Coming of age

Hamas, which recently celebrated its 22nd birthday, has grown up quite quickly: what began as a clandestine group of activists determined to form an Islamic resistance movement out of a previously quiescent Muslim Brotherhood is now a governing party in Gaza and a major focus of international attention. But having achieved such success, the movement’s leaders now find themselves confronted with difficult choices about their priorities. Hamas’s leaders have promised their followers that they can resist Israel, govern Gaza and reform Palestinian society along Islamic lines. But those goals increasingly pull the movement in very different directions. Since its startling triumph in Palestine’s January 2006 elections and especially since its seizure of power in Gaza in June 2007, Hamas is showing signs of strain over which path to emphasise.

One set of goals emphasises the group’s Islamist agenda. The Muslim Brotherhood, since its founding in Egypt 80 years ago, has always emphasised reforming the individual and society according to Islamic dictates. For many years, Palestinian members of the Muslim Brotherhood emphasised personal and social reform at the expense of politics and the national struggle; Palestine could be liberated, they held, only after it had become more thoroughly Islamic. Hamas was founded by Brotherhood activists frustrated with such passivity and tired of being taunted by secular Palestinian nationalists who accused the Islamists of contributing nothing to the liberation struggle. The founders of Hamas insisted that there was no need to postpone resistance: they could take direct action against the Israeli occupation while pursuing the Islamisation of Palestinian society.

Yet since it won the 2006 parliamentary elections, Hamas has given mixed signals regarding its Islamic agenda. Religious issues were deliberately played down in the electoral campaign, and the group did not use its parliamentary majority to rush through any religiously-inspired education. It kept the existing school curriculum, moving only to modestly expand the classroom time devoted to religious instruction. But since its seizure of power in Gaza in June 2007, some movement activists have become impatient: they seek to use the movement’s dominant political position to bring Palestine’s legal framework and public life in line with Islamic values and teachings. Some of their efforts – such as the formation of a morality police – have received international attention, but much has taken place on a grass-roots level.

A second path for Hamas emphasises resistance – literally the movement’s middle name (Hamas is an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement). Hamas was born in an effort to participate in what Palestinians term their “revolution”. While a latecomer to armed action, Hamas emerged from the Oslo process as the most prominent movement dedicated to continued resistance. Even during the second intifada, when other movements (including parts of Fatah) returned to violent activity, Hamas still stood at the vanguard of Palestinian resistance to Israel.

Yet as with its Islamist agenda, Hamas’s pursuit of resistance has been uneven for the past three years. From March 2006, when it formed the Palestinian Authority cabinet, until June 2007, when the Palestinian Authority split in two (with Hamas controlling only the Gaza half), Hamas came under enormous international pressure to renounce violence. It responded with a half-measure: while it completely rejected the international calls in theory, in practice it held its own activities to a minimum. Since June 2007, this pattern has actually become more pronounced. Hamas has generally sought a ceasefire with Israel while disavowing any intention of reaching a permanent settlement or disarming. It has, of course, fired rockets from Gaza – but with the declared aim of securing a ceasefire on more favourable terms. And when an indirectly negotiated ceasefire prevailed, Hamas largely observed it; not only that, the movement enforced other factions’ observance.

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