Untitled Document
Hamas capitalized on the failure of the “international community”
to protect the Palestinians from Israel’s daily terror
The Arabic word Hamas means courage and bravery. It is also an abbreviation
of the Arabic Harakat Al-Muqawama Al-Islamiyya (Islamic Resistance
Movement).
Hamas was formed in the 1980s during the Intifada to counter Israel’s
brutality against the Palestinian people. Hamas uses the armed struggle against
far more violent and brutal force; the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF). Let’s
hope that Israel rethinks its brutal policies and chooses peace over violence.
The recent Palestinian legislative elections were a smokescreen to divert public
attention from Israel’s brutal treatments of the Palestinian people. More
than two thirds of Palestinians living in refugee camps were not allowed to
participate in these elections. In addition, some 95 per cent of Palestinians
in East Jerusalem were prevented from voting. Israel allowed small number of
Palestinians in Jerusalem to vote in order to fool the outside world. Elections
are illegitimate under foreign military Occupation. Nonetheless, the elections
reflect the wishes of the Palestinian people under Israeli military Occupation
and must be respected.
However, massive interference by the U.S. and Israel didn’t prevent Hamas
from wining the popular vote, suggests a complete change of attitudes toward
the Occupation. “Many of the votes given to Hamas had nothing to do with
peace, religion and fundamentalism, but with protest” wrote Israeli peace
activist Uri Avnery. “Hamas had more creditable candidates, untainted
by corruption. Its party machine was far superior, its members far more disciplined”,
added Uri Avnery. Israel created the conditions for Hamas’ victory. It
is also an indication of Palestinians determination to ongoing struggle against
the Israeli Occupation.
Furthermore, Palestinians have become disillusioned with the fraudulent “peace
process” used by Israel to annex Palestinian land and water resources,
and to implement a system of collective punishment and control. The building
of the Apartheid Wall – condemned by the International Court of Justice
in The Hague – is fractionating and isolating the Palestinians into closed
ghettoes, reinforces the annexation of more Palestinian land, including East
Jerusalem, and makes a viable and independent Palestinian state impossible.
All this happen with the full knowledge of the “international community”,
led by the U.S. and the European Union.
Hamas capitalized on the failure of the “international community”
to protect the Palestinians from Israel’s daily terror, and on a widespread
discontent of corruption and ineffectiveness in the Palestinian Authority (PA)
– favoured by the U.S. and its allies. Hamas has built an effective Resistance
and social movement not only against the Israeli Occupation, but also against
the deteriorating living conditions created by Israel closure of the Occupied
Territories.
Hamas Resistance to Israel’s brutal policy and Hamas social work, which
includes providing health care and education to needy Palestinians in Gaza and
the Occupied Territories were factors in its popularity. Hamas is “a vibrant
political and social movement. It has kindergartens and schools that offer free
meals for children, education centers for women, and youth and sports clubs.
Its medical clinics offer subsidized treatment to the sick and it extends financial
and technical assistance to those whose homes had been demolished and to refugees
living in sub-standard conditions. Thus, ever since its establishment, Hamas
has offered Palestinians extensive community services and has responded constantly
to the changing political reality by making pragmatic decisions”, wrote
Neve Gordon of Ben-Gurion University in Israel.
Hamas is a heterogeneous democratic movement, with well-educated and dedicated
people. The labels of “Islamist” and “terrorist” are
the creation of a racist Western propaganda derived from the anti-Arabs and
anti-Muslims colonial ideology of deep-seated belief in cultural superiority.
It is designed to associate an Islamic Resistance movement with terrorism and
violence. Today, Westerners see Muslims and Arabs as they saw Jews in the past.
Further, political Islam is used as an excuse by Western “progressive”
elites to dissociate themselves from legitimate liberation movements such as
Hamas and the Iraqi Resistance movement.
Hamas has very little to do with religious fundamentalism, and has less in
common with Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood. It is an independent movement
constitute of Muslim and Christian Palestinians united against the Israeli Occupation.
In fact Hamas is far less religious than many of the West’s right-wing
religious parties. For example, the current U.S. Administration is much more
religious fundamentalist than Hamas. The Republican Party is supported by roughly
50 million right-wing fundamentalist Christians. The 20 million fundamentalist
voters helped sweep Bush back into office on 02 November, 2005, and maintained
a Republican majority in Congress. Equally, Israeli politic is far more right-wing
and religious extremist than Hamas. Indeed, Israel is moving very rapidly toward
a Jewish fundamentalist state, which worries many liberal Jews around the world.
Israel was created based on a religious-imperialist ideology, and continues
to this day to use violence and religion to annex Arab land and increases its
size. Time and again, Israel has rejected all peaceful solutions offered by
Arab governments and instead resorts to the use of force. To counter Palestinian
Resistance and unity, Israel has incited Palestinian groups against each other,
including Hamas to create divisions and foment civil strife among the Palestinian
people.
Hamas has always called for peace with Israel. Hamas founder, the late Sheikh
Ahmed Yassin, who was murdered in a cold blood together with a number of innocent
civilians by Israeli forces, said that; “If the Zionist entity completely
evacuates…all the Jewish settlements and military bases…on the Gaza
Strip, we can start a new phase of calmness in order to discuss the issues of
Jerusalem, the West Bank, the prisoners and the refugees… Hamas was willing
to stop its operations if the Zionists ended its occupation of Palestinian territories
and stopped killing Palestinian women, children and innocent civilians”.
It is evident that Israel prefers violence to peace.
It is Israel which continues the destruction of Palestine, and refuses to recognise
Palestinians’ right to exist, not the opposite way around. Israel has
always hindered and derailed any negotiation for peaceful settlement. Israeli
leaders have always found pretext not to negotiate. They didn’t negotiate
with the late Yasser Arafat; they refuse to negotiate with Mahmud Abbas. Whether
it is Hamas or not Hamas, Israel has always refused to deal directly with any
Palestinian government. Israelis have refused to deal with the Palestinians
as negotiating partners and prefer to continue with their unilateral ways of
occupying Palestinian land. It is rightly argues that Hamas victory in the elections
fulfils Israel’s dream not to negotiate with the Palestinians and instead
continues with the violence and destruction. With the financial, military and
political support provided by the West and the U.S. in particular, Israel continues
its brutal policies against the Palestinian people.
As I write these lines, the Israeli Occupation Forces shot dead a 9-year old
Palestinian schoolgirl in cold blood inside Gaza (Ha’aretz, 27/01/06).
Here is an opportunity for the U.S. and the European governments to show the
world that they really believe in peace and democracy, not in violence.
Hamas had won the elections so overwhelmingly and fairly should encourage the
West, and the U.S. in particular, to reach out to the Palestinian people, and
act as honest brokers for a just and lasting peace in Palestine.
Global Research Contributing Editor Ghali Hassan
lives in Perth, Western Australia.