Hamas

Hamas (Arabic: حماس‎ 'enthusiasm', 'fervor', and acronym for Harakat al-Muqáwama al-Islamiya, in Arabic: حركة المقاومة الإسلامية‎, Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian organization that declares itself to be a jihadist, nationalist, and Islamist organization. Its original objective, defined in its founding charter, was the establishment of an Islamic state in the historical region of Palestine, which would include present-day Israel, the West Bank, and the Strip. of Gaza, with its capital in Jerusalem. However, in 2017 it published a new document of principles according to which it calls for "the establishment of a completely sovereign and independent State of Palestine, with Jerusalem as its capital, on the borders of June 4, 1967" and emphasized its nationalist character over the religious one, although it still does not recognize Israel or abandon the armed struggle. Hamas has a series of organizations independent organizations that carry out their activities in many different fields, ranging from cultural and religious assimilation to young people through the madrasa, social assistance to the most needy Palestinians (and to the families of their own members who have died or are imprisoned in Israeli jails)., representation in Palestinian political institutions through the Change and Reform list, to the Ezzeldin Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas that has been accused of practicing terrorism.

Hamas has been declared a terrorist organization by the United States, Israel, Japan, Canada, Australia, the General Secretariat of the Organization of American States (OAS), and Egypt, while other countries such as Russia, Turkey, Brazil, China, Norway, or Switzerland, do not consider it as such. The European Union also considered it a terrorist organization since 2003, although its Court of Justice appealed this decision to remove it from said list. The court's ruling is pending analysis by the Council of the European Union.

Although Israel initially helped create Hamas, thereby trying to weaken Yasir Arafat's hitherto hegemonic PLO, from its formal creation in 1987 to the present, the various organizations that are part of Hamas have become in priority targets of Israeli military operations, which have ended the lives of important members of the movement, including its founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, and his successor Ábdel Aziz ar-Rantisi, killed in "selective attacks » of the Israeli military. Hamas' charter exhibits the influence of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

The Change and Reform list, linked to Hamas, stood in the 2006 Palestinian general elections obtaining an absolute majority, which gave it the power to form the government led by Ismail Haniye, who it generated a series of sanctions by some Western and Arab countries that considered Hamas a terrorist. Following a series of clashes and growing tension with its rival Fatah, in 2007 armed organizations loyal to Hamas in the Gaza Strip ended up expelling Fatah supporters from the territory and seized full control of the Strip. From then until 2017, Hamas took over the government of the Gaza Strip, while its political rival Fatah maintained control of the West Bank. In September 2017, a rapprochement between Hamas and Fatah began. On October 2, the Palestinian National Authority returned to Gaza and on October 12, the Palestinian Reconciliation Pact between Hamas and Fatah was signed in Cairo, agreeing to the creation of a Palestinian unity government, the calling of general elections and the transfer of control of the Rafah border crossing between Gaza and Egypt to the Palestinian National Authority.

The Hamas government in Gaza has been subjected to a blockade by Israel since 2007 that prevents the entry of food, medicine, construction material, weapons and other products into Gazan territory. The Hamas PNA in Gaza was one of the main targets of the Israeli army's invasion of Gaza in late 2008; After declaring that it had achieved its objectives, the Israeli army ended up withdrawing from the coastal territory, returning to the status quo prior to the conflict and Hamas retaking power in the Strip.

Different human rights organizations, such as Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, have accused Hamas of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity against both the Israeli and Palestinian populations, as well as torture, murder and kidnapping against the Palestinian population.

Beginnings

Qassam rocket remnants fired by Hamas from the Gaza Strip.

Hamas was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yasin in 1987, during the course of the first Intifada, issuing its first statement in December 1987. Some of its precursor groups were "The Allies of the Land of Isra';", and "Islamic Movement of Struggle". It was Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and various followers such as Mahmud Al Zahhar and Ábdel Aziz ar-Rantisi who officially structured and spread the movement.

Their first statement stated:

The Intifada of our people rejects the occupation and its pressures, the confiscation of the land, the construction of settlements and the policy of subjection of the Zionists [...]. Islam is the solution and the alternative. Our people know the way of sacrifice and martyrdom. Make them understand that violence is nothing but violence, that death brings only death.

