By Adnan Khan

Hamas has unveiled a new political document that accepts the formation of a Palestinian state along the borders after the 1967 war. Although its leader Khalid Mashal highlighted Hamas did not recognise the state of Israel it implicitly has in its bid to ease its international isolation. After years of internal debate, the party leadership published the new charter at a conference in Qatar on Monday 1st May 2017. Whilst Hamas attempts to present itself as a pragmatic player in international relations and the conflict in the Middle East it has long abandoned its aim of the destruction of Israel and this announcement is merely the formal confirmation of its long-held position.

Hamas was formally created in 1987, largely due to the public dissatisfaction with the secularist and corrupt Fatah-led PLO and also due to an effort by the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) to respond to the first intifada. The creation of a separate Gaza group that could engage in armed resistance answered the MB’s dilemma. Hamas came to play an important role in the history of Palestine and very quickly became the competitor to the PLO. Hamas, an acronym for Harakat al-Muqawama al-Islamiya (Islamic Resistance Movement), was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, a Palestinian cleric who became an activist in local branches of the Muslim Brotherhood after dedicating his early life to Islamic scholarship in Cairo. Beginning in the late 1960s, Yassin preached and performed charitable work in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, both of which were occupied by Israeli forces following the 1967 Six Day War. Yassin established Hamas as the Brotherhood’s local political arm in December 1987, following the outbreak of the first intifada.

In 1988 Hamas published its charter, calling for the destruction of Israel and the establishment of an Islamic society in historic Palestine. Hamas’ original leadership viewed armed struggle as a means to a political end. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin argued that Hamas was a political movement and it would fight for the rights of Palestinians, with the objective of eliminating Israel. The violent means Hamas has used made it highly controversial as a political player, but it shows it’s always held political ambitions since its inception. Hamas core struggle has always been how to proceed along its political path while presiding over a stateless entity, especially when its reputation has been primarily built on military resistance, not on political credentials.

[pullquote align=”right” color=”” class=”” cite=”” link=””]The numerous compromises diluted Hamas to a mere pragmatic actor in the region and also justified the state of Israel[/pullquote]

Hamas has since its inception tried to demonstrate that it is a political movement that has political aims of establishing an entity in Palestine, but its use of violence against a much larger and resourceful Israel has led its leaders and senior members to compromise with Israel for political recognition. The numerous compromises diluted Hamas to a mere pragmatic actor in the region and also justified the state of Israel, especially after the late Hamas leader Ahmed Yassin stated in 2003 that Hamas would accept the two-state solution as a temporary solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Â Hamas then signed the Palestinian Cairo Declaration in 2005, indicating its readiness to join the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) without the prerequisite of the PLO adopting Islam as a framework for liberation. Hamas also then participated in the elections in 2006 and became the ruling power, with no sign of Islam in governance. In an interview in 2011 Hamas’ Deputy Foreign Minister Ghazi Hamad told NPRs Robert Siegel that the Islamic political party has accepted a two-state solution that respects the 1967 borders. When asked: “If Israel were to accept a two-state solution in which Palestine would be in Gaza and the West Bank and have its capital in Jerusalem, is that an acceptable aim that Hamas is striving for or is that in and of itself insufficient because there would still be a state of Israel?” The deputy foreign minister replied: “Look, we said, frankly, we accept the state and 67 borders. This was mentioned many times and we repeated many times.”[1] Khaled Mashal, who has been Hamas leader since the assassination of Sheikh Khaled Yassin in 2004 on numerous occasions has stated he accepts the 1967 borders and two states.[2] [pullquote align=”left” color=”” class=”” cite=”” link=””]Hamas is signalling to the region and the world that it can compromise on its principles, something it has in reality always been doing and that includes, what it now openly considers, the obsolete boundaries that existed before 1948[/pullquote]

Hamas has faced the same challenge all stateless groups face against Israel – how to defeat a nation state. Israel with considerable international support and aid and with its own industries and military capability was always going to be difficult to destroy without considerable capability on Hamas’s part. Hamas however fell into the same trap as its peer groups of being used as a proxy by regional nations for their own limited aims, Hamas’ funding comes from various nations in the region and beyond. Despite Khalid Mashal, at the conference in Doha, reiterating Hamas does not recognise the Zionist state, by accepting the 1967 borders he in one stroke gave up 78% of historic Palestine to the very Zionist entity the group was established to resist. Hamas is signalling to the region and the world that it can compromise on its principles, something it has in reality always been doing and that includes, what it now openly considers, the obsolete boundaries that existed before 1948.

The new document strikes a softer tone, calling for moderation and unity in the global Islamic ummah while modifying previous language about Israel in an attempt to broaden the party’s appeal and appease its foreign benefactors. These changes, coupled with the personnel shifts in the party’s ranks, reflect the many pressures facing the group, both internally and externally. As it fights for legitimacy in its Gaza Strip, in the Palestinian Authority and abroad, Hamas is announcing it will make the necessary concessions. Hamas and the PLO have now become two sides of the same coin. Both, despite their claims to the contrary have accepted the right of Israel to exist; their differences are really on how far they are prepared to give up their positions to remain players in the negotiations for statehood.



[1] http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2011/05/24/136403918/hamas-foreign-minister-we-accept-two-state-solution-with-67-borders [2] https://972mag.com/hamas-leader-accepts-1967-borders-embraces-pragmatism/68708/