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Abstract
This article discusses the nature of the political transformation process that the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has undergone over the past decade regarding, first, political participation in Palestinian institutions, and second, the issue of negotiations and compromise with Israel. Finally, it explores how the European and international pressure on Hamas for unconditional concessions towards Israel has affected the internal political dynamics of the movement. Based on fieldwork interviews with Hamas leaders in Palestine, Syria, and Lebanon, the article analyses the transition process as perceived on the part of Hamas, and concludes that Hamas was, at a certain point, receptive to external pressure for moderation as it adapted a range of ‘moderate’ positions in its quest for international recognition. However, when the chain of conciliatory steps undertaken by Hamas failed to ease the international sanctions on the Hamas government, the pressures backfired by weakening the moderate forces in the Hamas leadership and strengthening the radical forces that apparently took the lead when Hamas-affiliated forces took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007. It is argued that the entrance of Hamas into politics represented an opportunity rather than an obstacle for Palestinian democratization, although the opportunity was spoiled by the EU-backed international boycott of the Hamas government.
Notes
Malka, ‘Forcing Choices’, 42.
Milton-Edwards, ‘Hamas: Victory with Ballots and Bullets’.
Amayreh, ‘Hamas and al-Qaida’.
Ray, Democracy and International Conflict.
Thompson, ‘Democracy and Peace’, 142.
For the organizational development of the PLO and Fatah, see Sayigh, Armed Struggle and the Search for State.
Abu-Amr, ‘Hamas: from Opposition to Rule’, 169; Tamimi, Hamas. Unwritten Chapters, 220.
Roy, Failing Peace, 294.
For English translation of the Hamas Charter, see Appendix 2 in Hroub, Hamas. Political Thought and Practice, 267–91.
However, the militant language of the Charter, which had little space for political visions, was already, from the first years, contradicted by pragmatic signals by top leaders. For instance, the idea of entering a hudna, a long-term ceasefire, with Israel as an interim solution was brought up by several top Hamas leaders from the early 1990s. See Tamimi, Hamas. Unwritten Chapters, 158.
For English translation of the Hamas Election Manifesto, see Appendix VI in Tamimi, Hamas. Unwritten Chapters, 274–94.
See Hroub, ‘A “New Hamas” through its New Documents’.
Butenschøn and Vollan, Interim Democracy, 52–3.
Andoni, ‘A Comparative Study’, 212.
Website of Israeli Foreign Ministry, http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA.
Tamimi, Hamas. Unwritten Chapters, 204, 212.
Hroub, Hamas. Political Thought and Practice, 56.
The tension between Hamas and Fatah loyalists was further exacerbated by the reasserted role of traditional clan allegiances. See International Crisis Group, Inside Gaza.
Tamimi, Hamas. Unwritten Chapters, 158.
Milton-Edwards and Crooke, ‘Elusive Ingredient’, 45.
FRIDE, ‘Europe and Palestinian Democracy’.
International Crisis Group, Enter Hamas, 22.
See discussion on the content of the EMP and the ENP by Pace in the preceding article in this issue. The ‘EU/Palestinian Action Plan’ is available at http://ec.europa.eu/world/enp/pdf/action_plans/pa_enp_ap_final_en.pdf
Emerson and Youngs, Political Islam and European Foreign Policy, 5.
Mashhour Abdel Halim (Hamas leader, Bourj el-Barajneh Camp, Beirut), interview by the author, Beirut, September 2007.
See Pace, ‘A “Modern” Islamist Democracy?’.
Ahmed Yousef (political advisor of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh), interview by the author, Gaza, August 2007.
Due to the need of privacy/secrecy, the exact number of members of the Political Bureau is not known. For more on the organizational structure of Hamas, see Mishal and Sela, The Palestinian Hamas.
Inspiration from Leninist organizational structures has influenced several, modern Islamist organizations, for instance Hizballah in Lebanon. See Abu Khalil, ‘Ideology and Practice of Hizballah’, 390–403.
Mashhour Abdel Halim, interview by the author.
Ibid.
Author's interview with Islamic civil society organizations, Gaza, March 2008.