In the second article of its founding letter, dated August 18, 1988, it presented itself as a branch of the international movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, and which advocates the application of Islamic law in various aspects of daily life, but the link with this movement never really exceeded the merely ideological, as leaders of both groups have later recognized.

Rebirth of Jihad

Flags with the shahadacarried by the followers of Hamas.

In 1973, when the Egyptian and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood resumed war against the secular rulers of those countries, followers of the Cairo group formed the Islamic Jihad organization. A branch of the group, formed in the Gaza Strip, began a low-intensity war against the Israeli army and the military and civil administration that Israel had exercised in the Palestinian territories since 1967. This branch did not show much military skill, so which had less support compared to Fatah and other exile groups, which received weapons from Arab allies.

In the late 1970s, Sheikh Ahmed Yasin, a paraplegic Koranic student in Gaza City, manages to create a social movement (still unrelated to jihad), stating that the real enemy of the Palestinian people was not just the Jewish state, but the vices punished by Islam, true "scourges of the Palestinians", namely: prostitutes, drug dealers (including those who sold drugs only to Israelis), officials in the neighborhoods and businessmen who collaborated with Israel for their own benefit without helping the Palestinians, and intellectuals who put foreign philosophies before Islam.

Preparing for Armed Struggle

At first, the Shabak, one of the Israeli secret services, did not see Yasin and his students as a threat. He only became concerned when the sheikh's followers began assaulting Israeli collaborators in the Gaza neighborhoods. According to Yasser Arafat, Israel has even given them some unofficial support to take on Fatah or the PFLP in Gaza and the West Bank.

In 1984, the Israelis recognized Yasin and his students as the worst preachers of hatred against Israel. The following year Yasín's weapons were found in his own house; was preparing an Islamist revolt in Gaza.^{[citation needed]} Arrested by the Shabak, Yasin became a famous prisoner, known by the press as the "terrorist in the wheelchair". While he was serving prison terms, his followers were consolidating the organization, which already ran madrassas and neighborhood clinics, raising funds for social assistance among businessmen and oil sheikhs in the Persian Gulf, who wanted a Palestinian ally against the secularist left that threatened their interests.

The armed struggle

Composition of the Palestinian Parliament following the January 2006 elections

In 1987 Yassin was jailed once again for affiliation with a terrorist group, but released, along with 70 other Palestinians, in exchange for the two Mossad agents who were arrested in Jordan after attempting to assassinate the Hamas leader in that country, Khaled Meshal, a failed operation that also resulted in the resignation of the then head of the Mossad, General Danny Yatom. During the course of the first Intifada, Hamas issued its first statement in December 1987. Some of its precursor groups were "The Allies of the Land of Isrá", and "Islamic Movement of Struggle". It was Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and various followers such as Mahmud Al Zahhar and Ábdel Aziz ar-Rantisi who officially structured and spread the movement. In the second article of its founding letter, dated August 18, 1988, it presented itself as a branch of the international movement of the Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, which advocates the application of Islamic law in various aspects of daily life, but the link with said movement never really exceeded the merely ideological, as leaders of both groups have later recognized. In 1991, Hamas declared the founding of the Izzedin al-Kassam Brigades, its military arm.^{[citation needed]}

Hamas launched a wave of kidnappings and attacks, such as the murder of policeman Nissim Toledano on December 15, 1992, and Golani Brigade soldier Nachshon Wachsman on October 14, 1994 (Wachsman's assassination occurred during an unsuccessful attempt to to save him and rescue him from his captors). The mastermind behind the attacks was the notorious Muhammad Déf, a radical militant and veteran who would later become the head of BIK. Because of the attacks, Israel's Prime Minister Isaac Rabin decided to expel a few hundred militants from the group to southern Lebanon. But under pressure from foreign countries, Rabin agreed to send them back to Gaza.

Oslo Accords

When Yasser Arafat and Isaac Rabin met in 1993 and 1994 and agreed to negotiate an end to the Palestinian-Israeli war, Hamas denounced Arafat and the PLO as traitors who would allow the division of historic Palestine. Although Arafat found it difficult to convince the Palestinians of the deal, and led to the disappointment and alienation of many of his supporters in the PLO and Fatah, Hamas was not weakened, because he was not a member of the PLO.

