic activism in Gaza
With its takeover of Gaza after the 1967 war with Egypt, Israel hunted down secular Palestinian Liberation Organization factions but dropped the previous Egyptian rulers' harsh restrictions against Islamic activists. In fact, Israel both tolerated and at times encouraged Islamic as a counterweight to the secular nationalism promoted by the PLO.Matthew Levitt, Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 24. "Scholars and historians on both sides ... agree that from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s the [Muslim] Brotherhood benefited from the Israeli government's support of non-violent Islamist Palestinian factions, believing these groups would function as a useful counterweight to the secular nationalist Palestinian groups ..."
Around 1973/4, the Muslim Brotherhood out of which Hamas grew, created a new organization, the Mujama al-Islamiya (Islamic Collective), under a charismatic leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, began to develop networks of Islamic charity (Dawah)organizations, nurseries and kindergartens, and established neighbourhood clubs for study and sports. The general aim was to develop "thinking Muslim individual" Indigent families were supplied with zakat (alms money), orphans were taken under their wing, while children were enrolled in the school system developed by the Islamic organization. Under the aegis of the Israeli Civil Administration, which approved of its legalistic and apolitical pietism, the number of mosques in Gaza doubled between 1967-1986, many coming to serve as centres where young men and women could further their education.Jean-Pierre Filiu, Gaza: A History, Oxford University Press 2014 pp.159ff.171-174,184-187. Israel recognized the Mujama al-Islamiya in 1979. Yitzhak Segev, the acting governor of Gaza in 1979, said he had no illusions about Yassin's intentions, having watched an Islamist movement topple the Shah as Israel's military attache in Iran. According to Segev, Yassin and his charity were completely peaceful towards Israel during this time, and Segev and other Israeli officials feared being viewed as an enemy of Islam. Segev maintained regular contact with Yassin, met with him around a dozen times, and arranged for Yassin to be taken to Israel for hospital treatment. Also, Segev said, Fatah was "our main enemy". Islamists frequently attacked secular and leftist Palestinian movements, including Fatah, but the Israeli military avoided getting involved in those quarrels. It stood aside, for example, when Mujama al-Islamiya activists stormed the Red Crescent charity's headquarters in Gaza, but Segev did send soldiers to prevent the burning down of the home of the head of the organization. In 1984 the Israeli army received intelligence that Sheikh Yassin's followers were collecting arms in Gaza. Israeli troops raided mosques and found a cache of weapons. Yassin was arrested, but told his interrogators the weapons were meant to be used against secular Palestinians, not Israel. The cleric was released a year later and allowed to continue to develop his movement in Gaza. Around the time of Yassin's arrest, Avner Cohen, an Israeli religious affairs official, sent a report to senior military officers and civilian leadership in Gaza advising them of the dangers of the Islamic movement, but this report and similar ones were ignored. Former military intelligence officer Shalom Harari said the warnings were ignored out of neglect, not a desire to fortify the Islamists: "Israel never financed Hamas. Israel never armed Hamas."
Establishment
In 1987, several Palestinians were killed in a traffic accident involving an Israeli driver, and the events that followed—a Palestinian uprising (now known as the First Intifada) against Israel's West Bank and Gaza occupation—led Yassin and six other Palestinians, including, Hamad al-Hasanat,Ramzy Baroud, 'The Secret History of My Geography Teacher,' CounterPunch 13–15 March 2015. to found Hamas as an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement. The new group was supported by Brotherhood-affiliated charities and social institutions that had already gained a strong foothold in the occupied territories. The acronym "Hamas" first appeared in 1987 in a leaflet that accused the Israeli intelligence services of undermining the moral fiber of Palestinian youth as part of Mossad's recruitment of what Hamas termed collaborators. Nonetheless, Israeli military and intelligence was still focused on Fatah, and continued to maintain contacts with Gaza's Islamic activists. Numerous Islamist leaders, including senior Hamas founder Mahmoud Zahar, met with Yitzhak Rabin as part of "regular consultations" between Israeli officials and Palestinians not linked to the PLO. Hamas carried out its first attack against Israel in 1989, abducting and killing two soldiers. They believe over time they will be strong enough to liberate all historic Palestine."
1990s
Hamas carried out its first attack against Israel in 1989, abducting and killing two soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces immediately arrested Yassin and sentenced him to life in prison, and deported 400 Hamas activists, including Zahar, to South Lebanon, which at the time was occupied by Israel. During this time Hamas built a relationship with Hezbollah. 1990s
Hamas's military branch, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was created in 1991.Martyrdom, Not Suicide: The Legality of Hamas' Bombings in the Mid-1990s in Modern Islamic Jurisprudence By M.A. Hamas's military branch, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was created in 1991.Martyrdom, Not Suicide: The Legality of Hamas' Bombings in the Mid-1990s in Modern Islamic Jurisprudence By M.A. Philipp Holtmann, p. 13 During the 1990s the al-Qassam Brigades conducted numerous attacks on Israel, with both civilian and military victims. In April 1993, suicide bombings in the West Bank began.For suicide attacks, sources include:
"To the outside world, Hamas is best-known—infamous—for its reliance on suicide bombers." (Palestinian territories:Inside Hamas, PBS Frontline: World, May 9, 2006)
"... the militant organization, best known abroad for its attacks against Israeli civilians ..." (Musharbash, Yassin. "Could Victory be Undoing of Hamas", Der Spiegel, January 27, 2006)
"... it was best known in Israel and abroad for the suicide attacks it used ..." ("After the Hamas earthquake", The Guardian, January 27, 2006). After the February 1994 massacre by Baruch Goldstein of 30 Muslim civilians in a Hebron mosque, the al-Qassam Brigades began suicide attacks inside Israel.Martyrdom, Not Suicide: The Legality of Hamas' Bombings in the Mid-1990s in Modern Islamic Jurisprudence By M. A. Philipp Holtmann, p. 16
In December 1992 Israel responded to the killing of a border police officer by deporting 415 leading figures of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to Lebanon, which provoked international condemnation and a unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the action."For Arabs in Israel, a house is not a home" by Edward Platt, New Statesman, August 30, 2010Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of Militants, Martyrs and Spies By Zaki Chehab, p. 115
Although the suicide attacks by the al-Qassam Brigades and other groups violated the 1993 Oslo accords (which Hamas opposedChronology for Palestinians in Israel The UN Refugee Agency, 2004), Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat was reluctant to pursue the attackers and may have had inadequate means to do so.The Palestinian People: A History By Baruch Kimmerling & Joel S. Migdal, pp. 372–373 Some analysts state that the Palestinian Authority could have stopped the suicide and other attacks on civilians but refused to do so.Karsh, Efraim. Arafat's War: The Man and His Battle for Israeli Conquest. New York: Grove Press, 2003. p. 216. According to the Congressional Research Service, Hamas admitted to having executed Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israeli authorities in the 1990s. A transcript of a training film by the al-Qassam Brigades tells how Hamas operatives kidnapped Palestinians accused of collaboration and then forced confessions before executing them. In 1996, Yahya Ayash, the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was assassinated by the Israeli secret service.Katz, Samuel. The Hunt for the Engineer. Lyons Press, 2002. ISBN 1-58574-749-1, p. 256
In September 1997, Israeli agents in Jordan attempted but failed to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, leading to chilled relations between the two countries and release of Sheikh Yassin, Hamas's spiritual leader, from Israeli prison. Two years later Hamas was banned in Jordan, reportedly in part at the request of the United States, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority."Jordan curbs Hamas", The Guardian, November 22, 1999 Jordan's King Abdullah feared the activities of Hamas and its Jordanian allies would jeopardize peace negotiations with Israel, and accused Hamas of engaging in illegitimate activities within Jordan."Hamas Leader Khaled Mashaal" Time, January 4, 2009Jordan: Whether Hamas persecute, kidnap, torture or abuse with impunity Jordanian citizens who disagree with its methods, policies and ideology Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, October 25, 2000, JOR35666.E, accessed September 28, 2010 In mid-September 1999, authorities arrested Hamas leaders Khaled Mashal and Ibrahim Ghosheh on their return from a visit to Iran, and charged them with being members of an illegal organization, storing weapons, conducting military exercises, and using Jordan as a training base.Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, by Matthew Levitt. Yale University Press, 2007. p. 45 Hamas leaders denied the charges. Mashal was exiled and eventually settled in Syria. He fled to Qatar in 2012 as a result of the Syrian civil war. Second Intifada
left|thumb|300px|August 2001 Sbarro pizza restaurant bombing in Jerusalem, in which 15 Israeli civilians were killed. Hamas said the attack was in response to Israel's assassination of its officials, including two senior leaders.Who carried out suicide bombing? The Guardian, August 10, 2001
Al-Qassam Brigades militants were among the armed groups that launched both military-style attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets during the Second Intifada (also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada (, Intifāat El Aqa; , Intifādat El-Aqtzah), which began in late September 2000. Second Intifada
Al-Qassam Brigades militants were among the armed groups that launched both military-style attacks and suicide bombings against Israeli civilian and military targets during the Second Intifada (also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada (, Intifāat El Aqa; , Intifādat El-Aqtzah), which began in late September 2000. This Palestinian uprising against Israeli rule in the occupied territories was much more violent than the First Intifada. The military and civilian death toll is estimated at 5500 Palestinians and more than 1100 Israelis, as well as 64 foreigners.B'Tselem – Statistics – Fatalities, B'Tselem. A 2007 study of Palestinian suicide bombings during the second intifada (September 2000 through August 2005) found that about 40 percent were carried out by the al-Qassam Brigades."Human Capital and the Productivity of Suicide Bombers" Journal of Economic Perspectives Volume 21, Number 3, Summer 2007. A 2007 study of Palestinian suicide bombings during the second intifada (September 2000 through August 2005) found that about 40 percent were carried out by the al-Qassam Brigades."Human Capital and the Productivity of Suicide Bombers" Journal of Economic Perspectives Volume 21, Number 3, Summer 2007. Pages 223–238
The immediate trigger for the uprising is disputed, but a more general cause, writes U.S. political science professor Jeremy Pressman, was "popular Palestinian discontent [that] grew during the Oslo peace process because the reality on the ground did not match the expectations created by the peace agreements"."The Second Intifada: Background and Causes of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict" Jeremy Pressman, Fall 2003 (pdf) Hamas would be the beneficiary of this growing discontent in the 2006 Palestinian Authority legislative elections. In January 2004, Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin said that the group would end armed resistance against Israel in exchange for a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and east Jerusalem, and that restoring Palestinians' "historical rights" (relating to the 1948 Palestinian exodus) "would be left for future generations".Running out of time Al-Ahram Weekly January 29 – February 4, 2004 On January 25, 2004, senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi offered a 10-year truce, or hudna, in return for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the complete withdrawal by Israel from the territories captured in the 1967 Six Day War. Al-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"."Israel rejects 'insincere' Hamas offer of 10-year truce" The Independent January 27, 2004 Israel immediately dismissed al-Rantissi's statements as insincere and a smokescreen for military preparations. Yassin was assassinated on March 22, 2004, by a targeted Israeli air strike,Fury as Gaza buries Hamas leader BBC News April 19, 2004 and al-Rantisi was assassinated by a similar air strike on April 18, 2004.Hamas chief killed in air strike BBC News March 22, 2004
2006 presidential and legislative elections
While Hamas boycotted the 2005 Palestinian presidential election, it did participate in the 2005 municipal elections organized by Yasser Arafat in the occupied territories. In those elections it won control of over one third of Palestinian municipal councils, besting Fatah, which had for long been the biggest force in Palestinian politics. In its election manifesto for the 2006 Palestinian legislative election, Hamas omitted a call for an end to Israel, though it did still call for armed struggle against the occupation. Hamas won the 2006 elections, winning 76 of the 132 seats to Fatah's 43.Hamas Routs Ruling Faction, Casting Pall on Peace Process, The New York Times, January 27, 2006 Seen by many as primarily a rejection of the Fatah government's corruption and ineffectiveness, the Hamas victory seemingly had brought to an end 40 years of PLO domination of Palestinian politics.Kristen Ess. "Why Hamas Won" ZNet. Palestine, January 31, 2006. In early February 2006, Hamas offered Israel a 10-year truce "in return for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories: the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem," and recognition of Palestinian rights including the "right of return".Peace with Israel for withdrawal to '67 borders, Ynetnews March 3, 2006 Mashal added that Hamas was not calling for a final end to armed operations against Israel, and it would not impede other Palestinian groups from carrying out such operations. After the election, the Quartet on the Middle East (the United States, Russia, the European Union (EU), and the United Nations) stated that assistance to the Palestinian Authority would only continue if Hamas renounced violence, recognized Israel, and accepted previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements, which Hamas refused to do. The Quartet then imposed a freeze on all international aid to the Palestinian territories.Palestinian sanctions to remain BBC, March 20, 2007
In 2006 after the Gaza election, Hamas leader sent a letter addressed to George W. Bush where he among other things declared that Hamas would accept a state on the 1967 borders including a truce. However, the Bush administration did not reply. Electoral Platform for Change and Reform
The Change and Reform List adopts a set of principles stemming from the Islamic tradition that we embrace. We see these principles as agreed upon not only by our Palestinian people, but also by our Arab and Islamic nation as a whole. These principles are:
True Islam with its civilized achievements and political, economic, social, and legal aspects is our frame of reference and our way of life. Historic Palestine is part of the Arab and Islamic land and its ownership by the Palestinian people is a right that does not diminish over time. No military or legal measures will change that right. The Palestinian people, wherever they reside, constitute a single and united people and form an integral part of the Arab and Muslim nation ... [Quranic verse]. Our Palestinian people are still living a phase of national liberation, and thus they have the right to strive to recover their own rights and end the occupation using all means, including armed struggle. We have to make all our resources available to support our people and defeat the occupation and establish a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. The right of return of all Palestinian refugees and displaced persons to their land and properties, and the right to self-determination and all other national rights, are inalienable and cannot be bargained away for any political concessions. We uphold the indigenous and inalienable rights of our people to our land, Jerusalem, our holy places, our water resources, borders, and a fully sovereign independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital. Reinforcing and protecting Palestinian national unity is one of the priorities of the Palestinian national action. The issue of the prisoners is at the top of the Palestinian agenda. Legislative policy and reforming the judiciary. "stress the separation between the three powers, the legislative, executive and judicial; activate the role of the Constitutional Court; re-form the Judicial Supreme Council and choose its members by elections and on the basis of qualifications rather than partisan, personal, and social considerations ... ; enact the necessary laws that guarantee the neutrality of general prosecutor ... [and] laws that will stop any transgression by the executive power on the constitution". Public freedoms and citizen rights. "Achieve equality before the law among citizens in rights and duties; bring security to all citizens and protect their properties and assure their safety against arbitrary arrest, torture, or revenge; stress the culture of dialogue ... ; support the press and media institutions and maintain the right of journalists to access and to publish information; maintain freedom and independence of professional syndicates and preserve the rights of their membership". Hamas–Fatah conflict
thumb|Hamas rally in BethlehemAfter the formation of the Hamas-led cabinet on March 20, 2006, tensions between Fatah and Hamas militants progressively rose in the Gaza strip as Fatah commanders refused to take orders from the government while the Palestinian Authority initiated a campaign of demonstrations, assassinations and abductions against Hamas, which led to Hamas responding. Israeli intelligence warned Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas had planned to kill him at his office in Gaza. According to a Palestinian source close to Abbas, Hamas considers president Abbas to be a barrier to its complete control over the Palestinian Authority and decided to kill him. In a statement to Al Jazeera, Hamas leader Mohammed Nazzal, accused Abbas of being party to besieging and isolating the Hamas-led government.Mahnaimi, Uzi. "Israel foils plot to kill Palestinian president", The Sunday Times, May 7, 2006
On June 9, 2006, during an Israeli artillery operation, an explosion occurred on a busy Gaza beach, killing eight Palestinian civilians. It was assumed that Israeli shellings were responsible for the killings, but Israeli government officials denied this. Hamas formally withdrew from its 16-month ceasefire on June 10, taking responsibility for the subsequent Qassam rocket attacks launched from Gaza into Israel. On June 25, two Israeli soldiers were killed and another, Gilad Shalit, captured following an incursion by the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Popular Resistance Committees and Army of Islam. In response, the Israeli military launched Operation Summer Rains three days later, to secure the release of the kidnapped soldier,"Operation Summer Rains", GlobalSecurity.org arresting 64 Hamas officials. Among them were 8 Palestinian Authority cabinet ministers and up to 20 members of the Palestinian Legislative Council, The arrests, along with other events, effectively prevented the Hamas-dominated legislature from functioning during most of its term. Shalit was held captive until 2011, when he was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners. Since then, Hamas has continued building a network of internal and cross-border tunnels,Inside the tunnels Hamas built: Israel's struggle against new tactic in Gaza war. The Guardian which are used to store and deploy weapons, shield militants, and facilitate cross-border attacks. Destroying the tunnels was a primary objective of Israeli forces in the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. On February 2007 Saudi-sponsored negotiations in Mecca produced agreement on a signed by Mahmoud Abbas on behalf of Fatah and Khaled Mashal on behalf of Hamas. The new government was called on to achieve Palestinian national goals as approved by the Palestine National Council, the clauses of the Basic Law and the National Reconciliation Document (the "Prisoners' Document") as well as the decisions of the Arab summit. In March 2007, the Palestinian Legislative Council established a national unity government, with 83 representatives voting in favor and three against. Government ministers were sworn in by Mahmoud Abbas, the chairman of the Palestinian Authority, at a ceremony held simultaneously in Gaza and Ramallah. In June that year, renewed fighting broke out between Hamas and Fatah. In the course of the June 2007 Battle of Gaza, Hamas exploited the near total collapse of Palestinian Authority forces in Gaza, to seizeThe "Gaza War". (PDF) . Retrieved on 2010-08-21. control of Gaza, ousting Fatah officials. President Mahmoud Abbas then dismissed the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government. and outlawed the Hamas militia. At least 600 Palestinians died in fighting between Hamas and Fatah. Human Rights Watch, a U.S.-based group, accused both sides in the conflict of torture and war crimes."Fatah supporters surrender to Hamas" The Guardian (UK), June 13, 2007
Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred Gazans were "maimed" and tortured in the aftermath of the Gaza War. 73 Gazan men accused of "collaborating" had their arms and legs broken by "unidentified perpetrators" and 18 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel, who had escaped from Gaza's main prison compound after Israel bombed the facility, were executed by Hamas security officials in the first days of the conflict.Under Cover of War|Human Rights Watch. Human Rights Watch (2009-04-20). Retrieved on 2010-08-21.B'Tselem – Violations of the human rights of Palestinians by Palestinians – Severe human rights violations in inter-Palestinian clashes. Btselem.org (2007-11-12). Retrieved on 2010-08-21. Hamas security forces attacked hundreds Fatah officials who supported Israel. Human Rights Watch interviewed one such person:
In March 2012 Mahmoud Abbas stated that there were no political differences between Hamas and Fatah as they had reached agreement on a joint political platform and on a truce with Israel. Commenting on relations with Hamas, Abbas revealed in an interview with Al Jazeera that "We agreed that the period of calm would be not only in the Gaza Strip, but also in the West Bank," adding that "We also agreed on a peaceful popular resistance [against Israel], the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders and that the peace talks would continue if Israel halted settlement construction and accepted our conditions."
Progress has stalled, until an April 2014 agreement to form a compromise unity government, with elections to be held in late 2014. 2008-09 Gaza War
On June 17, 2008, Egyptian mediators announced that an informal truce had been agreed to between Hamas and Israel. Hamas agreed to cease rocket attacks on Israel, while Israel agreed to allow limited commercial shipping across its border with Gaza, barring any breakdown of the tentative peace deal; Hamas also hinted that it would discuss the release of Gilad Shalit. Israeli sources state that Hamas also committed itself to enforce the ceasefire on the other Palestinian organizations. Even before the truce was agreed to, some on the Israeli side were not optimistic about it, Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin stating in May 2008 that a ground incursion into Gaza was unavoidable and would more effectively quell arms smuggling and pressure Hamas into relinquishing power."US embassy cables: US talks to Israeli security chief about Arabs and Gaza" The Guardian (UK), April 7, 2011 'Diskin said that Israel does not like the tahdiya—seeing it as a means whereby Hamas and other groups can regroup and re-arm—but also dislikes the current situation. The ISA, he said, believes that the best option now is a large-scale ground incursion into the Gaza Strip that allows the IDF to take over the southern part of the Gaza Strip and to stop smuggling and increase pressure on Hamas. "If you do this, it will cause big problems for Hamas' survival in the Gaza Strip," he said.'
While Hamas was careful to maintain the ceasefire, the lull was sporadically violated by other groups, sometimes in defiance of Hamas."Hamas arrests militants after rocket fire" Reuters. July 10, 2008 For example, on June 24 Islamic Jihad launched rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot; Israel called the attack a grave violation of the informal truce, and closed its border crossings with Gaza."Israel closes Gaza after rockets" BBC, June 25, 2008 On November 4, 2008, Israeli forces, in an attempt to stop construction of a tunnel, killed six Hamas gunmen in a raid inside the Gaza Strip."Gaza truce broken as Israeli raid kills six Hamas gunmen", The Guardian, November 5, 2008.Why Israel went to war in Gaza, The Guardian, January 4, 2008. Hamas responded by resuming rocket attacks, a total of 190 rockets in November according to Israel's military. left|thumb|Damage to a Beersheba kindergarten from a Grad rocket fired from Gaza
With the six-month truce officially expired on December 19, Hamas launched 50 to more than 70 rockets and mortars into Israel over the next three days, though no Israelis were injured. On December 21, Hamas said it was ready to stop the attacks and renew the truce if Israel stopped its "aggression" in Gaza and opened up its border crossings."Why Israel Attacked" Time magazine – December 27, 2008
On December 27 and 28, Israel implemented Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said "We warned Hamas repeatedly that rejecting the truce would push Israel to aggression against Gaza." According to Palestinian officials, over 280 people were killed and 600 were injured in the first two days of airstrikes.Civilian death toll rises after second day of air strikes The Guardian (UK), December 29, 2008 Most were Hamas police and security officers, though many civilians also died. According to Israel, militant training camps, rocket-manufacturing facilities and weapons warehouses that had been pre-identified were hit, and later they attacked rocket and mortar squads who fired around 180 rockets and mortars at Israeli communities.Israeli airstrikes in Gaza kill more than 200 msnbc.com, December 28, 2008 Chief of Gaza police force Tawfiq Jabber, head of the General Security Service Salah Abu Shrakh,IAF kills Hamas strongman Siam – Confronting Hamas, The Jerusalem Post senior religious authority and security officer Nizar Rayyan, and Interior Minister Said Seyam were among those killed during the fighting. Although Israel sent out thousands of cell-phone messages urging residents of Gaza to leave houses where weapons may be stored, in an attempt to minimise civilian casualties, some residents complained there was nowhere to go because many neighborhoods had received the same message."Warnings Not Enough for Gaza Families" The New York Times, January 5, 2009"Israel Deepens Gaza Incursion as Toll Mounts" The New York Times, January 5, 2009 Israeli bombs landed close to civilian structures such as schools, and some alleged that Israel was deliberately targeting Palestinian civilians."Israel accused of war crimes over 12-hour assault on Gaza village" The Guardian January 18, 2009
Israel declared a unilateral ceasefire on January 17, 2009. Hamas responded the following day by announcing a one-week ceasefire to give Israel time to withdraw its forces from the Gaza Strip. Israeli, Palestinian, and third-party sources disagreed on the total casualty figures from the Gaza war, and the number of Palestinian casualties who were civilians.Hamas releases second response to Goldstone Report Palestine Note, July 28, 2010 "... approximately 1,400 Palestinians were killed according to the Hamas government and the Palestinian Center for Human Rights. The Israeli army puts the number at 1,166." In November 2010, a senior Hamas official acknowledged that up to 300 fighters were killed and "In addition to them, between 200 and 300 fighters from the Al-Qassam Brigades and another 150 security forces were martyred." These new numbers reconcile the total with those of the Israeli military, which originally said were 709 "terror operatives" killed. After the Gaza War
On August 16, 2009, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal stated that the organization is ready to open dialogue with the Obama administration because its policies are much better than those of former U.S. president George W. Bush: "As long as there's a new language, we welcome it, but we want to see not only a change of language, but also a change of policies on the ground. We have said that we are prepared to cooperate with the US or any other international party that would enable the Palestinians to get rid of occupation." Despite this, an August 30, 2009 speech during a visit to JordanSpeech of Khaled Meshaal August 30, 2009 (rough automated translation from Arabic) in which Mashal expressed support for the Palestinian right of return was interpreted by David Pollock of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy as a sign that "Hamas has now clearly opted out of diplomacy."Pollock, David. "Rejectionists Readying to Counter U.S. Peace Push". Washington Institute for Near East Policy. September 1, 2009. In an interview on May 2010, Mashal said that if a Palestinian state with real sovereignty was established under the conditions he set out, on the borders of 1967 with its capital Jerusalem and with the right of return, that will be the end of the Palestinian resistance, and then the nature of any subsequent ties with Israel would be decided democratically by the Palestinians.Video interview of Khaled Meshal by Charlie Rose, May 28, 2010 Click on small "transcript" link at top of comments section to view transcript; scroll up to view video.Hamas renews offer to end fight if Israel withdraws Reuters, May 30, 2010. In July 2009, Khaled Mashal, Hamas's political bureau chief, stated Hamas's willingness to cooperate with a resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which included a Palestinian state based on 1967 borders, provided that Palestinian refugees be given the right to return to Israel and that East Jerusalem be recognized as the new state's capital. In 2011, after the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War, Hamas distanced itself from the Syrian regime and its members began leaving Syria. Where once there were "hundreds of exiled Palestinian officials and their relatives", that number shrunk to "a few dozen".Post-Assad Syria would drop special Iran ties| Reuters |December 3, 2011 In 2012, Hamas publicly announced its support for the Syrian opposition."Hamas ditches Assad, backs Syrian revolt". Reuters. 24 February 2012. This prompted Syrian state TV to issue a "withering attack" on the Hamas leadership."Syria Berates Hamas Chief, an Old Ally, on State TV". The New York Times, October 2, 2012. Khaled Mashal said that Hamas had been "forced out" of Damascus because of its disagreements with the Syrian regime."Hamas and Fatah in unity talks, says Khaled Meshaal". BBC News, February 7, 2013. In late October, Syrian Army soldiers shot dead two Hamas leaders in Daraa refugee camp."2 Hamas leaders killed in Syria, sources say". Ma'an News Agency, October 29, 2012. On November 5, 2012, the Syrian state security forces shut down all Hamas offices in the country."Syria Shuts Down Hamas Offices". Arutz Sheva, November 6, 2012. In January 2013, another two Hamas members were found dead in Syria's Husseinieh camp. Activists said the two had been arrested and executed by state security forces."NGO accuses Damascus of killing two Hamas members in Syria". Al-Ahram Online, January 9, 2013. In 2013, it was reported that the military wing of Hamas had begun training units of the Free Syrian Army. In 2013, after "several intense weeks of indirect three-way diplomacy between representatives of Hamas, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority", no agreement was reached. Also, intra-Palestinian reconciliation talks stalled and, as a result, during Obama's visit to Israel, Hamas launched five rocket strikes on Israel. In November, Isra Almodallal was appointed the first spokeswoman of the group. 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict
On 8 July 2014 Israel launched Operation Protective Edge to counter increased Hamas rocket fire from Gaza. The conflict ended with a permanent cease-fire after 7 weeks, and more than 2,200 dead. 64 of the dead were Israeli soldiers, 7 were civilians in Israel (from rocket attacks), and 2,101 were killed in Gaza, of which according to UN OCHA at least 1,460 were civilians. Israel says 1,000 of the dead were militants. Following the conflict, Mahmoud Abbas president of the Palestinian Authority, accused Hamas of needlessly extending the fighting in the Gaza Strip, contributing to the high death toll, of running a "shadow government" in Gaza, and of illegally executing scores of Palestinians.Palestinian Leader Assails Hamas, Calling Unity Pact Into Question. By JODI RUDORENSEPT. August 7, 2014. New York Times.Abbas blames Hamas for prolonged battle with Israel. AP AND AVI ISSACHAROFF August 29, 2014Abbas hints PA close to ending unity agreement with Hamas. By KHALED ABU TOAMEH. September 7, 2014
Hamas has complained about the slow delivery of reconstruction materials after the conflict and announced that they were diverting these materials from civilian uses to build more infiltration tunnels. Funding
the Council on Foreign Relations estimates Hamas's annual budget at $70 million. In the early 2000s, the largest backer of Hamas was Saudi Arabia, with over 50% of its funds coming from that country,Flow of Saudis' Cash to Hamas Is Scrutinized The New York Times mainly through Islamic charity organizations. An earlier estimate by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimated a $50 million annual budget, mostly supplied by private charitable associations but with $12 million supplied directly by Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia, and a further $3 million from Iran. In 2002, a Saudi Arabian charity, the Saudi Council to Support the Palestinian Intefada run by then Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef Bin Abdul Aziz stated the council will give the families of 102 Hamas militants killed, including eight suicide bombers, $5,340 each.http://eufunding.org.uk/terror/FundingEvil.pdfIPR Strategic Business Information Database. Saudi Arabia: charity to support al Aqsa uprising. February 2, 2002
The Saudi owned al-Taqwa Bank has been identified as a holder of money for Hamas since 1997. Jamie C. Zarate, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury Department, told Congress that $60 million was moved to Hamas accounts with Al Taqwa bank. The Al Taqwa bank has also been used to launder funds for Al Qaeda.Matthew A. Levitt, testimony before the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, "Role of Charities and NGOs in Terrorist Financing," August 1, 2002.The Financial Sources of the Hamas Terror Organization – July 2003 Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Israel)Hamas Funding GlobalSecurity.org The funding by Saudi Arabia continued despite Saudi pledges to stop funding groups such as Hamas that have used violence, and its recent denouncements of Hamas' lack of unity with Fatah. According to the U.S. State Department, Hamas is funded by Iran, Palestinian expatriates, and "private benefactors in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states". Saudi spokesman Adel Al Jubeir said, "no Saudi government money goes to Hamas, directly or indirectly." He added that it "very likely" that "some Saudi individuals" have provided financial support to Hamas. In 2004, reports citing unidentified U.S. and Israeli intelligence officials indicated that Saudi funding for Hamas had been curtailed and replaced by other regional sponsors. In June 2004 testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, former Treasury Department General Counsel David Aufhauser quoted "informed intelligence sources" as saying, "for whatever reason, the money going to Hamas from Saudi Arabia has substantially dried up." Aufhauser indicated that Saudi financial support "has been supplemented by money from Iran and Syria flowing through even more dangerous rejectionist groups in the West Bank". Similarly, Israeli daily Maariv quoted in 2004 an unidentified Israeli military official as saying that "for the first time in years the Saudis have begun to reduce the flow of funds to Hamas and to the Gaza Strip." This source attributes this change largely to U.S. pressure on Saudi Arabia to stem the flow of funding to Hamas and terrorist organizations. According to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), another reported funding source for Hamas is through the 21,000 Arabs of Palestinian and Lebanese descent who live in the Foz do Iguaçu area of the tri-border region of Latin America. According to Paraguayan Interior Minister Julio César Fanego, they have donated "something between $50 and $500 million" to 16 Arab extremist groups between 1999 and 2001, in amounts ranging from $500 to $2,000.A Global Overview Of Narcotics-Funded Terrorist And Other Extremist Groups, May 2002, Library of Congress – Federal Research DivisionTestimony of Victor Comras to the U.S. House Subcommittee on Financial Oversight and Investigations, hearings on Current and Evolving Trends in Terrorism Financing. September 28, 2010. In the late 1980s, 10% of all Hamas funding came from the Islamic Republic of Iran. Later, from 1993 to 2006, Iran provided Hamas with approximately US$30 million annually. More recent assessments indicate that Iranian funding has increased significantly between 2006 and 2009, to hundreds of millions of Euros per year. After 2009, sanctions on Iran made funding difficult, forcing Hamas instead to rely on religious donations by individuals in the West Bank, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia.The Iran-Hamas Alliance, In Focus Quarterly, by Meyrav Wurmser, Fall 2007Hamas receives blow to wallet, Intelligence Online, April 22, 2010. Since June 2011, funding from the Islamic Republic of Iran has been cut to show "displeasure at Hamas's failure to hold public rallies in support of President [Bashar al-] Assad" during the Syrian Civil War, and funding from the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt has been cut so the Muslim Brotherhood can diverts funds "to support Arab Spring revolts". The shortages have meant that Gaza's 40,000 civil service and security employees were not paid July 2011. Hamas-linked charities in 2010 invested heavily in Gaza business ventures, with the condition that much of revenue stream from those ventures go to Hamas-linked charitable purposes in Gaza."Hamas commercial ventures thrive in Gaza's besieged economy," Mai Yaghi, Agence France Presse (AFP), July 26, 2010, Daily Star. Generally, Hamas and its members have increasingly dominated the Gaza economy, in particular since the 2006 Israel-led blockade of Gaza and Gaza elections."As the Israeli blockade eases, Gaza goes shopping", Donald Macintyre, July 26, 2010, The Independent."New Gaza Leisure Projects Focus on Fun Not Hardship" August 2, 2010, Reuters, The New York Times. Gaza domestic funding
Hamas approved a 540-million-dollar government budget for 2010 with up to 90% coming from "undisclosed" foreign aid, which includes funding from Iran and Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood according to western intelligence agencies. Due to the Gaza blockade, Hamas still faces a financial crisis. With a bureaucracy of around 30,000 staff, the organisation is growing faster than can be handled, with salaries being delayed or prioritised for the lowest paid. To fund its budget, Hamas has raised new taxes on businesses and imposed a 14.5% tax on luxury goods smuggled through the tunnels. Gaza businessmen have accused Hamas of profiting from the blockade and using these taxes to buy large tracts of land and private buildings for public facilities in competition to established businesses.Iran punishes Hamas for not backing Assad| August 23, 2011Hamas imposes new Gaza taxes to pay for burgeoning bureaucracy, The Guardian, by Rory McCarthy. In August 2011, the U.S State Department threatened to cut 100 million dollars in aid it sends to the Gaza Strip if Hamas continues to insist upon auditing American foreign aid organizations after Hamas suspended operations of the International Medical Corps following the group's refusal to submit to an on-site audit. Most foreign charities submit their own audits to the Interior Ministry in Ramallah. Charities must be audited by law, possibly to ensure money is not diverted for political or intelligence-gathering purposes but as the U.S. government forbids direct contact with Hamas, the action prompted Washington to issue the threat via a third party. Aid provided by American and other foreign groups goes to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza, where most of the 1.6 million residents are refugees. A U.S. official based in the region said "USAID-funded partner organizations operating in Gaza are forced by Hamas's actions to suspend their assistance work. (They) were put on hold effective August 12." According to the official, Hamas demanded access to files and records of NGOs, which would reveal financial and administrative information, details of staff members and information on beneficiaries. He said Hamas shut down IMC and USAID after the U.S. objected to "unwarranted audits". Hamas administration official Taher al-Nono said Hamas had a right to monitor their work in the territory but an understanding had been reached that would allow independent auditing teams to inspect the files of NGOs. A day after the U.S. announced it was suspending financial aid to Gaza, Hamas officials said they had reached an agreement with the United States that would allow USAID to continue operations. In August 2011, the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip imposed new travel restrictions on Palestinians active in non-governmental organizations by requiring them to provide details of the trip to the ministry in what the Palestinian NGO Network regards as another Hamas attempt to control and hamper them. The Palestinian Center for Human Rights condemned the new laws. Tharut al Bic, head of the interior ministry's NGO department, stated, "the new instructions are intended to make it easier for travellers to better organize their trip and to preserve order." Hamas requires sick people wishing to leave the Gaza Strip to submit applications and meet various conditions, in addition to restrictions Israel imposes on Palestinians leaving Gaza. In 2014 Fatah accused Hamas of stealing a total of $700 million from aid directed at Gaza Strip reconstruction and civilian casualties of the conflict. In the beginning of October Hamas soldiers raided one of the branches of Bank of Palestine and seized $750'000 in cash. A number of Fatah activists also accused Fatah leadership of organized theft of aid resources. Media
In 2005, Hamas announced its intention to launch an experimental TV channel, Al-Aqsa TV. The station was launched on January 7, 2006, less than three weeks before the Palestinian legislative elections. It has shown television programs, including some children's television, which deliver anti-semitic messages. Hamas has stated that the television station is "an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement," and that Hamas does not hold anti-semitic views.Hamas Condemns the Holocaust The Guardian May 12, 2008
Hamas produced several propaganda songs aimed to scare Israeli citizen including Shock Israel's Security and "Go, call a Gazan to rip Giv'ati". Islamization efforts
In the Gaza Strip
From 1987 to 1991, during the first intifada, Hamas campaigned for the wearing of the hijab alongside other measures, including insisting women stay at home and be segregated from men, and the promotion of polygamy. In the course of this campaign, women who chose not to wear the hijab were verbally and physically harassed, with the result that the hijab was being worn 'just to avoid problems on the streets'.Rubenberg, C., Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank (USA, 2001) pp. 230–231
Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, some of its members have attempted to impose Islamic dress or the hijab head covering on women.Hamas Fights Over Gaza's Islamist Identity The New York Times, September 5, 2009 Also, the government's "Islamic Endowment Ministry" has deployed Virtue Committee members to warn citizens of the dangers of immodest dress, card playing, and dating.Hamas Bans Women Dancers, Scooter Riders in Gaza Push By Daniel Williams, Bloomberg, November 30, 2009 However, there are no government laws imposing dress and other moral standards, and the Hamas education ministry reversed one effort to impose Islamic dress on students. Islamization efforts
In the Gaza Strip
The gender ideology outlined in the Hamas charter, the importance of women in the religious-nationalist project of liberation is asserted, while defining that role as one of manufacturing males and caring for their upbringing and rearing. This is not too different from Fatah's view of women in the First Intifada and resembles also Jewish settlers' outlook, and over time has be subject to change.Shitrit, pp.73-4.Phillips, p.81. In 1989, during the first intifada, a small number of Hamas followersShitrit p.74. campaigned for the wearing of the hijab, which is not a part of traditional women's attire in Palestine,Gerber p.27. for polygamy, and also insisted women stay at home and be segregated from men. In the course of this campaign, women who chose not to wear the hijab were verbally and physically harassed, with the result that the hijab was being worn 'just to avoid problems on the streets'.Cheryl Rubenberg, Palestinian Women: Patriarchy and Resistance in the West Bank, Lynne Reinner 2001 pp. 230–231 The harassment dropped drastically when, after 18 months UNLU condemned it,Deborah J. Gerner, 'Mobilizing Women for Nationalist Agendas,' in Valentine M. Moghadam (ed.), From Patriarchy to Empowerment: Women's Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia Syracuse University Press, 2007 pp.17-39 p.27. though similar campaigns reoccurred. Since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007, some of its members have attempted to impose Islamic dress or the hijab head covering on women.Hamas Fights Over Gaza's Islamist Identity The New York Times, September 5, 2009 Also, the government's "Islamic Endowment Ministry" has deployed Virtue Committee members to warn citizens of the dangers of immodest dress, card playing, and dating.Hamas Bans Women Dancers, Scooter Riders in Gaza Push By Daniel Williams, Bloomberg, November 30, 2009 However, there are no government laws imposing dress and other moral standards, and the Hamas education ministry reversed one effort to impose Islamic dress on students. There has also been successful resistance to attempts by local Hamas officials to impose Islamic dress on women.Hamas patrols beaches in Gaza to enforce conservative dress code The Guardian (UK), October 18, 2009
Hamas officials deny having any plans to impose Islamic law, one legislator stating that "What you are seeing are incidents, not policy," and that Islamic law is the desired standard "but we believe in persuasion". The Hamas education ministry reversed one effort to impose Islamic dress on students. When the BBC in 2010 interviewed five "middle-class" women in Gaza City, the subjects generally indicated Hamas attempts to enforce conservative religious standards of dress had been largely rejected by the local population, with some expressing concern that the closure of Gaza would allow the proliferation of extremist enforcement attempts by low-level Hamas officials, and others indicating they were happy to see Hamas enforcing such requirements. They also cited examples of leniency by Hamas authorities, such as allowing widowed women to keep custody of their children so long as they did not remarry, and other relaxations in the enforcement of Shariah law. One woman noted that the environment was "not as bad" as during the First Intifada, when women were subject to public criticism and stonings for failure to obey conservative Islamic standards of dress. One woman complained that women were not free to speak their minds or travel alone, and added: "Hamas want to force themselves onto the people. They want the people to submit to them, this is their cover. They destroyed the reputation of Islam, by saying we're doing this because it is religion. This is how they won the elections."
