How can we explain the success of Hamas?

By Mohamed Hassan

Interview by Grégoire Lalieu and Michel Collon

For the big media, the case seems clear: Hamas is terrorist, fundamentalist and fanatic. However, this movement won the last elections and its popularity continues to increase among the Palestinians. Why? We asked Mohamed Hassan, co-author of “Iraq, Eye-to-eye with the Occupation” and one of the best Middle East specialists.

What really is Hamas?

Hamas is a political movement coming out of the Muslim Brotherhood, one of the oldest political movements in Egypt. The word “Hamas” means awakening, something that is erupting... It is an Islamic nationalist movement, which one could compare with the Irish nationalist movement. Faced with the British colonial occupation of Ireland, beginning in 1916 a resistance movement, the Irish Republican Army, developed. Since the Irish were Catholic and the British settlers were Protestant, the occupier tried to make it into a war of religions. Religion can be utilized to mobilize a people for a cause.

What is the historical context that explains the rise of Hamas?

To understand that, we have to look at several historic events. The first one is the Six Day war which discredited Nasserism in 1967. Nasser was the Egyptian president who encouraged an Arab revolution for independence and development. Following the severe defeat that Israel inflicted on him, his ideology lost influence. After he died, Egypt and Israel were again engaged in a conflict with the October war in 1973. Egypt and Syria wanted to recover the territories under Israeli occupation. Finally, Egypt and Israel signed an agreement but this event created a profound division in the Arab world between the countries who were ready to accept the Israeli conditions and those who wanted to resist, such as Syria, Algeria, Iraq, etc. Of course, the Palestinian question was a crucial element in those conflicts. The resistance to Israel led to the formation of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This organization was created with the goal of bringing together the different resistance movements to ally their efforts in the struggle against Israel. Before negotiating with this organization during the Oslo Accords, Israel considered it a terrorist group and inflicted several defeats on it that can explain the rise of Hamas.

The first important defeat was the Black September in 1970. The PLO had its headquarter in Jordan where King Hussein made a deal with Israel to brutally repress the Palestinian insurrection. The PLO was then forced to flee to Beirut. The second important defeat took place in 1982. Israel attacked Lebanon and most of the PLO combatants had to move far from Palestine. The headquarters of the organization was set up in Tunis. In this particular context, the first Intifada took place in 1987. The Intifada was a popular uprising in reaction to the Israeli occupation, which started in Gaza and then affected the whole of Palestine. As I said, the PLO was very far away. However, Hamas was inside Palestine and took part in the Intifada. That event marks the beginning of this movement which began in the prisons! Prisons were usually considered a place of punishment. But after the resistance fighters of the Intifada were put in prison, things changed! It was in the prisons that Hamas began to recruit and to develop as an organization. With the Intifada, Hamas was exposed to Palestinian opinion, to Israeli opinion and to international opinion.

How did the PLO react to the Intifada?

With the Intifada, the PLO was divided into two wings: the strongest one that wanted to continue the resistance and was based in Tunis and another one, less important, that wanted to work out a deal. Those members were in hiding and did not have the courage to defend their opinion until the Oslo Accords where they came into the open and became stronger. Arafat was a tactician and after the end of the first Intifada, he used the different Palestinian currents to bring the PLO back to Palestine.

What were these currents?

First, you have those who wanted to continue the fight against Israel without concessions. Arafat had to marginalize them to obtain anything. On the other hand, you have those who wanted to capitulate, and they lead the Palestinian government today. Finally, you have the bourgeoisie who wanted to negotiate for their own profit. Arafat used them to get what he wanted. This leads us to the Oslo Accords in 1993. These accords allowed the PLO to come back to Palestine but apart from that, it was a great defeat. The Palestinians accepted to get 22% of their total land. There is no agreement in history that confers on one party only 22% of what it demanded! The PLO was no longer considered a terrorist organization and won recognition by Israel, but it was unable to really improve the situation in Gaza and the West Bank. Nothing in the agreement was mentioned to put an end to Israeli settlements. This fact discredited the Palestinian Authority among the population and also contributed to the success of Hamas as a resistance movement. Another important element is that the Palestinian Authority, which receives funds from the West, has become corrupt. Nothing indicates that Hamas has this problem. On the one hand, its principal sources of revenue come from a system based on charity from the Muslim world. On the other hand, since they criticize the Palestinian Authority for their problem of corruption, they are very careful that this does not take place in their ranks.

How can you explain the success of Hamas?