Its leaders have repeatedly called Arab-Israeli talks — including the Oslo Accords — a "waste of time. They support armed struggle and suicide attacks against civilians as a means to achieve their goals.

Conflict with Fatah and the SSP

During the transfer of authority in Gaza and Jericho from the Israeli Civil Administration to the new Palestinian National Authority (PNA), Hamas strengthened itself as the best alternative group to Fatah. He criticized Arafat as a "corrupt dictator"; that he was harnessing Palestinian nationalism for his own ends. Against Hamas, Fatah militias such as Tanzim were formed from Marwan Barrouti in the West Bank. But most despised by Hamas was the Preventive Security Service and its director Muhammad Dahlan. Dahlan, a loyal Fatah militant, understood that Hamas's social network, already in place for many years, had the potential to supplant the PNA as a state within a state.

Terrorist campaign 1994-2004

Hamas began a campaign of suicide bombings in 1994 with unprecedented frequency. Arafat acted hesitantly, not knowing whether he would openly confront Hamas or not, thinking that the increase in violence would prevent him from obtaining new commitments from Israel in favor of the Palestinian cause. Right-wing Israeli opponents, who rose to power under Benjamin Netanyahu, Arafat's bellicose activities and Hamas bombers sabotaged negotiations between Israel and the PNA.

Military Strategy

Although at that time Hamas did not have sophisticated weapons to fight the Israeli army, the BIK bosses recruited many skilled unemployed especially electricians, mechanics, and civil engineers. One of them, Yahya Ayyash, or "The Engineer" ('al-muhandis'), would have been the architect of the suicide bombing campaign, along with Muhamad Déf, Nidal Farajat, Salame Jamad, Adnan Rrul, and Salaj Chejade, the triumvirate of BIK chiefs. On January 5, 1996, Ayyash was killed by a bomb placed on his cell phone by the Shabak, but before he died he had already taught others how to make belt bombs. Hamas gradually used shelling more than other methods such as shootings and kidnappings. Islamic Jihad quickly acquired it as a tactic and Fatah's Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades began using it in the second Intifada in September 2000.

Assassinations of Hamas members

Although Hamas had many successes during its campaign when killing civilians, it suffered many losses, such as in the case of the death of Allach. The following is a list of Hamas leaders who have been targeted for targeted assassination by the State of Israel:

• Yahya Ayyash (5 January 1996): Main bomb manufacturer.
• Salah Shehade (22 July 2002): BIK co-founder.
• Ahmed Yasín (22 March 2004): Founder and spiritual leader.
• Ábdel Aziz ar-Rantisi (17 April 2004): Spokesman of the political and civil movement.
• Adnan Rrul and Imad Abbas (October 21, 2004): The first was the co-founder of the BIK and the second was a high-ranking officer in the BIK.
• Izzedín Subji Cheik Jalil (26 September 2004): Officer of the third figure in the State Office of the group (the Hamas body in exile); murder by a car bomb in Damascus.
• Mahmoud al-Mabhouh (19 January 2010): Commander-in-Chief.
• Ahmed Yabari (14 November 2012): Chief of the military arm.

Attacks carried out by the Ezzeldin Al-Qassam Brigades

The Ezzeldin Al-Qassam Brigades are the armed wing of Hamas, and since 1993 they have carried out dozens of attacks against military objectives and the Israeli civilian population, causing hundreds of victims. In 2004 the last suicide attacks by the Brigades took place, which began to attack the Israel Defense Forces and launch Qassam rockets (and after the start of the 2008-2009 Gaza Strip Conflict, also the most powerful Grad and Katyusha) from the Gaza Strip against southern Israel.

Complaints of human rights abuses

2002

Human Rights Watch denounced Hamas (along with other groups) as carrying out "serious violations of humanitarian law."

2007

The organization Amnesty International denounced Hamas as responsible for numerous abuses against the Palestinian civilian population (torture, murders, irregular detentions, etc) accusing it, along with Fatah, of being responsible for the death of at least 350 people, as well as well as committing crimes against humanity for their suicide attacks. These denunciations by Amnesty International were also repeated in 2008.