In 2013, UNRWA canceled its annual marathon in Gaza after Hamas rulers prohibited women from participating in the race. In the West Bank
In 2005, the human rights organization Freemuse released a report titled "Palestine: Taliban-like attempts to censor music", which said that Palestinian musicians feared that harsh religious laws against music and concerts will be imposed since Hamas group scored political gains in the Palestinian Authority local elections of 2005. The attempt by Hamas to dictate a cultural code of conduct in the 1980s and early 1990s led to a violent fighting between different Palestinian sectors. Hamas members reportedly burned down stores that stocked videos they deemed indecent and destroyed books they described as "heretical". In 2005, an outdoor music and dance performance in Qalqiliya were suddenly banned by the Hamas led municipality, for the reason that such an event would be forbidden by Islam, or "Haram"."Battling over the public sphere: Islamic reactions to the music of today". Jonas Otterbeck. Contemporary Islam. Volume 2, Number 3, 211–228, . "... the over-all argument was that the event was haram" The municipality also ordered that music no longer be played in the Qalqiliya zoo, and mufti Akrameh Sabri issued a religious edict affirming the municipality decision. In response, the Palestinian national poet Mahmoud Darwish warned that "There are Taliban-type elements in our society, and this is a very dangerous sign.""Palestinians Debate Whether Future State Will be Theocracy or Democracy". Associated Press, July 13, 2005.Gaza Taliban? by Editorial Staff, The New Humanist, Volume 121 Issue 1, January/February 2006
The Palestinian columnist Mohammed Abd Al-Hamid, a resident of Ramallah, wrote that this religious coercion could cause the migration of artists, and said "The religious fanatics in Algeria destroyed every cultural symbol, shattered statues and rare works of art and liquidated intellectuals and artists, reporters and authors, ballet dancers and singers – are we going to imitate the Algerian and Afghani examples?"Afghanistan in Palestine, by Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz, July 26, 2005
Tayyip Erdoğan's Turkey as a role model
Some Hamas members stated that the model of Islamic government that Hamas seeks to emulate is that of Turkey under the rule of Tayyip Erdoğan. The foremost members to distance Hamas from the practices of Taliban and to publicly support the Erdoğan model were Ahmad Yousef and Ghazi Hamad, advisers to Prime Minister Hanieh.Hamas Rule in Gaza: Three Years On, Yezid Sayigh, Crown Center for Middle East studies, March 2010See also: Letter from Gaza, Hamas's tunnel diplomacy, By Thanassis Cambanis, June 18, 2010. Foreign Affairs. "They want to know if we are more like the Taliban or Erdogan. They will see that we are closer to Erdogan." Yusuf, the Hamas deputy foreign minister, reflected this goal in an interview to a Turkish newspaper, stating that while foreign public opinion equates Hamas with the Taliban or al-Qaeda, the analogy is inaccurate. Yusuf described the Taliban as "opposed to everything," including education and women's rights, while Hamas wants to establish good relations between the religious and secular elements of society and strives for human rights, democracy and an open society.Hamas: 'We want Erdoğan's model, not Taliban's'. Cansu Çamlibel, The Daily Hurriyet. June 10, 2010 According to professor Yezid Sayigh of the King's College in London, how influential this view is within Hamas is uncertain, since both Ahmad Yousef and Ghazi Hamad were dismissed from their posts as advisers to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hanieh in October 2007. Both have since been appointed to other prominent positions within the Hamas government. Khaled al-Hroub of the West Bank-based and anti-HamasA Leader of Hamas Warns of West Bank Peril for Fatah The New York Times. June 21, 2006. "Mr. Sawaf's West Bank office in Ramallah has been destroyed, and the Palestinian paper Al Ayyam has refused to continue printing his paper in the West Bank." Palestinian daily Al Ayyam added that despite claims by Hamas leaders that it wants to repeat the Turkish model of Islam, "what is happening on the ground in reality is a replica of the Taliban model of Islam."Hamas-Gaza-extremism, The Weekly Middle East Reporter (Beirut, Lebanon), August 8, 2009
Antisemitism and anti-Zionism
According to academic Esther Webman, antisemitism is not the main tenet of Hamas ideology, although antisemitic rhetoric is frequent and intense in Hamas leaflets. The leaflets generally do not differentiate between Jews and Zionists. In other Hamas publications and in interviews with its leaders attempts at this differentiation have been made.Webman, Esther. Anti-semitic Motifs in the Ideology of Hizballah and Hamas, Project for the study of Anti-semitism, Tel Aviv University, 1994, p. 22. ISBN 965-222-592-4 In 2009 representatives of the small Jewish sect Neturei Karta met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, who stated that he held nothing against Jews but only against the state of Israel. Some commentators have pointed out parallels between Hamas's youth organization and Hitler Youth. According to writer Tom Doran, Hamas is not recognized as a neo-Nazi group because its members are not "white Christians". Hamas has made conflicting statements about its readiness to recognize Israel. In 2006 a spokesman signaled readiness to recognize Israel within the 1967 borders. Speaking of requests for Hamas to recognize agreements between the Palestinian Authority and Israel, senior Hamas member Khaled Suleiman said that "these agreements are a reality which we view as such, and therefore I see no problem." Also in 2006, a Hamas official ruled out recognition of Israel with reference to West and East Germany, which never recognized each other. Hamas Charter (1988)
Article 7 of the Hamas Covenant provides the following quotation, attributed to Muhammad:
"The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him. Only the Gharkad tree, (evidently a certain kind of tree) would not do that because it is one of the trees of the Jews."
Article 22 states that the French revolution, the Russian revolution, colonialism and both world wars were created by the Zionists or forces supportive of Zionism:
"You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it."
Article 32 of the Covenant refers to an antisemitic forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:
"Today it is Palestine, tomorrow it will be one country or another. The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."
Statements by Hamas members and clerics to an Arab audience
In 2008, Imam Yousif al-Zahar of Hamas said in his sermon at the Katib Wilayat mosque in Gaza that "Jews are a people who cannot be trusted. They have been traitors to all agreements. Go back to history. Their fate is their vanishing."
Another Hamas legislator and imam, Sheik Yunus al-Astal, discussed a Koranic verse suggesting that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next." He concluded "Therefore we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews."
Following the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem in March 2010, senior Hamas figure al-Zahar called on Palestinians everywhere to observe five minutes of silence "for Israel's disappearance and to identify with Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque". He further stated that "Wherever you have been you've been sent to your destruction. You've killed and murdered your prophets and you have always dealt in loan-sharking and destruction. You've made a deal with the devil and with destruction itself – just like your synagogue."
On August 10, 2012, Ahmad Bahr, Deputy Speaker of the Hamas Parliament, stated in a sermon that aired on Al-Aqsa TV:
If the enemy sets foot on a single square inch of Islamic land, Jihad becomes an individual duty, incumbent on every Muslim, male or female. A woman may set out [on Jihad] without her husband's permission, and a servant without his master's permission. Why? In order to annihilate those Jews.... O Allah, destroy the Jews and their supporters. O Allah, destroy the Americans and their supporters. O Allah, count them one by one, and kill them all, without leaving a single one.Hamas Official Ahmad Bahr Preaches for the Annihilation of Jews and Americans, MEMRI, Clip No. 3538, August 10, 2012.Hamas leader prays for annihilation of Jews, Americans by Greg Tepper, The Times of Israel, August 20, 2012.Video: Hamas MP: 'Annihilate Jews and Americans' by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, Israel National News, August 26, 2012.Hamas top official: Kill every last Jew and American (VIDEO), Jewish Journal, August 24, 2012. In an interview with Al-Aqsa TV in September 12, 2012, Marwan Abu Ras, a Hamas MP, who is also a member of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, stated (as translated by MEMRI):
On December 26, 2012, Senior Hamas official and Jerusalem bureau chief Ahmed Abu Haliba, called on "all Palestinian factions to resume suicide attacks ... deep inside the Zionist enemy" and said that "we must renew the resistance to occupation in any possible way, above all through armed resistance." Abu Haliba suggested the use of suicide bombings as a response to Israel's plans to build housing units in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. In an interview on Lebanese television on July 28, 2014, Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan claimed:
Statements by Hamas members and clerics to an international audience
In an interview with CBS This Morning in July 27, 2014, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated:
On January 8, 2012, during a visit to Tunis, Gazan Hamas PM Ismail Haniyeh told The Associated Press on that he disagrees with the anti-Semitic slogans. "We are not against the Jews because they are Jews. Our problem is with those occupying the land of Palestine," he said. "There are Jews all over the world, but Hamas does not target them."
In response to a statement by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas preferred non-violent means and had agreed to adopt "peaceful resistance," Hamas contradicted Abbas. According to Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri, "We had agreed to give popular resistance precedence in the West Bank, but this does not come at the expense of armed resistance."
In May 2009, senior Hamas MP Sayed Abu Musameh said, "in our culture, we respect every foreigner, especially Jews and Christians, but we are against Zionists, not as nationalists but as fascists and racists." In the same interview, he also said, "I hate all kinds of weapons. I dream of seeing every weapon from the atomic bomb to small guns banned everywhere."
In January 2009, Gazan Hamas Health Minister Basim Naim published a letter in The Guardian, stating that Hamas has no quarrel with Jewish people, only with the actions of Israel. In October 1994, in a response to Isreael's crackdown on Hamas militants following a suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv bus, Hamas promised retaliation: "Rabin must know that Hamas loves death more than Rabin and his soldiers love life."Israel Cracks Down on Islamic Group. Oct. 24, 1994, Pg. 1. The statement added that "Hamas will not hesitate to retaliate severely against any attempt to harm our leaders."
Statements on the Holocaust
Hamas has been explicit in its Holocaust Denial. In reaction to the Stockholm conference on the Jewish Holocaust, held in late January 2000, Hamas issued a press release that it published on its official website, containing the following statements from a senior leader:
This conference bears a clear Zionist goal, aimed at forging history by hiding the truth about the so-called Holocaust, which is an alleged and invented story with no basis. (...) The invention of these grand illusions of an alleged crime that never occurred, ignoring the millions of dead European victims of Nazism during the war, clearly reveals the racist Zionist face, which believes in the superiority of the Jewish race over the rest of the nations. (...) By these methods, the Jews in the world flout scientific methods of research whenever that research contradicts their racist interests. In August 2003, senior Hamas official Dr Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi wrote in the Hamas newspaper Al-Risala that the Zionists encouraged murder of Jews by the Nazis with the aim of forcing them to immigrate to Palestine.http://www.ajn.com.au/pages/archives/feature/feature-03a.html
In 2005, Khaled Mashal called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's December 14, 2005 statements on the Holocaust that Europeans had "created a myth in the name of Holocaust"Iran leader's Holocaust remarks condemned MSNBC, December 14, 2005) as "courageous"."Hamas springs to Iran's defense" Al Jazeera, December 15, 2005 Later in 2008, Basim Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government in Gaza countered holocaust denial, and said "it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. In August 2003, senior Hamas official Dr Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi wrote in the Hamas newspaper Al-Risala that the Zionists encouraged murder of Jews by the Nazis with the aim of forcing them to immigrate to Palestine. In 2005, Khaled Mashal called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's December 14, 2005 statements on the Holocaust that Europeans had "created a myth in the name of Holocaust"Iran leader's Holocaust remarks condemned MSNBC, December 14, 2005) as "courageous"."Hamas springs to Iran's defense" Al Jazeera, December 15, 2005 Later in 2008, Basim Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government in Gaza countered holocaust denial, and said "it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality.""Hamas condemns the Holocaust" The Guardian, May 12, 2008
In an open letter to Gaza Strip UNRWA chief John Ging published August 20, 2009, the movement's Popular Committees for Refugees called the Holocaust "a lie invented by the Zionists," adding that the group refused to let Gazan children study it.Hamas rips UN over Holocaust lessons, The Jerusalem Post September 30, 2009 Hamas leader Younis al-Astal continued by saying that having the Holocaust included in the UNRWA curriculum for Gaza students amounted to "marketing a lie and spreading it". Al-Astal continued "I do not exaggerate when I say this issue is a war crime, because of how it serves the Zionist colonizers and deals with their hypocrisy and lies.""Hamas rips U.N. for teaching the Holocaust". JTA. August 31, 2009. August 31, 2009. In February 2011, Hamas voiced opposition to UNRWA's teaching of the Holocaust in Gaza. According to Hamas, "Holocaust studies in refugee camps is a contemptible plot and serves the Zionist entity with a goal of creating a reality and telling stories in order to justify acts of slaughter against the Palestinian people."
In July 2012, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, denounced a visit by Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to the Auschwitz death camp, saying it was "unjustified" and "unhelpful" and only served the "Zionist occupation" while coming "at the expense of a real Palestinian tragedy". He also called the Holocaust an "alleged tragedy" and "exaggerated". In October 2012, Hamas said that they were opposed to teaching about the Holocaust in Gaza Strip schools run by the UN Relief and Works Agency. The Refugee Affairs Department of Hamas said that teaching the Holocaust was a "crime against the issue of the refugees that is aimed at canceling their right of return". Criticism
Proximity to civilians during warfare
After Operation Pillar of Defense, Human Rights Watch stated that Palestinian groups had endangered civilians by "repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel" and noted that under international law, parties to a conflict may not to place military targets in or near densely populated areas. International positions on Hamas