Three factors explain the success of Hamas. First is the continuation of the resistance and their rejection of any imposed solution, which corresponds to the will of the population. The second factor is that Hamas demands the return of the refugees of 1948 and 1967. In 1948, after the creation of the state of Israel, many Palestinians were expelled from the territory. With the Six Day war in 1967, about 300,000 refugees fled to Jordan. Today, there are more than six million refugees who do not have the right to return to their country! On the other hand, as a Jewish state, Israel welcomes any Jew from anywhere: Spain, Russia, Ethiopia, etc. People who had never been in Palestine before! The question of the refugees is an important element of the Palestinian demands of which Hamas has become the spokesperson.

The last factor which contributed to the success of Hamas is the elimination within the Palestinian community of people corrupted by Israel to obtain information. Some have been physically eliminated but most of them – delinquents, alcoholics or dealers – have been reintegrated by Hamas’s social programs. So the information does not circulate anymore. This is very important. Israel had created a corrupted society where everyone was against everyone else and it exploited this to build an information network and establish a certain control over the Palestinian resistance. This is typical of colonial mentality. The British applied this in Northern Ireland. It is nothing new. But Hamas succeeded in destroying that network, which was a great victory against Israel.

Some people say that Israel deliberately favored the rise of Hamas. Is that true?

Absolutely not! There is no evidence of that. Israel tolerated Hamas, hoping that there would be conflicts between Palestinians. They wanted to weaken the PLO and Fatah. But they did not expect the quality, ability and organization of Hamas to develop in such a way. Every colonial power always considers its subjects as naïve children.

How did an Islamic movement become so popular in Palestine?

Under the occupation of Gaza and the other territories, there was no possibility for the Palestinians to openly discuss or even imagine their future except in two places: the mosque or the university. Of course, Hamas was already active in the former. But they also began, as any other political party, to become active in student organizations. The market is open for every party! So Hamas recruited brilliant young students who were well thought of in the society because of their dedication and their honesty. It was easy for Hamas to convince them, because the will to resist united them. It is no big secret! Hamas openly expressed what was in the heart of the population. With the most combative, most intelligent and most educated elements of society, Hamas became a large organization.

How did the Palestinian authorities react to the evolution of Hamas?

They were affected by corruption and scandals. Even Palestinian journalists have condemned them for that. Arafat was a kind of arbiter between the different factions. But once he died, the contradiction between Hamas and Fatah became antagonistic. Israel exploited those dissensions and tried to use Fatah to shake the popularity of Hamas. They thought that Hamas would not agree to participate in the elections. That is why they organized the vote quickly. Everyone was surprised that Hamas took part in the elections but nobody was really worried. They thought that Hamas, coming out with a dogmatic and very limited way of thinking, would be defeated by the majority party. Against all expectations, Hamas made a coalition and presented a flexible image, very far from what one would expect from a fundamentalist organization. In fact, Hamas would like an Islamic state but the reality is different.

Will Hamas establish an Islamic regime in Palestine or not?

An Islamic regime is the final goal of Hamas’s program, but they understand that they could never apply it. In fact, on the ground, the organization is based on a patriotic movement. One must understand that the brutal war waged by Israel against Gaza not only mobilized the forces of Hamas, but all the patriotic forces, even cells of Fatah. This aggression has unified the Palestinian people. Can Hamas become a more progressive movement in alliance with other movements? Yes, because of the Israeli aggression. The idea that Hamas could create a society based on Islamic modes of production is an illusion. It is simply impossible. In many ways, the organization resembles Hezbollah, which says: “Lebanon is a very diverse country; we only represent a fraction of it and our goal is to build a independent national economy with all Lebanese progressives.” I would like to draw your attention to the fact that nobody asks that kind of question of countries like Saudi Arabia.

What is Hamas’s socio-economic program?

Their plan is a capitalist economy with an important state intervention. Let us note that now even the European liberals want state intervention! If you look at Iran, it is an Islamic regime: it is capitalism with state intervention. But they reject foreign domination and they are redistributing the oil wealth. Concerning Hamas, one should know that it is not mainly its social program that has attracted the Palestinians, but rather the fact that this movement embodies the resistance. And today, the resistance is the most important thing for the Palestinian people.

What is the role of women according to Hamas?

Their vision of women is different in theory and practice. Why? In Palestine, the situation is very difficult. Women have to work to earn their own bread and raise their children. Hamas could never stop women from working and force them to stay home. Except for a few rich oil-producing countries, no one thinks that way in the Arab world. How could Hamas take out of society more than 50% of the most active elements of the Palestinian community? In fact, those who do not respect women are those who believe that it is possible to control them as passive subjects.