2008

In 2008, a strong controversy was generated by the intention of Hamas to promulgate a criminal law according to sharia, with penalties of crucifixion, amputation of hands, or flogging. Hamas immediately denied it.

2009

In 2009, Amnesty International denounced Hamas for a "deadly campaign of kidnappings, deliberate and unlawful killings, torture and death threats in the Gaza Strip against people they accused of 'collaborating' with Israel (…) ".

2014

In its 2014 report Amnesty International denounced Hamas for restricting freedoms of expression and peaceful assembly and for carrying out "a brutal campaign of kidnapping, torture and unlawful killing of Palestinians", arbitrary detentions, torture with impunity and for the operation "strangle necks" against Fatah members or other dissidents.

Hamas Program

Hamas does not recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel, nor does it accept the resolution proposed by the United Nations General Assembly on November 29, 1947, which established the partition of Palestine into two states, one Arab and the other Jewish. He believes that Israel was built on the usurpation of historic Palestine and does not accept any reconciliation with the Jews that does not include their renouncing any claim to Palestine, including all of the present territory of the State of Israel.

On multiple occasions, Hamas leaders have called Arab-Israeli talks (such as those ended in the Oslo Accords) a waste of time. They support armed struggle and suicide attacks against civilians as a means to achieve their goals. Apart from violent operations, Hamas also maintains a political and social position such as maintaining hospitals and schools, supporting certain candidates and lists in the municipal and legislative elections that were recently held in the territories under the control of the Palestinian National Authority.

Charter, or "Hamas Pact"

In its founding letter, published on August 18, 1988, Hamas makes a series of accusations and warnings against Israel in particular and against Jews in general that have been classified as anti-Semitic by various media outlets.

Preamble: Israel will exist and continue to exist until Islam destroys it, just as it has destroyed others in the past.

Cited in Dictionary of terrorismpage 246.

Article 7: "The Day of Judgment shall not come until the Muslims fight the Jews, until the Jews hide behind the mountains and the trees, which shall shout, 'Oh, Muslim! A Jew hides behind me, come and kill him!"

The Hamas Pact supports the theory that there would be a Jewish conspiracy that would have caused disasters for Islam for centuries.

Article 32: The Jewish Conspiracy has no end and after Palestine the expansion from the Nile to the Euphrates will be ambitioned

Cited in Dictionary of terrorismpage 246.

In addition, Jews are accused of controlling the media, the world's wealth, instigating the French and Russian Revolutions, World War I and World War II, all of which would further Zionist goals.

Article 22: Declares that "enemies" or Zionist organizations "accumulated a large and influential material wealth" with which they "take control of the world press." "They were behind the French Revolution and communist revolutions. As for local and world wars, no one objected to them behind the First World War, as well as the annihilation of the Islamic caliphate. They were also behind the Second World War, when they gained immense benefits through trade with war materials, and they were prepared for the establishment of their state. They inspired the creation of the United Nations and the Security Council to replace the League of Nations, to dominate the world through its intermediaries. There is no war that has exploded in any place that does not carry his fingerprints."

Funding

Throughout its history, Hamas has received financial support from many parties, including governments such as Saudi Arabia and also governments such as Iran and Syria (despite the fact that the latter two belong to the Shiite branch of the Islam, rival of the Sunni prevailing in Hamas). Some Gulf oil sheikhs have also personally contributed to its financing.

On the other hand, Hamas is structured around Daʿwa, preaching, the Muslim principle of assistance to those in need, and the concepts of zakat (charity) and sadaqat (donations), through which he receives funds from many charities located outside the Palestinian territories.

Israel has declared as "clandestine organizations" to 20 Hamas charity committees within the West Bank and Gaza, as well as 8 charities from outside the territories, due to their relationship with Hamas.

Social network

The organization is in charge of caring for and financially supporting the relatives of its activists and militants who are imprisoned in Israeli jails, who have died as a result of attacks by the Israeli army or because of their acts against Israel, including attacks and armed attacks. It also has a wide network of Koranic schools and care centers, and is used to distributing food to the population in times of greatest economic crisis. In this way, it is seen by the Palestinian population as the only organization that, despite the many conjunctural changes, firmly supports and sustains its people. Its wide network of social attention has given it great popularity among the Palestinian population, which suffers the consequences of the conflict with Israel.