Hamas, together with several charities it runs,Matthew Levitt, pp.143-169. has been designated by several governments and some academics as a terrorist organization. Others regard Hamas as a complex organization with terrorism as only one component.Krista Wiegand, Bombs and Ballots: Governance by Islamist Terrorist and Guerrilla Groups, Ashgate Publishing, Revised edition 2013 p.124.'Officially, Hamas is considered by American and Israeli policymakers and some academics as the epitome of a terrorist group. . .Due to the gravity and consequences of Hamas's use of terrorism as a tactic, all other aspects of Hamas, including its extensive social services programs and its role as a political party are overshadowed and often ignored by policy makers. Others recognize the complexity of Hamas as an organization and suggest that Hamas will continue to transform itself into a full political party and eventually disarm and cease all violent tactics. They view Hamas as a complex organization with terrorism as only one component, which is likely to evolve into a non-violent political party. Luke Peterson ,Palestine-Israel in the Print News Media: Contending Discourses, Routledge 2014 p.99. Israel outlawed Hamas in 1989, followed by the United States in 1996 and Canada in 2002. The European Union defined Hamas's military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization in 2001, and put Hamas in its list of terrorist organizations in 2003, but such designation was successfully challenged by Hamas in the courts in 2014 on technical grounds. The judgment was appealed. In 2016 an EU legal advisor recommended that Hamas be removed from the list due to procedural errors. The final decision is not thought likely to effect individual government lists.'Hamas Should Be Taken Off Terror List, EU Legal Adviser Says ,' Haaretz 22 September 2016. An Egyptian court ruled Hamas was a terrorist organization in 2015. Japan froze Hamas assets according to its legislation on terrorist entities in 2006. Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization. The organization is also banned in Jordan. It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran, Russia, Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, China, and Brazil. Israel outlawed Hamas in September 1989Aaron Mannes, Profiles in Terror: The Guide to Middle East Terrorist Organizations, Rowman & Littlefield, 2003 p.114. The United States followed suit in 1995, as did Canada in November 2002.The World Almanac of Islamism: 2014, American Foreign Policy Council/Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p.15. The European Union outlawed Hamas's military wing in 2001 and included Hamas in its list of terrorist organizations in 2003,Levitt, pp.50-51. which Hamas successfully challenged in the courts,Statement by High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini on the decision to appeal the Judgment regarding Hamas, 19/01/2015 and continued to do so under American and Israeli pressure.Benedetta Voltalini and Federica Bicchi, 'When Security Trumps Democracy:Israel and Palestined,' Anne Wetzel, Jan Orbie (eds.), The Substance of EU Democracy Promotion: Concepts and Cases, Palgrave Macmillan, 2015 pp 162-176 p. 170:'This example shows how the declared substance of EU democracy promotion can change in the implementation phase. While supporting the elections in the Occupied Territories and confirming their regular development, the EU was not willing to accept the results in the light of perceived security concerns and mounting pressure from the US and Israel to boycott Hamas./ The basis of Hamas's challenge to the EU classification in 2007 was that it was drawn up on the basis of media reports, rather than grounded in any analysis of Hamas's history. The European General Court found in favour of Hamas in 2014, though the verdict was appealed by the EU countries. In September 2016 a legal advisor to the European Court of Justice, Eleanor Sharpston, provided an advisory opinion, in favour of cancelling the listing of Hamas as a terrorist organization. She argued that the determination originally adopted was flawed, and that the EU cannot "rely on facts and evidence found in press articles and information from the internet" in order to list organizations as terrorists.'Hamas Should Be Taken Off Terror List, EU Legal Adviser Says ,' Haaretz 22 September 2016. Egypt,'Egyptian court declares Hamas a 'terrorist' group', Al Jazeera 28 February 2015. Japan,According to Michael Penn, (Japan and the War on Terror: Military Force and Political Pressure in the US-Japanese Alliance, I.B. Tauris 2014 pp.205-206, Japan initially welcomed the democratic character of the elections that brought Hamas to power, and only set conditions on its aid to Palestine, after intense pressure was exerted by the Bush Administration on Japan to alter its policy. Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of Hamas as a terrorist organization.David Sobek,The Causes of War, John Wiley & Sons, 2013 p.45. The organization is banned in Jordan.Levitt, p.49. It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran,Alethia H. Cook, 'The Subtle Impact of Iran on the Flotilla Incident,' in Thomas E. Copeland (ed.), Drawing a Line in the Sea: The Gaza Flotilla Incident and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Lexington Books, 2011 pp.35-44, p.36. Russia,Robert O. Freedman, 'Russia,' in Joel Peters, David Newman (eds.), The Routledge Handbook on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Routledge, 2013 pp.325-333 p.331 Norway,Ioannis Tellidis, Harmonie Toros (eds.), Terrorism: Bridging the Gap with Peace and Conflict Studies: Investigating the Crossroad, Routledge, 2016 p.199:'In 2006, Norway explicitly distanced itself from the EU proscription regime, claiming that it was causing problems for its role as a 'neutral facilitator'.' Switzerland, Turkey, China,David J. Whittaker (ed.), The Terrorism Reader, Routledge (2001) 2012 p.84. and Brazil,Samuel Feldberg,'Israel and Brazil:An Emerging Power and its Quest for Influence in the Middle East,' in Colin Shindler (ed.), The World Powers:Diplomatic Alliances and International Relations Beyond the Middle East, I.B.Tauris 2014.pp.187-199
Criticism
Proximity to civilians during warfare
After Operation Pillar of Defense, Human Rights Watch stated that Palestinian groups had endangered civilians by "repeatedly fired rockets from densely populated areas, near homes, businesses, and a hotel" and noted that under international law, parties to a conflict may not to place military targets in or near densely populated areas. One rocket was launched close to the Shawa and Housari Building, where various Palestinian and international media have offices; another was fired from the yard of a house near the Deira Hotel. New York Times journalist Steven Erlanger reported that "Hamas rocket and weapons caches, including rocket launchers, have been discovered in and under mosques, schools and civilian homes." Another report published by Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center revealed that Hamas used close to 100 mosques to store weapons and as launch-pads to shoot rockets. The report contains testimony from variety Palestinian sources, including a Hamas militant Sabhi Majad Atar, who said he was taught how to shoot rockets from inside a mosque.Hamas used almost 100 mosques for military purposes. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved on 2010-08-21. Hamas has also been criticized by Israeli officials for blending into or hiding among the Palestinian civilian population During the 2008–2009 Israel–Gaza conflict. The Israeli government published what it said was video evidence of human shield tactics by Hamas."Video: Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals". Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. January 11, 2009. January 13, 2009. Israel said that Hamas frequently used mosques and school yards"Video: Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals". 2009. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See 4:00 in the video. as hideouts and places to store weapons,"Hamas's human shields". The Jerusalem Post. March 4, 2008. January 13, 2009. December 31, 2008. January 13, 2009. and that Hamas militants stored weapons in their homes, making it difficult to ensure that civilians close to legitimate military targets are not hurt during Israeli military operations.Barzak, Ibrahim and Matti Friedman. "Israel Destroys Hamas Homes, Gaza Mosque". Time. January 2, 2009. January 13, 2009. Israeli officials also accused the Hamas leadership of hiding under Shifa Hospital during the conflict, using the patients inside to deter an Israeli attack.Mizroch, Amir. "Dichter: Hamas salaries paid at Shifa Hospital". The Jerusalem Post. January 12, 2009. January 13, 2009. The Israeli government filed a report entitled "Gaza Operations Investigation: Second Update" to the United Nations accusing Hamas of exploiting its rules of engagement by shooting rockets and launching attacks within protected civilian areas.IDF morality exemplified at mosque. The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved on 2010-08-21. Israel says 12,000 rockets and mortars were fired at it between 2000 and 2008—nearly 3,000 in 2008 alone. In one case, an errant Israeli mortar strike killed dozens of people near a UN school. Hamas said that the mortar killed 42 people and left dozens wounded. Israel said that Hamas militants had launched a rocket from a yard adjacent to the school and one mortar of three rounds hit the school, due to a GPS error. According to the Israeli military probe, the remaining two rounds hit the yard used to launch rockets into Israel, killing two members of Hamas' military wing who fired the rockets. According to the Israeli military probe, the remaining two rounds hit the yard used to launch rockets into Israel, killing two members of Hamas's military wing who fired the rockets. Human Right Watch called Hamas to "publicly renounce" the rocket attacks against Israeli civilians and hold those responsible to account. Human Right Watch program director Iain Levine said the attacks by Hamas were "unlawful and unjustifiable, and amount to war crimes", and accused Hamas of putting Palestinians at risk by launching attacks from built-up areas. Hamas spokesman relied that the report was "biased" and he denied that Hamas uses human shields. Human Rights Watch investigated 19 incidents involving 53 civilian deaths in Gaza that Israel said were the result of Hamas fighting in densely populated areas and did not find evidence for existence of Palestinian fighters in the areas at the time of the Israeli attack. In other cases where no civilians had died, the report concluded that Hamas may have deliberately fired rockets from areas close to civilians.Turning a Blind Eye Human Rights Watch April 11, 2010 HRW also investigated 11 deaths that Israel said were civilians being used as human shields by Hamas. HRW found no evidence that the civilians were used as human shields, nor had they been shot in crossfire.Israel: Investigate 'White Flag' Shootings of Gaza Civilians Human Rights Watch August 13, 2009
The Israeli 'human shields' charge against Hamas was called "full of holes" by The National (UAE), which stated that only Israel accused Hamas of using human shields during the conflict, though Hamas "may be guilty" of "locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas" and for "deliberately firing indiscriminate weapons into civilian populated areas"."Israeli 'human shield' claim is full of holes" The National (UAE) January 13, 2009. On July 8, 2014, Hamas' spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri encouraged the "policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests", saying it has proven itself. On July 8, 2014, Hamas's spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri encouraged the "policy of people confronting the Israeli warplanes with their bare chests", saying it has proven itself. One survey of Gazan residents addressed the subject of human shields during the 2014 war, with respondents issuing statements such as "People received warnings from the Israelis and tried to evacuate...Hamas shot some of those people...the rest were forced to return to their homes and get bombed"; "Hamas imposed a curfew: anyone walking out in the street was shot without being asked any questions. That way Hamas made sure people had to stay in their homes even if they were about to get bombed"; and "My father received a text-message from the Israeli army warning him that our area was going to be bombed, and Hamas prevented us from leaving." Israeli soldiers recounted "Suddenly, a small boy appeared, and the terrorist grabbed him and escaped with him"; "I saw with my own eyes someone using another person, a woman, as a shield...And I can see very clearly that the woman doesn't want to be there and he's pulling her with him"; and "We even found explosives in nurseries. The whole neighborhood was practically a terrorist base."
Rocket and mortar attacks
Rocket attacks by Hamas have been condemned by Human rights organizations as war crimes, both because they usually take aim at civilians and because the weapons' inaccuracy would disproportionately endanger civilians even if military targets were chosen. After Operation Pillar of Defense, Human Rights Watch stated that armed Palestinian groups fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli cities, violating international humanitarian law, and that statements by Palestinian groups that they deliberately targeted Israeli civilians demonstrated an "intent to commit war crimes". HRW's Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson said that Palestinian groups made clear that "harming civilians was their aim" and said that launching rockets at populated areas had no legal justification. International humanitarian law prohibits deliberate attacks on civilians and intentional violations can be war crimes. In July 2008 Barack Obama, then the Democratic presidential candidate, said: "If somebody was sending rockets into my house, where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that, and I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."Steven Lee Myers and Helene Cooper, Obama Defers to Bush, for Now, on Gaza Crisis, New York Times December 28, 2009 On December 28, 2008, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a statement: "the United States strongly condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks against Israel."U.S. Condemns Hamas in Midst of Israeli Strikes, Fox News December 28, 2008 On March 2, 2009, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemned the attacks.Clinton calls for 'durable' Gaza truce, condemns rockets, AFP March 2, 2009
Children
Children and women as human shields
Israel has accused Hamas of using children as human shields. The Israeli government released video footage in which it claims two militants are shown grabbing a young boy's arm from behind holding him to walk in front of them toward a group of people waiting near a wall. The IDF argues the militants were placing the boy between themselves and an Israeli sniper. The second scene shows an individual, described as a terrorist, grabbing a school boy off of a floor, where he is hiding behind a column from IDF fire, and using him as a human shield to walk to a different location."IDF Video: Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals". 2009. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See 4:25–4:29 in the video.http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/malam_multimedia/English/eng_n/pdf/g_report_e1.pdf Hamas and the Terrorist Threat from the Gaza Strip The Main Findings of the Goldstone ReportVersus the Factual Findings, Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center. After 15 alleged militants sought refuge in a mosque from Israeli forces, the BBC reported that Hamas radio instructed local women to go the mosque to protect the militants. Two women were later killed when Israeli forces opened fire. In November 2006, the Israeli Air Force warned Muhammad Weil Baroud, commander of the Popular Resistance Committees who are accused of launching rockets into Israeli territory, to evacuate his home in a Jabalya refugee camp apartment block in advance of a planned Israeli air strike. Baroud responded by calling for volunteers to protect the apartment block and nearby buildings and, according to The Jerusalem Post, hundreds of local residents, mostly women and children, responded. Israel suspended the air strike. Israel termed the action an example of Hamas using human shields.Human shield deters Israel strike BBC News November 19, 2006 In response to the incident, Hamas proclaimed: 'We won. From now on we will form human chains around every house threatened with demolition.'""Hamas's human shields". The Jerusalem Post. March 4, 2008. November 15, 2009. In a November 22 press release, Human Rights Watch condemned Hamas, stating: "There is no excuse for calling civilians to the scene of a planned attack. Whether or not the home is a legitimate military target, knowingly asking civilians to stand in harm's way is unlawful."OPT: Civilians Must Not Be Used to Shield Homes Against Military Attacks Human Rights Watch November 22, 2006 Following criticism, Human rights Watch issued a statement saying that their initial assessment of the situation was in error. They stated that, on the basis of available evidence, the home demolition was in fact an administrative act, viewed in the context of Israel's longstanding policy of punitive home demolitions, not a military act and thus would not fall within the purview of the law regulating hostilities during armed conflict, which had been the basis for their initial criticism of Hamas. When the UN-sponsored Goldstone Commission Report on the Gaza War was commissioned in 2009, it stated that it "found no evidence that Palestinian combatants mingled with the civilian population with the intention of shielding themselves from attack" though they deemed credible reports that Palestinian militants were "not always dressed in a way that distinguished them from civilians". Hamas MP Fathi Hamed stated that "For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel ... the elderly excel at this ... and so do the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children."
