stephen  d. leece

Hamas (acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement) is currently the premier Palestinian Sunni organisation with an associated armed-wing.

Founded in 1987 during the first Intifada its initial character stated its aim to liberate Palestine from Israeli occupation and establish a Palestinian state there and in the West Bank and Gaza.

This aim is now no longer the case. Current leader Khalid Mashal has stated that his organisation is willing to co-operate with Israel provided there is a Palestinian State based on 1967 borders; that refugees have the right to return to Israel and finally that East Jeerusalem be this new nation’s capital.

The new manifesto sounds reasonable, but nevertheless is still a tall order from an organisation that is only strong in Gaza.

Hamas famously won the Palestinian Civil War of 2006-07 against Fatah and Mashal would really like to be regarded on a par with Hezbollah’s Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, but with a weak power structure, and the activities of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Fatah to contend with, and Mashal’s own absenteeism (he lives in Qatar and has only been back to Gaza once for the Silver Anniversary of Hamas’s founding since leaving as a boy) this is wishful-thinking at best.