Milton-Edwards, Islamic Politics in Palestine, 163.
Ibid., 165.
Mahmoud Zahar (Foreign Minister in Hamas's first government), interview by the author, Gaza, March 2007. However, the international observer delegation to the 1996 elections concluded that ‘the elections can reasonably be regarded as an accurate expression of the will of the voters on polling day’. Appendix in Butenschøn and Vollan, Interim Democracy, 128.
Musa Abu Marzuq (deputy leader of Hamas Political Bureau), interview by the author, Damascus, August 2007.
Osama Hamdan (Hamas representative in Lebanon and member of Hamas Political Bureau), interview by the author, Beirut, September 2007.
Seventy-eight per cent of the Palestinians in the OPT supported the peace process according to a poll in December 1995. See the collection of polls on Palestinian attitudes to the peace process in: Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, Palestinian Public Opinion, 19.
Musa Abu Marzuq, interview by the author.
The death of Arafat represented, in the words of Osama Hamdan, ‘a new chapter and a new era in Palestinian politics’. Author's interview, Beirut, September 2007.
Musa Abu Marzuq, interview by the author.
Ghazi Hamad (ex-spokesman of the Hamas government), interview by the author, Gaza, August 2007.
Mashhour Abdel Halim, interview by the author.
International Crisis Group, Enter Hamas, 28.
Ibid., 23.
Ghazi Hamad, interview by the author.
Izzat al-Rashaq (member of Hamas Political Bureau), interview by the author, Damascus, March 2007.
In an interview with the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv on 6 September 2002, Sharon declared that ‘Oslo doesn't exist any more, Camp David doesn't exist, neither does Taba … We will not return to these places’. BBC, ‘Sharon Calls for New Palestinian Security’.
Jamal Iskaik (Hamas legislator), interview by the author, Gaza, August 2007.
Final election results released by the Central Elections Commission-Palestine. Available at http://www.elections.ps/template.aspx?id=291.
Osama Hamdan, interview by the author.
Ghazi Hamad, interview by the author.
International Crisis Group, Palestinians, Israel and the Quartet, 9.
See the Palestinian Basic Law of 2003, http://muqtafi.birzeit.edu/mainleg/14138.htm
Hovdenak, ‘Middle East’, 505.
International Crisis Group, After Gaza, 7–9.
Sayigh, ‘Inducing a Failed State in Palestine’, 17–9.
Tocci, ‘The International Dimension’.
Edanger, ‘Aid to Palestinians’.
See Brown, ‘The Peace Process Has No Clothes’.
Ali Jarbawi (Professor at Bir Zeit University), interview by the author, March 2007.
Musa Abu Marzuq, interview by the author.
Jamal Saleh (Hamas legislator), interview by the author, Gaza, March 2007.
Saleh Bardawil (Hamas legislator and spokesman for the Hamas block in the PLC), interview by the author, Gaza, March 2007.
Ahmed Yousef, interview by the author.
Mahmoud Zahar, interview by the author.
Mushir al-Masri (Hamas legislator), interview by the author, Gaza, March 2007.
Nasr al-Din al-Sha'er (deputy prime minister and education minister in Hamas's first government), interview by the author, Nablus, August 2007.
Atef Adwan (minister of refugee affairs in Hamas's first government), interview by the author, Gaza, March 2007.
Izzat al-Rashaq, interview by the author.
Muna Mansour (Hamas legislator), interview by the author, Nablus, March 2007.
For English translation of the National Conciliation Document, see: http://www.jmcc.org/documents/prisoners2.htm
For English translation of the Mecca Agreement, see: http://www.jmcc.org/new/07/feb/meccaagree.htm
Mushir al-Masri, interview by the author.
See International Crisis Group, After Gaza.
Author's interview with a Norwegian diplomat in the Middle East, September 2007.
On the collaboration between PA security forces and the US against Hamas, see Rose, ‘The Gaza Bombshell’.
Nasr al-Din al-Sha'er, interview by the author.
Ahmed Yousef, interview by the author.
Izzat al-Rashaq, interview by the author.
Nasr al-Din al-Sha'er, interview by the author.