Following the release of the Goldstone Report, the former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan Col. Richard Kemp was invited to testify at the UN Human Rights Council 12th Special Session that during Operation Cast Lead Israel encountered an "enemy that deliberately positioned its military capability behind the human shield of the civilian population".Goodenough, Patrick. (2009-10-16) Israelis Took Unprecedented Steps to Safeguard Civilians, Says British Officer. CNSnews.com. Retrieved on 2011-06-18.U.K. Commander Challenges Goldstone Report. UN Watch. Retrieved on 2011-06-18. Children as combatants
The Israeli government released a video compiled mostly from Arab news sources showing Palestinian children under the age of 15 going through military training and carrying and firing arms. The video's narration explains that Hamas indoctrinates these child combatants and that Hamas operators send the children "on missions from which they would not risk their own lives". According to the Israeli government, the children are used as spotters, to transport explosives and weapons, sent to play in areas to deter Israeli attacks and are sent unknowingly with explosive devices in their schoolbags to be blown up in the vicinity of Israelis."Video: Hamas uses civilians as a means to achieving military goals". 2009. Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs. See 06:46 through 08:00 in the video. The United Nations defines the use of children for military purposes as a war crime and a form of slavery. See Military use of children. Although Hamas admits to sponsoring summer schools to train teenagers in handling weapons they condemn attacks by children. Following the deaths of three teenagers during a 2002 attack on Netzarim in central Gaza, Hamas banned attacks by children and "called on the teachers and religious leaders to spread the message of restraint among young boys".Youths' Suicide Mission Stuns Palestinians ABC April 25, 2002Teenage Suicide Bombers MEF 2002
Hamas' use of child labor to build tunnels with which to attack Israel has also been criticized, with at least 160 children killed in the tunnels as of 2012. Following the deaths of three teenagers during a 2002 attack on Netzarim in central Gaza, Hamas banned attacks by children and "called on the teachers and religious leaders to spread the message of restraint among young boys".Youths' Suicide Mission Stuns Palestinians ABC April 25, 2002Teenage Suicide Bombers MEF 2002
Hamas's use of child labor to build tunnels with which to attack Israel has also been criticized, with at least 160 children killed in the tunnels as of 2012. Children's magazine
Al-Fateh ("the conqueror") is the Hamas children's magazine, published biweekly in London, and also posted in an online website. It began publication in September 2002, and its 108th issue was released in mid-September 2007. The magazine features stories, poems, riddles, and puzzles, and states it is for "the young builders of the future". According to MEMRI (three of whose seven founding staff had formerly served in the IDF), the magazine includes incitement to jihad and martyrdom and glorification of terrorist operations and of their planners and perpetrators. as well as characterizations of Jews as "murderers of the prophets" and laudatory descriptions of parents who encourage their sons to kill Jews. In each issue, a regular feature titled "The Story of a Martyr" presents the "heroic deeds" of a mujahid from one of the organizations who died in a suicide operation, including operations against civilians, or who was killed by the IDF. MEMRI also noted that the magazine includes illustrations of figures, including child warriors, who embody the ethos of jihad and martyrdom, presenting them as role models. These include the magazine's titular character, Al-Fateh ("The Conqueror")—a small boy on a horse brandishing a drawn scimitar—as well as children carrying guns, and photos of Hamas fighters launching Qassam rockets. Al-Aqsa TV
Al-Aqsa TV is a television channel founded by Hamas. The station began broadcasting in the Gaza Strip on January 9, 2006., news24.com, January 22, 2006 Its programming includes ideologically tinged children's shows, news talk, and religiously inspired entertainment. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the station promotes terrorist activity and incites hatred of Jews and Israelis. Hamas has stated that the television station is "an independent media institution that often does not express the views of the Palestinian government headed by Ismail Haniyeh or of the Hamas movement," and that Hamas does not hold anti-semitic views. Al-Aqsa TV is headed by Fathi Ahmad Hammad, chairman of al-Ribat Communications and Artistic Productions—a Hamas-run company that also produces Hamas's radio station, Voice of al-Aqsa, and its biweekly newspaper, The Message. Dissent and the media
thumb|Hamas mural in the West Bank Human rights groups and Gazans have accused the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip of restricting freedom of the press and forcefully suppressing dissent. Both foreign and Palestinian journalists report harassment and other measures taken against them.Spokesperson of Presidency Condemns Hamas Militias New Crimes against Citizens in Gaza Strip, WAFA, August 31, 2007. In September 2007 the Gaza Interior Ministry disbanded the Gaza Strip branch of the pro-Fatah Union of Palestinian Journalists, a move criticized by Reporters without borders.Hamas disbands journalists union amid continuing incidents, Reporters without borders, September 6, 2007 In November of that year the Hamas government arrested a British journalist and for a time canceled all press cards in Gaza. On February 8, 2008, Hamas banned distribution of the pro-Fatah Al-Ayyam newspaper, and closed its offices in the Gaza Strip because it ran a caricature that mocked legislators loyal to Hamas,.Hamas de facto government bans distribution of Al-Ayyam newspaper in the Gaza Strip Ma'an News Agency, February 10, 2008 The Gaza Strip Interior Ministry later issued an arrest warrant for the editor. More widely, in late August 2007 the group was accused in The Telegraph, a conservative British newspaper, of torturing, detaining, and firing on unarmed protesters who had objected to policies of the Hamas government. Also in late August, Palestinian health officials reported that the Hamas government had been shutting down Gaza clinics in retaliation for doctor strikes – The Hamas government confirmed the "punitive measure against doctors" because, in its view, they had incited other doctors to suspend services and go out on strike.al-Mughrabi, Nidal. "Gaza clinics closed, retaliation for doctor strikes". Reuters. August 28, 2007. November 14, 2009. In September 2007 the Hamas government banned public prayers, after Fatah supporters began holding worship sessions that quickly escalated into raucous protests against Hamas rule. Government security forces beat several gathering supporters and journalists.Hamas blocks Fatah protests in Gaza, Ynetnews, September 7, 2007
In October 2008, the Hamas government announced it would release all political prisoners in custody in Gaza. Several hours after the announcement, 17 Fatah members were released.Hamas frees Fatah prisoners, Al-Jazeera, October 30, 2008. On August 2, 2012, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) accused Hamas of harassing elected officials belong to the Palestinian Journalists' Syndicate (PJS) in Gaza. The IFJ said that journalists' leaders in Gaza have faced a campaign of intimidation, as well as threats designed to force them to stop their union work. Some of these journalists are now facing charges of illegal activities and a travel ban, due to their refusal "to give in to pressure". The IFJ said that these accusations are "malicious" and "should be dropped immediately". The IFJ explained that the campaign against PJS members began in March 2012, after their election, and included a raid organized by Hamas supporters who took over the PJS offices in Gaza with the help of the security forces, and subsequently evicted the staff and elected officials. Other harassment includes the targeting of individuals who were bullied into stopping union work. The IFJ backed the PJS and called on Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh to intervene to stop "his officials' unwarranted interference in journalists' affairs". In November 2012, two Gazan journalists were prevented from leaving Gaza by Hamas. There were scheduled to participate in a conference in Cairo, Egypt. After being questioned by security forces, their passports were confiscated. Human rights abuses
In June 2011, the Independent Commission for Human Rights based in Ramallah published a report whose findings included that the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were subjected in 2010 to an "almost systematic campaign" of human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as by Israeli authorities, with the security forces belonging to the PA and Hamas being responsible for torture, arrests and arbitrary detentions. In 2016 Reporters Without Borders condemned Hamas for censorship and for torturing journalists. Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said "As living conditions in the Gaza Strip are disastrous, Hamas wants to silence critics and does not hesitate to torture a journalist in order to control media coverage in its territory."
Human rights abuses
In June 2011, the Independent Commission for Human Rights based in Ramallah published a report whose findings included that the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were subjected in 2010 to an "almost systematic campaign" of human rights abuses by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, as well as by Israeli authorities, with the security forces belonging to the PA and Hamas being responsible for torture, arrests and arbitrary detentions. In 2012, the Human Rights Watch presented a 43 page long list of human rights violation committed by Hamas. Among actions attributed to Hamas the HRW report mentions beatings with metal clubs and rubber hoses, hanging of alleged collaborationists with Israel, and torture of 102 individuals. According to the report, Hamas also tortured civil society activists and peaceful protesters. Reflecting on the captivity of Gilad Shalit, the HRW report described it as "cruel and inhuman". The report also slams Hamas for harassment of people based on so called morality offenses and for media censorship. In a public statement Joe Stork, the deputy Middle East director of HRW claimed, "after five years of Hamas rule in Gaza, its criminal justice system reeks of injustice, routinely violates detainees' rights and grants impunity to abusive security services." Hamas responded by denying charges and describing them as "politically motivated"
On May 26, 2015 Amnesty International released a report saying that Hamas carried out extrajudicial killings, abductions and arrests of Palestinians and used the Al-Shifa Hospital to detain, interrogate and torture suspects during the Israel–Gaza conflict in 2014. It details the executions of at least 23 Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel and torture of dozens of others, many victims of torture were members of the rival Palestinian movement, Fatah. Violence and terrorism
Hamas uses both political activities and violence in pursuit of its goals. Violence and terrorism
Hamas has used both political activities and violence in pursuit of its goals. For example, while politically engaged in the 2006 Palestinian Territories parliamentary election campaign, Hamas stated in its election manifesto that it was prepared to use "armed resistance to end the occupation". From 2000 to 2004, Hamas was responsible for killing nearly 400 Israelis and wounding more than 2,000 in 425 attacks, according to the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs. From 2001 through May 2008, Hamas launched more than 3,000 Qassam rockets and 2,500 mortar attacks into Israel.Israel At 'War to the Bitter End,' Strikes Key Hamas Sites December 29, 2008, Fox News
Attacks on civilians
In the first years of the First Intifada (1987–93), Hamas violence was directed first at collaborators with Israel and at individuals it considered moral deviants, and then later at the Israeli military.Hamas in Politics, By Jeroen Gunning, pp. 128–129, search at Books.Google.com; see also The Rise of Hamas, by Paul W. Pope, at
Dartmouth.edu A new direction began with the formation of the al-Qassam Brigades militia in 1992, and in 1993 suicide attacks began against Israeli targets on the West Bank.No End to War, by Walter Laqueur, p. Pope, at
Dartmouth.edu A new direction began with the formation of the al-Qassam Brigades militia in 1992, and in 1993 suicide attacks began against Israeli targets on the West Bank.No End to War, by Walter Laqueur, p. 107. "[I]n 1993–1994 when Hamas ... enlisted experts for bomb making, and the first suicide bombers went into action. Some of the very early operations aborted. The first successful suicide bomb attack occurred in the Jordan Valley in October 1993. The first bus attack happened in Afula in northern Israel in April 1994 ..." Search at Books.Google.com upright|thumb|Aftermath of 1996 Jaffa Road bus bombings in which 26 people were killed
The first such attack occurred on April 16, 1993, when an al-Qassam Brigades operative detonated explosives in a car he parked next to two buses, one military and one civilian, in the West Bank town of Mehola, killing a Palestinian civilian and wounding 8 Israeli soldiers.Suicide car bomb kills two near West Bank restaurant Associated Press, April 17, 1993 After the February 1994 massacre by Baruch Goldstein of 30 Muslim civilians in a Hebron mosque, the al-Qassam Brigades expanded suicide attacks to target primarily civilians. The first of the suicide bombings that targeted civilians was at Afula on April 16, 1994, when a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car next to a bus, killing nine (including the bomber) and wounding 50. The most deadly suicide bombing was an attack on a Netanya hotel on March 27, 2002, in which 30 people were killed and 140 were wounded. The attack has also been referred to as the Passover massacre since it took place on the first night of the Jewish festival of Passover at a Seder. Hamas has defended suicide attacks as a legitimate aspect of its asymmetric warfare against Israel, but they are consideted as crimes against humanity under international law. Hamas has defended suicide attacks as a legitimate aspect of its asymmetric warfare against Israel. In 2003, according to Stephen Atkins, Hamas resumed suicide bombings in Israel as a retaliatory measure after the failure of peace talks and an Israeli campaign targeting members of the upper echelon of the Hamas leadership.,Stephen E. Atkins, Encyclopedia of Modern Worldwide Extremists and Extremist Groups, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004 :'This ceasefire ended when Israel started targeting Hamas leaders for assassination in July 2003. Hamas retaliated with a suicide bombing in Israel on August 19, 2003, that killed 20 people, including 6 children. Since then Israelis have mounted an assassination campaign against the senior leadership of Hamas that has killed 13 Hamas members, including Ismail Abu Shanab, one of the most moderate leaders of Hamas. . .After each of these assassinations, Hamas has sent a suicide bomber into Israel in retaliation.' but they are considered as crimes against humanity under international law. In a 2002 report, Human Rights Watch stated that Hamas leaders "should be held accountable" for "war crimes and crimes against humanity" committed by the al-Qassam Brigades.Erased In A Moment: Suicide Bombing Attacks Against Israeli Civilians V. Structures and Strategies of the Perpetrator Organizations, Human Rights Watch, October 2002. ISBN 1-56432-280-7
In May 2006 Israel arrested a top Hamas official, Ibrahim Hamed, who Israeli security officials alleged was responsible for dozens of suicide bombings and other attacks on Israelis. Hamed's trial on those charges has not yet concluded. In 2008, Hamas explosives engineer Shihab al-Natsheh organized a deadly suicide bombing in Dimona. Since 2002, paramilitary soldiers of al-Qassam Brigades and other groups have used homemade Qassam rockets to hit Israeli towns in the Negev, such as Sderot. Al-Qassam Brigades was estimated in 2007 to have launched 22% of the rocket and mortar attacks, which killed fifteen people between the years 2000 and 2009 (see Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel). The introduction of the Qassam-2 rocket in 2008 enabled Palestinian paramilitary groups to reach, from Gaza, such Israeli cities such as Ashkelon.BICOM Fact Sheet 2: Ashkelon – The Changing Scenario BICOM. 2008-05-03. In 2008, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal, offered that Hamas would attack only military targets if the IDF would stop causing the deaths of Palestinian civilians. March 31, 2008, The Jerusalem Post Following a June 19, 2008 ceasefire, the al-Qassam Brigades ended its rocket attacks and arrested Fatah militants in Gaza who had continued sporadic rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. The al-Qassam Brigades resumed the attacks after the November 4 Israeli incursion into Gaza.Qassam lands in western Negev, no injuries Ynetnews November 20, 2008
On 15 June 2014, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Hamas of involvement in the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers (including one who held American citizenship), saying "This has severe repercussions." On 20 July 2014, nearly two weeks into Operation Protective Edge, Netanyahu in an interview with CNN described Hamas as "genocidal terrorists."
On 5 August 2014 Israel announced that Israeli security forces arrested Hussam Kawasme, in Shuafat, in connection with the murders. During interrogation, Kawasme admitted to being the mastermind behind the attack, in addition to securing the funding from Hamas. Officials have stated that additional people arrested in connection with the murders are still being held, but no names have been released. On 20 August, Saleh al-Arouri, a Hamas leader in exile in Turkey, claimed responsibility for the kidnapping of the three Israeli teens. He delivered an address on behalf of Khaled Mashal at the conference of the International Union of Muslim Scholars in Istanbul, a move that might reflect a desire by Hamas to gain leverage.Jack Khoury, Hamas claims responsibility for three Israeli teens' kidnapping and murder,' Haaretz 21 August 2014. In it he said: "Our goal was to ignite an intifada in the West Bank and Jerusalem, as well as within the 1948 borders... Your brothers in the Al-Qassam Brigades carried out this operation to support their imprisoned brothers, who were on a hunger strike... The mujahideen captured these settlers in order to have a swap deal." Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal accepted that members of Hamas were responsible, stating that he knew nothing of it in advance and that what the leadership knew of the details came from reading Israeli reports.'Mashal: Hamas was behind murder of three Israeli teens,' Ynet22 August 2014. Meshaal, who has headed Hamas' exiled political wing since 2004, has denied being involved in the "details" of Hamas "military issues", but "justified the killings as a legitimate action against Israelis on "occupied" lands."
Rocket attacks on Israel
According to Human Rights Watch, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have launched thousands of rockets into Israel since 2001, killing 15 civilians, wounding many more, and posing an ongoing threat to the nearly 800,000 Israeli civilians who live and work in the weapons' range. Meshaal, who has headed Hamas's exiled political wing since 2004, has denied being involved in the "details" of Hamas "military issues", but "justified the killings as a legitimate action against Israelis on "occupied" lands."
