Hamas

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HAMAS

HAMAS is an acronym drawn from the Arabic initials of the Islamic Resistance Movement (harakat al-muqawamat al-Islamiyyah), but which also bears a literal meaning of "zeal." An offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, HAMAS was established in 1987, during the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). The context for the creation of HAMAS was the continued failure of efforts such as the Camp David Accords to achieve the goal of Palestinian statehood.

In November of 1987, the Arab League met in Amman, Jordan, and issued a statement identifying the export of Islamic revolution from Iran as the greatest threat to stability in the region. This was the first time the Arab League had not identified Israel's occupation of Palestinian territory as the major threat to regional stability. Feeling betrayed by the international community and abandoned by fellow Arabs, some members of the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood lost faith in the approach to the problem of Palestinian statelessness taken by that organization during the past few decades. The immediate cause of the intifada was the death of some Palestinian workers hit by an Israeli driver. A group of Islamist Palestinians came together at a meeting called to discuss the incident, and the result was the formation of HAMAS. While the Palestinian Brotherhood's parent organization, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, continued to follow a quietist approach to achieving Palestinian goals, HAMAS leaders were persuaded that militarism would be required to achieve security for Palestinians.

In addition to distinguishing itself from its parent, the Muslim Brotherhood, by insisting on the need for armed resistance, HAMAS distinguishes itself from the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in rejecting the right of the Zionist entity (as it calls Israel) to exist because Israel denies Palestinians the rights of freedom and independence. Further distinguishing itself from the PLO, HAMAS demands that an Islamic state be established in place of Israel or a secular Palestinian state. The basis of this position is the claim that Jerusalem and, by extension, all of Palestine, are waqf, that is, properties entrusted to Muslims to administer in perpetuity, for the benefit of society. HAMAS ideologues believe that an Islamic state is necessary to ensure the rights of all citizens, Jews and Christians as well as Muslims, since Islamic law protects the rights of religious minorities. Thus, the HAMAS charter proclaims, "God is the goal, the Prophet is the model, the Qur?an is the constitution, jihad is the path, and death on God's path is our most sublime aspiration."

The spiritual leader of HAMAS, Shaykh Ahmad Yasin (b. 1936), was leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza and founder of Gaza's Islamic Center. He sought to establish HAMAS as an alternative to the PLO. HAMAS, therefore, devotes the majority of its budget to an array of social services. These include support for the families of slain, jailed, or exiled activists; health centers; kindergartens and other schools; mosques; and mediation services (a common form of civil conflict resolution in Arab societies). Its military activities, which it considers legitimate resistance to Israel's military occupation which is in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, are conducted by an armed wing called Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, named after a Palestinian hero killed by the British during its "Mandate" occupation of Palestine in 1936.

The ability of HAMAS to provide its services depends upon its funding, which is both local and international. Internal funding comes from the Islamic charity offering, zakat. Support also comes from Muslim governments, such as those of Saudi Arabia and Iran, from Islamic organizations throughout the world, as well as remittances from Muslims living abroad.

Organizationally, HAMAS is linked to the Muslim Brotherhood. According to the HAMAS charter of August 1988, it is a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood Society in Palestine. Its activities are coordinated by liaisons between Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, and HAMAS leaders living abroad. Its leadership structure is informal, with several founders and ideologues. Shaykh Yasin remains the acknowledged spiritual leader, but specific decisions are taken by a consultative council (majlis al-shura) with a flexible membership. This structure is in accordance with the traditional Sunni Islamic model, and is effective in allowing the organization to survive the incarceration and exile of its leaders from time to time.

HAMAS is most notorious for its use of suicide bombings in its armed struggle against Israel, targeting both military personnel and civilians. Both suicide and the targeting of civilians are forbidden by Islamic law. Both have been condemned by major Islamic scholars since the attacks against America on 11 September 2001. However, many religious scholars make an exception to the prohibition of suicide in the case of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation, provided the victims of the attacks are military personnel.

The HAMAS charter describes the organization as the resistance wing of the Muslim Brotherhood, and therefore a part of an international movement. At the same time, Shaykh Yasin describes the movement as essentially political, in that its goal is to secure the rights of Palestinians in their homeland. Like other political movements, the significance of HAMAS is based not so much on the number of its official members as on the popularity of its political agenda. The popularity of HAMAS among Palestinians is impossible to measure precisely without general elections. However, elections among students in Palestinian universities indicate that by the mid-1990s, HAMAS had the second-largest following, after FATAH (harakat al-tahrir al-watani al-filastini, the largest organization in the PLO). While the popularity of militant Islamic groups in general was declining slightly by the end of the 1990s, that trend was reversed following Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000. Without clear benefits to the majority of Palestinians from the 1993 Oslo Accords, and in the context of stalled negotiations between Israel and the PLO, the claim that militant Islam had defeated Israel in Lebanon and could do so in Palestinian territories as well became believable to some.

Because of its military activities and political positions, HAMAS is banned in Israel. Many of its members have been arrested or deported, and a number of its leaders have been assassinated. HAMAS was designated a terrorist organization by the United States in 1995, and contributing to it was prohibited by the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (Pub. Law 104–132) of April 1996.