There are cultural differences between the Arab world and the West that are not well understood because they rest on clichés. Let us take an example. When you go to bookstores here, you see piles of magazines with naked blondes with big breasts on the covers... No one says that it is disgusting and that women should be treated better. But when someone sees a woman wearing a headscarf, one speaks of oppression! This is a form of Western hypocrisy. For example, in Indonesia, the present regime was put in place in 1965 by a coup in the course of which a million communists were massacred. Today the majority of women wear headscarves. But nobody speaks about their situation, because that country produces oil and is aligned with the West.

Why is Hamas rejected in Europe?

Islam is not well looked upon in Europe, because the latter is identified with Christianity. There is a real rejection of the Muslim contribution to the development of Western civilization. As an Islamic group, Hamas is not well looked upon. But why does someone who condemns Zionism have a problem with Hamas? And why does the same person, who supports the Irish cause, have no problem with a Catholic organization? Cultural differences explain this and it is a phenomenon that one can observe.

I just came back from Egypt. I could see that when one crosses the Mediterranean, one changes worlds, one changes ones way of thinking. I do not blame the Europeans; they are marked by their education and the media propaganda. We are in a system where we always have to identify enemies to justify our existence. But I think we must put things in perspective. For me, as a Marxist living in a Western country, of course I have some contradictions with Hamas and Hezbollah. I regret that the resistance is led by a movement that takes its inspiration from Islam. But currently those contradictions are secondary. On the other hand, I am totally opposed to people such as Abbas or Mubarak, who are secular but who serve the interests of the United States. I read the news in Arabic, I know the situation over there well and I see the contradictions from a different point of view than that of the European left.

Why does the European left not openly support the Palestinian resistance?

The problem with the European left is that it refuses to make a big alliance against imperialism, because of Hamas, women with veils and all sorts of pretexts. In fact, they let themselves go along with the big alliance of Christians against Islam; they buy into the “war of civilizations” set in motion by American ideologists. They are greatly influenced by this, much more than they believe. Why did the European left not get angry when the Christian fascists, such as the Phalangists, committed massacres in Lebanon? For my part, as a secular person, I supported the Irish resistance against the British occupation and I did not have a problem with the fact that those Irish were Catholics. In fact, the problem with the Europeans is that they were raised in a civilization that is prejudiced against Jews and Muslims.

Why is the Palestinian question so important for the United States?

Palestine is a small country that, despite everything, has become one of the most important in the world for two reasons. First, the settler state that was created has to be defended by the imperial powers, the United States and Great Britain, to become the dominant element in the Middle East. This is a way to crush the revolutionary democratic movement in the region. If you crush the Palestinians, you prevent an alliance of the Arab world with all the lines of resistance in Iraq, Lebanon, etc. Before, it was the Shah of Iran who played the role of policeman in the region. The United States had established a military dictatorship to serve their interests in the region. Today it is Israel. One of the most outstanding examples of this practice is the revolution in North Yemen in the 1960s. A coup was launched by some officers supported by Egypt to establish a democratic republic. The Sheik who ruled Yemen fled to Saudi Arabia. Then the British organized troops against the young republic to crush the Arab nationalist movement, and soldiers trained by Israel were involved to fight against the liberation forces. Israel has also sent militias to El Salvador, Sri Lanka, Colombia, etc. In fact, wherever the United States is involved, Israel is involved.

The second reason is the importance of Jerusalem as a holy city. It is the second most important city for Islam. So this question has mobilized all the Muslims around the world. Jerusalem is also very important for the Palestinian Christians. Israel will not leave it. It would be considered a victory for the Palestinians and Islam. Furthermore, situated on the border between Israel and the West Bank, Jerusalem occupies a strategic position in Israel’s expansion policy. In fact, that state has no definite borders. It does not even have a constitution! Therefore Israel has free rein to continue to expand.

By savagely massacring Gaza, what message does Israel want to send?

The message is: “Israel will always be there, even with nuclear weapons. It can impose on you what it wants.”

Will it work?

No, because on the other side there are fighters who have nothing more to lose and who are prepared to sacrifice themselves, something that is not found in the ranks of the Israeli army. With this attack, Israel did not obtain anything basic. On the contrary, Hamas will come out reinforced from this conflict. Even in the West Bank, people are saying that if they were elections, they would vote for that party. In fact, those who resist always win.

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