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Hamas
Most Western media display a hostile attitude towards the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement, known popularly as Hamas, describing it as a “terrorist group” devoted to the destruction of Israel. Especially in North America, Hamas is not only guilty until proven innocent, it is guilty even if proven innocent, while Israel is often treated not only as innocent until proven guilty, but as innocent even if proven guilty. This is the general perception among most Arabs and Muslims in the Middle East and beyond. I have reported on Hamas and have interviewed most of its leaders since its appearance in Gaza in the closing weeks of 1987. My feeling is that it will continue, for the foreseeable future, to play a major role not only in Israel-Palestine, but throughout the Middle East, where concentrations of Palestinian refugees are scattered, and throughout the Muslim world, where the Palestinian cause elicits strong emotions. For that reason it deserves fair and objective scrutiny. The Beginning Hamas has its roots in the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood, whose main goal is to re-Islamize traditional Muslim societies. This process of re-Islamization, e.g, propagating Islamic education and fostering Islamic consciousness, is expected to culminate in the reinstitution of a Sunni Islamic political authority, or Caliphate. The last expression of the Sunni Caliphate collapsed with the downfall of the Ottoman State at the end of the First World War. Nearly all the founders and co-founders of Hamas have been members of the Muslim Brotherhood and have been involved in religious, cultural, educational and organizational activities first through al Jamaiya al Islamiya (Islamic Society) and later through al-Mujamma al Islami (Islamic Center) in the Gaza Strip. When Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, the main founder and spiritual leader of Hamas, was murdered by Israel in March, 2004, he was mourned all over the Occupied Palestinian territories as “head of the Muslim Brothers” in addition to being Hamas’s chief. Ahmed Yasin was born in 1936 in the village of al Jura, near the modern-day city of Ashkelon just north of Gaza. At the age of six, his father, Ismael, died which meant that Yasin would grow up fatherless and have to depend very much on himself, in addition to providing for his family. He was 12 years old when the Palestinian Nakba or catastrophe occurred in 1948, forcing his mother to flee with her children southward to the Gaza Strip. Here they lived a life of poverty, and from here the future Muslim leader could observe Jews from Europe and elsewhere settling in his village and taking over his home, claiming to have returned to the ancestral land they had left more than two thousand years before. At the age of 16, Yasin fell on his back while playing sports, and lost the ability to stand or walk. His paralysis, however, did not prevent him from pursuing a career in education which brought him into direct contact with the people. On the night of Dec. 9, 1987, the senior leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, now headed by Yasin, held an emergency meeting and decided to officially launch Hamas as a resistance group against the Israeli occupation. In addition to Yasin, the participants included Abdul Aziz Rantisi, Abdul Fattah Dukhan, Salah Shehadeh, Muhammed Shama’a, Ibrahim al Yazuri and Isa al Nashar. On Dec. 14, 1987, the first communiqué by Hamas was released to the press. The communiqué was unsigned and bore only the Arabic acronym of the three letters making up its name: hms. Eventually, it was decided to use the more euphonious name “Hamas” instead of the odd-sounding “hams.” Hamas in Arabic means zeal and enthusiasm. A host of reasons contributed to its appearance and its subsequent growth and popularity. The Israeli repression of Palestinians had become ever more ferocious as Israeli occupation soldiers dealt harshly with Palestinian demonstrators, killing them indiscriminately at the slightest provocation. At the same time, Israel had adopted a policy of narrowing Palestinians’ horizons through settlement expansion as well as a number of other draconian measures, such as massive home demolitions, land confiscations and sweeping arrests. In short, the Israeli repression had reached the point where an explosion was looming, and the question was not if it was going to happen but when. Most Palestinians thought the main strategic goal behind the escalating repression was to force them and their children to emigrate. Interestingly, even today, there are influential political parties in Israel that advocate expulsion of Palestinians, including the expulsion of Israel’s own Palestinian citizens. At the same time, the Islamic camp, which had been generally non-violent and engaged mainly in preaching and building up an Islamic consciousness, had come to the conclusion that the Islamists (the term had not been coined by that time) would stand to lose in the eyes of the people unless they took part in the struggle against the Zionist occupiers. One of the main propaganda assets that had been used by Fatah, the mainstream secular faction of the P.L.O. headed by Yasser Arafat, against the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine was that its members just indulged in rhetoric and empty talk in the mosques while avoiding the “field of struggle and resistance against the enemy.” Hence, involvement in the resistance, besides being a religious and moral duty, would also silence the secular camp.
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