Hamas suicide attacks on Israeli civilians have largely disappeared since 2005; this has coincided with an increase in rocket attacks. One analysis suggests that the decline in suicide attacks is not motivated by any lack of supplies or volunteers to carry out such operations, by enhanced Israeli security measures such as the West Bank barrier (if Israeli actions were the reason, one would expect to see an equal decline in suicide attacks by all Palestinian factions, which is not observed), or by a newfound desire for reconciliation with Israel on the part of Hamas. Rather, suicide bombings provoked targeted killings that decimated the leadership of Hamas, whereas rocket attacks have elicited weaker Israeli reprisals that have tended to harm the Palestinian population as a whole more than Hamas (such as the blockade of the Gaza Strip)—thereby paradoxically increasing Hamas's popular support. Rocket attacks on Israel
According to Human Rights Watch, Hamas and other Palestinian armed groups have launched thousands of rockets into Israel since 2001, killing 15 civilians, wounding many more, and posing an ongoing threat to the nearly 800,000 Israeli civilians who live and work in the weapons' range. Hamas officials have said that the rockets were aimed only at military targets, saying that civilian casualties were the "accidental result" of the weapons' poor quality. According to Human Rights Watch, statements by Hamas leaders suggest that the purpose of the rocket attacks was indeed to strike civilians and civilian objects. From January 2009, following Operation Cast Lead, Hamas largely stopped launching rocket attacks on Israel and has on at least two occasions arrested members of other groups who have launched rockets, "showing that it has the ability to impose the law when it wants".HRW report April 11, 2010 In February 2010, Hamas issued a statement regretting any harm that may have befallen Israeli civilians as a result of Palestinian rocket attacks during the Gaza war. It maintained that its rocket attacks had been aimed at Israeli military targets but lacked accuracy and hence sometimes hit civilian areas. Israel responded that Hamas had boasted repeatedly of targeting and murdering civilians in the media. According to one report, commenting on the 2014 conflict, "nearly all the 2,500–3,000 rockets and mortars Hamas has fired at Israel since the start of the war seem to have been aimed at towns", including an attack on "a kibbutz collective farm close to the Gaza border", in which an Israeli child was killed. Former Israeli Lt. Col. Jonathan D. Halevi stated that "Hamas has expressed pride in aiming long-range rockets at strategic targets in Israel including the nuclear reactor in Dimona, the chemical plants in Haifa, and Ben-Gurion Airport", which "could have caused thousands" of Israeli casualties "if successful". Attempts to derail 2010 peace talks
In 2010, Hamas, who have been actively sidelined from the peace talks by Israel, spearheaded a coordinated effort by 13 Palestinian militant groups, in attempt to derail the stalled peace talks between Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian Authority. According to the Israeli Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Major Gen. Eitan Dangot, Israel seeks to work with Salam Fayyad, to help revive the Palestinian economy, and hopes to ease restrictions on the Gaza Strip further, "while somehow preventing the Islamic militants who rule it from getting credit for any progress". According to Dangot, Hamas must not be seen as ruling successfully or be allowed to "get credit for a policy that would improve the lives of people". The campaign consists of attacks against Israelis in which, according to a Hamas declaration in early September, "all options are open.""Hamas targets Israeli-Palestinian talks by killing four Israelis; Hamas took responsibility for the fatal shooting of four Israeli settlers outside Hebron today, on the eve of Israeli-Palestinian talks in Washington," Joshua Mitnick, August 31, 2010, Christian Science Monitor. The participating groups also include Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and an unnamed splinter group of Fatah.Gaza militants vow wave of attacks against Israel, Reuters September 2, 2010
As part of the campaign, on August 31, 2010, 4 Israeli settlers, including a pregnant woman, were killed by Hamas militants while driving on Route 60 near the settlement Kiryat Arba, in the West bank. According to witnesses, militants opened fire on the moving vehicle, but then "approached the car" and shot the occupants in their seats at "close range". The attack was described by Israeli sources as one of the "worst" terrorist acts in years. A senior Hamas official said that Israeli settlers in the West Bank are legitimate targets since "they are an army in every sense of the word."
Themes of martyrdom
According to a translation by Palestinian Media Watch, in 2008, Fathi Hamad, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, stated on Al-Aqsa TV, "For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly (Palestinians) created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: 'We desire death as you desire life.'""Hamas explains using civilians as human shields", Palestinian Media Watch, (December 28, 2008). In 2010, Hamas speaker Ahmad Bahr praised the virtues of martyrdom and Jihad, and said that 2.5 million black-eyed virgins were waiting in the Garden of Eden, which could be entered only by prophets, by the righteous, and by martyrs. He continued by saying that nobody on Earth "will be able to confront the resistance, or to confront the mujahideen, those who worship Allah and seek martyrdom". Guerrilla warfare
thumb|Hamas anti-tank rockets, captured by Israel Defense Forces during Operation Protective Edge
Hamas has made great use of guerrilla tactics in the Gaza Strip and to a lesser degree the West Bank. It has successfully adapted these techniques over the years since its inception. According to a 2006 report by rival Fatah party, Hamas had smuggled between several hundred and 1,300 tons of advanced rockets, along with other weaponry, into Gaza. Hamas has used IEDs and anti-tank rockets against the IDF in Gaza. The latter include standard RPG-7 warheads and home-made rockets such as the Al-Bana, Al-Batar and Al-Yasin. The IDF has a difficult, if not impossible time trying to find hidden weapons caches in Palestinian areas — this is due to the high local support base Hamas enjoys. Extrajudicial executions of rivals
In addition to killing Israeli civilians and armed forces, Hamas has also murdered suspected Palestinian Israel collaborators and Fatah rivals. Hundreds of Palestinians were executed by both Hamas and Fatah during the First Intifada. In the wake of the 2006 Israeli conflict with Gaza, Hamas was accused of systematically rounding up, torturing and summarily executing Fatah supporters suspected of supplying information to Israel. Human Rights Watch estimates several hundred Gazans were "maimed" and tortured in the aftermath of the conflict. Seventy-three Gazan men accused of "collaborating" had their arms and legs broken by "unidentified perpetrators" and 18 Palestinians accused of helping Israel were executed by Hamas security officials in the first days of the conflict. In November 2012, Hamas' Izzedine al-Qassam brigade publicly executed six Gaza residents accused of collaborating with Israel. In November 2012, Hamas's Izzedine al-Qassam brigade publicly executed six Gaza residents accused of collaborating with Israel. According to the witnesses, six alleged informers were shot dead one by one in Gaza City, while the corpse of the sixth victim was tied by a cable to the back of a motorcycle and dragged through the streets. In 2013, Human Rights Watch issued a statement condemning Hamas for not investigating and giving a proper trial to the 6 men. Their statement was released the day before Hamas issued a deadline for "collaborators" to turn themselves in, or they will be pursued "without mercy". In August 2014, during the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, at least 22 accused collaborators were executed by Hamas shortly after 3 of its commanders were assassinated by Israeli forces. An Israeli source denied that any of the commanders had been targeted on the basis of human intelligence. Frequent killings of unarmed people have also occurred during Hamas-Fatah clashes. NGOs have cited a number of summary executions as particular examples of violations of the rules of warfare, including the case of Muhammad Swairki, 28, a cook for Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard, who was thrown to his death, with his hands and legs tied, from a 15-story apartment building in Gaza City. Hamas security forces reportedly shoot and torture Palestinians who opposed Hamas rule in Gaza. In one case, a Palestinian had criticized Hamas in a conversation on the street with some friends. Later that day, more than a dozen armed men with black masks and red kaffiyeh took the man from his home, and brought him to a solitary area where they shot him three times in the lower legs and ankles. The man told Human Rights Watch that he was not politically active. On August 14, 2009, Hamas fighters stormed the Mosque of cleric Abdel-Latif Moussa. The cleric was protected by at least 100 fighters from Jund Ansar Allah ("Army of the Helpers of God"), an Islamist group with links to Al-Qaeda. The resulting battle left at least 13 people dead, including Moussa and 6 Hamas fighters, and 120 people injured. According to Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, during 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, Hamas killed more than 120 Palestinian youths for defying house arrest imposed on them by Hamas, in addition to 30-40 Palestinians killed by Hamas in extrajudicial executions after accusing them of being collaborators with Israel."More than 120 youths were killed by Hamas because they did not abide by the house arrest imposed on them. This is in addition to the extrajudicial execution of 30-40 people during the Israeli assault."http://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Abbas-hints-PA-close-to-ending-unity-deal-with-Hamas-374626 Referring to the killing of suspected collaborators, a Shin Bet official stated that "not even one" of those executed by Hamas provided any intelligence to Israel, while the Shin Bet officially "confirmed that those executed during Operation Protective Edge had all been held in prison in Gaza in the course of the hostilities."
2011–13 Sinai insurgency
Hamas has been accused of providing weapons, training and fighters for Sinai-based insurgent attacks, although Hamas strongly denies the allegations, calling them a smear campaign aiming to harm relations with Egypt. According to the Egyptian Army, since the ouster of Egypt's Muslim-Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi, over 600 Hamas members have entered the Sinai Peninsula through smuggling tunnels. In addition, several weapons used in Sinai's insurgent attacks are being traced back to Hamas in the Gaza Strip, according to the army. The four leading insurgent groups in the Sinai have all reportedly maintained close ties with the Gaza Strip. Hamas is also accused of helping Morsi and other high-ranking Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood members break out of the Wadi Natroun prison in Cairo during the 2011 revolution.Egypt Opens Murder, Conspiracy Investigation Against Morsi. NPR. 2013-07-26. Hamas called the accusation a "dangerous development".Morsi accused of plotting with Hamas. Al Jazeera English. 2013-07-26. Egyptian authorities stated that the 2011 Alexandria bombing was carried out by the Gaza-based Army of Islam, which has received sanctuary from Hamas and earlier collaborated in the capture of Gilad Shalit. Army of Islam members linked to the August 2012 Sinai attack have reportedly sought refuge in the Gaza Strip. Egypt stated that Hamas directly provided logistical support to the Muslim Brotherhood militants who carried out the December 2013 Mansoura bombing. Debate whether to attack America
Hamas officials have publicly debated whether or not to attack American interests in the Middle East in response to US support of Mahmoud Abbas preceding the 2006 Gaza elections.Klein, Aaron. "Hamas threatens attacks on US: Terrorist warns 'Middle East is full of American targets'." Ynet News. December 24, 2006. Accessed July 20, 2014. International designation of Hamas
Country DesignationThe military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, is listed as a terrorist organization.Listing of Terrorist Organisations, Australian Government Attorney-General's Department, January 27, 2006. Retrieved July 31, 2006.The military wing of Hamas, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, has been listed as a terrorist entity since 2010.Under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Government of Canada currently lists Hamas as a terrorist entity, thus establishing it as a terrorist group, since 2002.The EU designated Hamas as a terrorist group from 2003. In December 2014, the General Court of the European Union ordered to remove HAMAS from the register. The court stated that the move was technical and was not a reassessment of Hamas' classification as a terrorist group. In March 2015, EU decided to keep Hamas on its terrorism blacklist "despite a controversial court decision", appealing the court's judgment. Hamas is added to EU's blacklist of terror, By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor, Sep 12, 2003, The Telegraph. "The European Union yesterday put Hamas on its blacklist of terrorist organisations."
Council Common Position 2003/651/CFSP, September 12, 2003 lists "Hamas (including Hamas-Izz al-Din al-Qassem)"
Council Common Position 2006/380/CFSP of 29 May 2006 updating Common Position 2001/931/CFSP on the application of specific measures to combat terrorism and repealing Common Position 2006/231/CFSP lists "Hamas (including Hamas-Izz al-Din al-Qassem)"
EU Nations Agree to Freeze Hamas Assets, Fox News, September 6, 2003
EU/Middle East: Hamas Officially Included on Blacklist of Terrorist Organisations, Tuesday September 16, 2003, European Report
BBC: EU blacklists Hamas political wing, BBC
BBC: Hamas was put on the EU terror list in 2003, BBC
Solana Denies Direct Contact With Hamas, The Moscow Times
Mr. Solana goes to Damascus for some peace talks, New EuropeBarak Ravid, 'EU court orders Hamas removed from terror list,' Haaretz 17 December 2014.'Hamas removed from EU terrorist list on technicality,' Reuters 17 December 2014.'EU court orders Hamas removal from terror blacklist,' Ma'an News Agency 17 December 2014.The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs states, "Hamas maintains a terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and the West Bank, and acts to carry out terrorist attacks in the territories and Israel."The Financial Sources of the Hamas Terror Organization, 2003-07-30As of 2005, Japan had frozen the assets of 472 terrorists and terrorist organizations including those of Hamas. "In accordance with the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Law, it [Japan] has frozen the assets of a total of 472 terrorists and terrorist organizations, including ..., as well as those of Hamas ..." However, in 2006 it publicly acknowledged that Hamas had won the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections democratically.Michael Penn, Japan and the War on Terror: Military Force and Political Pressure in the US-Japanese Alliance, I.B.Tauris 2014 p.206Banned Hamas in 1999Karmi, Omar. "What does the Hamas victory mean for nearby Jordan?", The Daily Star, February 18, 2006 In 2013, Jordan rejected requests to allow Hamas to return.King Abdullah Says No To Hamas. September 17, 2013. Khaled Abu Toameh.Russia does not designate Hamas a terrorist organisation, and held direct talks with Hamas in 2006, after Hamas won the Palestine elections, stating that it did so to press Hamas to reject violence and recognise Israel. An Israeli official has said that Russia will reduce its ties to Hamas.Naami, Saleh. "Moscow to distance itself from Hamas". ahramOnline, December 15, 2010.The Turkish government met with Hamas leaders in February 2006, after the organization's victory in the Palestinian elections. In 2010, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described Hamas as "resistance fighters who are struggling to defend their land".The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades have been listed as a proscribed organization under the Terrorism Act since 2001, but Hamas as a whole is not listed.Proscribed Terrorist Organisations gov.ukAs of 2006, China does not designate Hamas to be a terrorist organization and acknowledges Hamas to be the legitimately elected political entity in the Gaza Strip that represents the Palestinian people. Despite U.S. and Israeli opposition, the Chinese government met with senior Hamas representative Mahmoud al-Zahar, who previously served as Palestinian foreign minister, during the June 2006 China-Arab Cooperation Forum in Beijing, an held direct bilateral talks with Hamas and the Arab World. In addition, during the same month, a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry further elucidated China's pro-Palestinian stance regarding Hamas in spite of U.S. and Israeli opposition to China's associations and close relationship with the organization, stating, "We believe that the Palestinian government is legally elected by the people there and it should be respected."Lists Hamas as a "Foreign Terrorist Organization"Banned the Muslim Brotherhood in 2014 and branded it a terrorist organization. While Hamas is not specifically listed, a non-official Saudi source stated that the decision also encompasses its branches in other countries, including Hamas. According to Tobias Buck, while Hamas is listed as a terrorist organisation by Israel, the U.S. and the EU, few treat it that way. In the Arab and Muslim world, Hamas has lost its pariah status and its emissaries are welcomed in capitals of Islamic countries. In August 2014 Jimmy Carter and Mary Robinson at the height of the 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict called for the recognition of Hamas as a legitimate political actor, noting the group had recently formed a unity government with the Palestinian Authority, and in so doing had agreed to denounce violence, recognize Israel and adhere to past agreements. United States designation of Hamas