In his book, Hamas: politics, charity and terrorism in the service of jihad, analyst and former US Treasury Department Under Secretary for Intelligence and FBI adviser Matthew Levitt, of the pro-Israel Washington Institute for Near East Policy, calculates that Hamas probably has a budget of between 70 and 90 million dollars, of which they invest 80 to 85% in their political activities and their networks of schools, clinics and social work, while the rest are dedicated to their armed activities. Likewise, Israeli academic Reuven Paz, former research director of Shabak, the Israeli general security service, states that "Approximately 90 percent of their activities are social, welfare, cultural, and educational".

In the Gaza government

Hamas took no part in the political life of the PNA from its formation in 1994 until 2006, including the 1996 Palestinian Legislative Council or PLC elections and the 1995 presidential election. But before the 2005 regional elections, for the PLC in January 2006, Hamas declared its readiness for political participation. In both elections the Hamas list, Change and Recovery, won with landslide victories.

Since the elections, government power in the PNA has been divided between supporters of President Mahmud Abbas ("Abu Mazen"), the Fatah leader, and those of Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, one of the Hamas leadership. There are reports that real power rests with Khaled Meshal, the head of the State Office, which is the external branch of the group in Damascus. Meshal was always considered one of Yasin's two lieutenants, the other being Abdelaziz ar-Rantisi until he was assassinated by Israel. Although the Israelis believe that Meshal, a hardline figure in Hamas, is more dangerous than Haniya, so far they do not negotiate with either of them, preferring to recognize only President Abbas's authority in all matters between the PNA and Israel.. So far the Israeli government has only made formal agreements with regional Hamas leaders on minor issues such as the use of water and electricity in specific cities such as Tulkarem and Nablus.

The War Within

Fatah's reaction to its defeat in elections in January 2006 was to reject Hamas's offer to form a national unity government. Since that rejection, Fatah and Hamas militants have frequently fought in the streets of the Gaza Strip, and some Fatah militants in the West Bank have assaulted Hamas figures such as mayors and members of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Haniya and Abbas were subjected to assassination attempts from the other side. Although both leaders are officially the heads of their factions, some extremist militants have influence on events and the assassination attempts were never ordered by either Abbas or Haniya, but rather by leaders such as Muhamad Deif, who had opposed the Hamas participation in the elections.

Fatah took other steps to undermine the authority of the Hamas government, such as declaring a general strike against Hamas ministers. The international community's economic boycott could benefit both sides, because it shook the government and consolidated the strike against it. Hamas responded by establishing close ties with Iran, a regional adversary of Western countries. Meanwhile, Israel has allowed Abbas's presidential guard to import weapons from Jordan.

In early 2007, armed confrontations between the factions intensified, resulting in dozens of deaths and kidnappings on both sides.

On the other hand, the international community has refused, since Hamas's electoral victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections, to provide financial aid or legitimate recognition to the Hamas government, because this organization refuses, until now, to accept the three basic points required by the UN to advance in the peace process: recognition of Israel's right to exist, renouncing terrorist violence and acceptance of the Oslo Accords.

According to Amnesty International, during the 2008-2009 Gaza Conflict, Hamas carried out a campaign of kidnappings, assassinations, torture and death threats against Palestinians considered collaborators, as well as people opposed to or critical of the actions of Hamas.

Amnesty International, in its 2014/2015 annual report, also denounced that there is no freedom of expression or assembly and that dissidents are arbitrarily detained. During Operation Protective Edge, members of Fatah were kidnapped, detained and tortured with impunity and sentenced to death by Hamas without the due judicial guarantees corresponding to civilians.

2017 negotiations with Fatah

Since 2007, when Hamas expelled Fatah from Gaza, there have been various attempts at political negotiation that have been cut short. The signing in May 2011 of a National Reunification Agreement with the different Palestinian factions stands out, the agreement in 2014 for the creation of a unity government that failed and the signing on October 12, 2017 in Cairo of the Pact of Palestinian reconciliation with Fatah. “This time, like every other time, in Hamas we are determined and we are serious. We have dissolved the administrative committee (shadow government). We have opened the door to achieve this reconciliation”, said Saleh Arouri, who led the Hamas delegation, after the signing.

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