The US media, and US government, have not really helped ordinary Americans' understanding of Hamas by insisting on referring to it as a "terrorist organization" at every turn. So before I launch into an exploration of our encounters with Hamas, which were very interesting indeed and have sparked many ruminations on my and my fellow delegates' part, we need to clarify some things about what Hamas is, and is not.The following primer is not intended to be a discussion of the merits of any of the actions or political positions described, just a statement of facts so we are all on the same page.
1. Hamas is an electoral party. In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, the first in which Hamas participated, they won 74 out of 132 seats, about 58%. Many international observers agree that these elections were free and fair. This means that...
2. Hamas is the democratically elected representative of the Palestinian people. You would think this point would be self-evident given the fact that they won the elections, but the United States, Israel, and Fatah (the party that lost its majority in the Palestinian government to Hamas) all seem to have some problems comprehending this reality. Possibly because...
3. Hamas is also a resistance organization. In fact, their name is an acronym for "Islamic Resistance Movement." They are involved in armed resistance against Israel, including actions which have killed Israeli civilians, mostly through their associated militia, the Ezzedeen al Qassam Brigades (they have a website!!! in English!!! and I bet a bunch of you just clicked on it!!! hahahaha), after which the Qassam rocket is named. They are not the only organization that is involved in armed resistance to the Israeli occupation, nor are they the only group that fires rockets. And since we're on the topic...
4. Hamas does not conduct suicide bombings. They used to--in fact, they were responsible for quite a few suicide attacks between 1993 and 2005, although certainly not all of them. (The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a Fatah-aligned militia, claimed their share too.) But Hamas stopped the practice in 2005 and formally renounced suicide bombing as a tactic in 2006. So any discussion of suicide bombing vis-a-vis the Hamas of today is neither here nor there. And finally...
5. Hamas is not the Taliban. Or Al Qaeda. Or Hezbollah, although it is far more similar in political character to Hezbollah than to the other two aforementioned organizations. Lumping together various Islamist organizations and parties and then picking the most reactionary ones to use as an example is not a helpful way of understanding political Islam, a diverse movement with a variety of different forms and shades within it.
Hamas is an Islamist party. Its activities include a strong religious component, and its social politics are conservative. However, unlike more fundamentalist parties, it accepts the concept of "western-style" (as if we own it!) parliamentary democracy; its party structures are modeled on western ones; and its internal leadership is elected. And, perhaps most importantly, its leaders live among the people they represent, in the same neighborhoods and refugee camps and under the same conditions. One fact of life in Palestine: even the wealthy and/or politically connected are not protected from Israeli bombs. (In fact, they are often actually at higher risk.)
While women are pretty much absent from the party leadership of Hamas, they are not banned from political activity--or armed resistance (!) for that matter. There were thirteen female candidates for parliament on the Hamas slate in 2006, and six of them won. (More on this in a forthcoming post about women in Palestine.) One of them, Huda Naim, has been quite vocal about campaigning for women's rights in Palestine, including taking up the issues of honor killings, forced marriage, equal pay and equal access to education for women and girls.
Now that we've cleared that up, on to the interesting stuff.
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