thumb|Hamas is listed by the United States as a Foreign Terrorist Organizations since 1993. In 2011, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, denounced the killing of Osama bin Laden by the United States, and praised him as an "Arab holy warrior". The State Department decided to add Hamas to its U.S. State Department list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations in April 1993. , Hamas is still listed. The United States states that its strong stand against Hamas arises from the group's use of violence, its opposition to U.S. interests in the Middle East, and because Hamas is allegedly receiving support from Iran and collaborating with the Lebanese group Hezbollah. The Hamas representative in Iran denied the allegation that it had received $30 million from Iran in 1992, but acknowledged Iranian assistance to Palestinian groups. In particular, the U.S. alleges that Hamas soldiers have been given refuge in southern Lebanon, where they receive training and support from Hezbollah guerrillas. The FBI and United States Department of Justice also stated, in 2004, that Hamas threatened the United States through covert cells on U.S. soil.United States v. Abu Marzook. No. 03 CR 978 12. IL District Ct. 2005.Lake, Eli. "Hamas Agents Lurking in U.S., FBI Warns". New York Sun. April 29, 2004. December 10, 2006. Researcher Steven Emerson in 2006 alleged that the group had "an extensive infrastructure in the U.S. mostly revolving around the activities of fundraising, recruiting and training members, directing operations against Israel, organizing political support and operating through human-rights front groups". Emerson added that while the group had never acted outside of Israel or the Palestinian Territories, it does have the capacity to carry out attacks in the U.S. "if it decided to enlarge the scope of its operations". FBI director Robert Mueller in 2005 testified to the Senate Intelligence Committee that, the FBI's assessment at that time was that there was "a limited threat of a coordinated terrorist attack in the US from Palestinian terrorist organizations" such as Hamas. He added that Hamas had "maintained a longstanding policy of focusing their attacks on Israeli targets in Israel and the Palestinian territories", and that the FBI believed that the main interest of Hamas in the U.S. remained "the raising of funds to support their regional goals". Mueller also stated, "of all the Palestinian groups, Hamas has the largest presence in the US, with a robust infrastructure, primarily focused on fundraising, propaganda for the Palestinian cause, and proselytizing." Although it would be a major strategic shift for Hamas, its United States network is theoretically capable of facilitating acts of terrorism in the U.S.FBI Press Room: Testimony of Robert S. Mueller, III, Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation, before the Senate Committee on Intelligence of the United States Senate. February 16, 2005
On May 2, 2011, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh condemned the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan by the United States. Hamas praises Osama bin Laden as holy warrior. 2 May 2011 Haniyeh praised Bin Laden, the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, as a "martyr" and an "Arab holy warrior". The United States government condemned his remarks as "outrageous". Hamas has reportedly maintained operational and financial ties with al Qaeda. Public opinion about Hamas
In Israel and the Palestinian Territories
Prior to 2006, Hamas was well regarded by Palestinians for its efficiency and perceived lack of corruption compared to Fatah. Public opinions of Hamas have deteriorated in the Palestinian territories since it took control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Prior to the takeover, 62% of Palestinians and held a favorable view of the group, while a third had negative views. According to a 2014 Pew Research just prior to the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict, only about a third had positive opinions and more than half viewed Hamas negatively. Furthermore, 68% of Israeli Arabs viewed Hamas negatively.Concerns about Islamic Extremism on the Rise in Middle East. Pew Research
Hamas popularity however surged again after the war in 2014 with polls reporting that 81 percent of Palestinians felt that Hamas had "won" that war. In Arab and Muslim countries
thumb|Pro-Hamas rally in Damascus
In Lebanon, 65% see Hamas negatively. In Jordan and Egypt, roughly 60% see Hamas negatively, and in Turkey, 80% have a negative opinion of Hamas. In Tunisia, 42% have a negative opinion of Hamas, while 56% of Bangladeshis and 44% of Indonesians have a negative opinion of Hamas. Legal action against Hamas
In the United States
The charitable trust Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development was accused in December 2001 of funding Hamas. International support
Hamas has always maintained leadership abroad. The movement is deliberately fragmented to ensure that Israel cannot kill its top political and military leaders.http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/06/how-hamas-lost-the-arab-spring/277102/ Hamas used to be strongly allied with both Iran and Syria. Iran gave Hamas an estimated $13–15 million in 2011 as well as access to long-range missiles. Hamas’s political bureau was once located in the Syrian capital of Damascus before the start of the Syrian civil war. Relations between Hamas, Iran, and Syria began to turn cold when Hamas refused to back the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Instead, Hamas backed the Sunni rebels fighting against Assad. As a result, Iran cut funding to Hamas and their terror proxy Hezbollah ordered Hamas members out of Lebanon.http://time.com/3033681/hamas-gaza-palestine-israel-egypt/ Hamas was then forced out of Syria. Since then, Iran and Hezbollah have tried to mend fences with Hamas. Hamas contacted Jordan and Sudan to see if either would open up its borders to its political bureau. But both countries refused - though they welcomed many Hamas members leaving Syria.http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/hamas-qatar-relationship-independence.html# In 2012 Hamas headquarters subsequently moved to Doha, Qatar.http://stopterrorfinance.org/blog/510641507-is-gaza-reconstruction-aid-rearming-hamas
From 2012-2013, under the leadership of Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi, Hamas had the support of Egypt. However, when Morsi was removed from Office, his replacement Abdul Fattah al-Sisi outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood and destroyed the tunnels Hamas built into Egypt. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are likewise hostile to Hamas. Like Egypt, they designated the Brotherhood as a terrorist organization and Hamas was viewed as its Palestinian equivalent. Qatar and Turkey
According to Middle East experts, now Hamas has two firm allies: Qatar and Turkey. Both give Hamas public and financial assistance estimated to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Shashank Joshi, Senior Research Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute says that “Qatar also hosts Hamas’s political bureau which includes Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal.” Meshaal also visits Turkey frequently to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan has dedicated himself to breaking Hamas out of its political and economic seclusion. Last year on U.S. television Erdogan said, "I don't see Hamas as a terror organization. Hamas is a political party."
In 2007, Qatar was, with Turkey, the only country to back Hamas after the group ousted the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip. The relationship between Hamas and Qatar strengthened in 2008 and 2009 when Khaled Meshaal was invited to attend the Doha Summit where he was seated next to the then Qatari Emir Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani who pledged $250 million to repair the damage caused by the Israel in the Israeli war on Gaza. These events caused Qatar to become the main player in the “Palestinian issue.” Qatar called Gaza’s blockade unjust and immoral, which prompted the Hamas government in Gaza, including former Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, to thank Qatar for their “unconditional” support. Qatar then began regularly handing out political, material, humanitarian and charitable support for Hamas. In 2012, Qatar’s former Emir, Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, became the first head of state to visit Gaza under Hamas rule. He pledged to raise $400 million for reconstruction. Some have argued that the money Qatar gives to reconstruct Palestine is an excuse to pour even more money into Hamas. Qatar’s reason for funding Hamas, which is shared by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is allegedly that Islamist groups are growing and will eventually play a role in the region; thus it is important for Qatar (and Turkey) to maintain ties. During the Arab Spring, for example, Qatar backed the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian Islamist group whose offshoot is Hamas.http://www.jta.org/2014/09/14/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/why-does-qatar-support-hamas Other sources say that advocating for Hamas is politically beneficial to Turkey and Qatar because the Palestinian cause draws popular support amongst their citizens at home.http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/06/world/meast/mideast-hamas-support/
Some began to label Qatar a terrorist haven in part because it is harboring Hamas leader Meshaal. They also harbor Husam Badran former leader of Hamas’s military wing in the northern West Bank.https://bbcwatch.org/tag/husam-badran/ Husam Badran, current media spokesman for Hamas, was the instigator of several of the deadliest suicide bombings of the second intifada including the Dolphinarium discotheque bombing in Tel Aviv which killed 21 people.http://www.jta.org/2011/10/18/news-opinion/israel-middle-east/murderers-row-who-are-the-terrorists-being-freed-in-the-shalit-deal
Turkey has also been criticized for housing terrorists like Saleh al-Arouri, the senior Hamas officer known for his ability to mastermind attacks from abroad. Al-Arouri is alleged to have orchestrated the June 2014 abduction and killing of three Israeli teenagers and to have started the 50 days war between Israel and Palestine and now lived in Turkey.http://stopterrorfinance.org/blog/510702345-a-rising-terror-threat-hamas-underground-tunnels-and-remote-control
Speaking in reference to Qatar’s support for Hamas, during a 2015 visit to Palestine, Qatari official Mohammad al-Emadi, said Qatar is using the money not to help Hamas but rather the Palestinian people as a whole. He acknowledges however that giving to the Palestinian people means using Hamas as the local contact. Emadi said, "You have to support them. You don't like them, don't like them. But they control the country, you know." http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/06/18/414693807/why-israel-lets-qatar-give-millions-to-hamas Some argue that Hamas’s relations with Qatar are putting Hamas in an awkward position because Qatar has become part of the regional Arab problem. But Hamas claims that having contacts with various Arab countries establishes positive relations which will encourage Arab countries to do their duty toward the Palestinians and support their cause by influencing public opinion in the Arab world. In March 2015, Hamas has announced its support of the Saudi Arabian-led military intervention in Yemen against the Shia Houthis and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh.Hamas supports military operation for political legitimacy in Yemen. Arab News. 30 March 2015. U.S.-based support
Several U.S. organizations were either shut down or held liable for financing Hamas in early 2001, groups that have origins from the mid-1990s: the Holy Land Foundation (HLF), Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP), and Kind Hearts. The U.S. Justice Department filed 200 charges against the foundation. The case first ended in a mistrial, in which jurors acquitted on some counts and were deadlocked on charges ranging from tax violations to providing material support for terrorists. In a retrial, on November 24, 2008, the five leaders of the Foundation were convicted on 108 counts. In 2004, a federal court in the United States found Hamas liable in a civil lawsuit for the 1996 murders of Yaron and Efrat Ungar near Bet Shemesh, Israel. Hamas has been ordered to pay the families of the Ungars $116 million. On July 5, 2004, the court issued a default judgment against the PNA and the PLO regarding the Ungars' said that the Palestinian Authority and the PLO provide safe haven to Hamas. On August 20, 2004, three Palestinians, one a naturalized American citizen, were charged with a "lengthy racketeering conspiracy to provide money for terrorist acts in Israel". The indicted include Mousa Mohammed Abu Marzook, a senior member of Hamas considered a fugitive by the U.S. On February 1, 2007, two men were acquitted of contravening United States law by supporting Hamas. Both men argued that they helped move money for Palestinian causes aimed at helping the Palestinian people and not to promote terrorism. In January 2009, a Federal prosecutor accused the Council on American-Islamic Relations of having links to a charity designated as a support network for Hamas. The Justice Department identified CAIR as an "un-indicted co-conspirator" in the Holy Land Foundation case in Dallas, which concluded with the sentencing of the two founders of the foundation to life in prison for funneling $12 million to Hamas. Later, a federal appeals court removed that label for all parties and instead, named them "joint venturers". In Germany
A German federal court ruled in 2004 that Hamas was a unified organisation whose humanitarian aid work could not be separated from its "terrorist and political activities". In July 2010, Germany also outlawed Frankfurt-based International Humanitarian Aid Organization (IHH e.V.), saying it had used donations to support Hamas-affiliated relief projects in Gaza. While presenting their activities to donors as humanitarian assistance, German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said, IHH e.V. had "exploited trusting donors' willingness to help by using money that was given for a good purpose for supporting what is, in the final analysis, a terrorist organization".Germany IHH e.V. ban shameful, illegal, says group leader Today's Zaman, July 14, 2010 A spokesperson for the Islamic Human Rights Commission described the decision as "a victory for those who seek to stigmatise all Islamic activism as supporting terrorism".Press Release: Germany – Banning of IHH stigmatises all Islamic humanitarian activism July 14, 2010
See also
Hamastan
Human rights in the Palestinian National Authority
List of Palestinian suicide attacks
List of political parties in the Palestinian National Authority
References
Bibliography
External links
Britannica
Hamas leaders CFR
Hamas Charter
The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) (includes interpretation)
Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Public Relations The New York Times, July 23, 2009
22 years on the start of Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades' Information Office
Fatah and Hamas Human Rights Violations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories in 2007 by Elizabeth Freed of Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
Sadiki, Larbi, Tests and contests: Hamas without Syria
Sherifa Zuhur, Hamas and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics (PDF File) December 2008
Category:1987 establishments in the Palestinian territories
Category:Anti-Zionism in the Palestinian territories
Category:Islam and antisemitism
Category:Islamism in Israel
Category:Islamism in the Palestinian territories
Category:Islamic political parties
Category:Islamic fundamentalism
Category:Jihadist groups
Category:Muslim Brotherhood
Category:National liberation movements
Category:Organizations designated as terrorist in Asia
Category:Palestinian militant groups
Category:Palestinian nationalist parties
Category:Palestinian political parties
Category:Palestinian terrorism
Category:Political parties established in 1987
Category:Resistance movements
Category:Sunni Islamist groups
Category:United Kingdom Home Office designated terrorist groups Treasury Department specially designated the HLF in 2001 for terror ties: from 1995-2001. The HLF transferred “approximately $12.4 million outside of the United States with the intent to contribute funds, goods, and services to Hamas.” According to the Treasury Department, Khaled Meshal, identified one of HLF’s officers, Mohammed El-Mezain as “the Hamas leader for the U.S.” In 2003, IAP was found liable for financially supporting Hamas, and in 2006 Kind Hearts had their assets frozen for supporting Hamas.http://www.thetower.org/3260oc-former-treasury-official-same-network-that-funded-hamas-in-u-s-backs-boycotts-of-israel/ In 2016 it was reported that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement (BDS) against Israel includes a web of Hamas supporters from the Illinois-based organization American Muslims for Palestine (AMP).http://www.timesofisrael.com/congressional-testimony-highlights-ties-between-hamas-linked-charities-bds/
See also
25th anniversary of Hamas
Hamastan
Human rights in the Palestinian National Authority
List of Palestinian suicide attacks
List of political parties in the Palestinian National Authority
References
Bibliography
External links
Britannica
Hamas leaders CFR
Hamas Charter
The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) (includes interpretation)
Hamas Shifts From Rockets to Public Relations The New York Times, July 23, 2009
22 years on the start of Hamas Al-Qassam Brigades' Information Office
Fatah and Hamas Human Rights Violations in the Palestinian Occupied Territories in 2007 by Elizabeth Freed of Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
Sadiki, Larbi, Tests and contests: Hamas without Syria
Sherifa Zuhur, Hamas and Israel: Conflicting Strategies of Group-Based Politics (PDF File) December 2008
Category:1987 establishments in the Palestinian territories
Category:Anti-Zionism in the Palestinian territories
Category:Islam and antisemitism
Category:Islamism in Israel
Category:Islamism in the Palestinian territories
Category:Islamic political parties
Category:Islamic fundamentalism
Category:Jihadist groups
Category:Muslim Brotherhood
Category:National liberation movements
Category:Organizations designated as terrorist in Asia
Category:Palestinian militant groups
Category:Palestinian nationalist parties
Category:Palestinian political parties
Category:Palestinian terrorism
Category:Political parties established in 1987
Category:Resistance movements
Category:Sunni Islamist groups
Highlight colors show which account likely added that new text: Nishidani Haberstr Marokwitz