The Great March of Return (Photo by Activestills.org)

With Gaza in headlines once again, discussion is swirling around the role of Hamas in the latest round of protests. These weekly protests, called the Great March of Return and meant to symbolize the displaced Palestinians marching to return to their homeland, have resulted in over 100 Palestinians killed by Israeli forces, an overwhelming majority of whom have been unarmed, nonviolent protesters shot by snipers at long range. It should be noted that in this same time frame, not a single Israeli has been injured.

But with all this finger-pointing and talk of Hamas, little attention is given to their relatively short history, or Israel’s role in their rise to power.

Hamas was a relatively small, fringe movement that came about near the beginning of the first Intifada as an offshoot of what was the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. They were a minor counter-balance to the overwhelmingly secular Palestinian resistance movements of the time who Israel saw as their primary enemy. Because of this, Israel would regularly flush out and fight the various secular Palestinian resistance movements while ignoring the smaller, increasingly extreme Islamic movements. These Islamic movements, the same ones that would go on to become Hamas, were mostly focused on opposing other secular Palestinian groups like the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO). Israel saw them as useful, tolerated their existence, and even went as far as helping to catalyze their growth after realizing they could help destabilize the unified secular Palestinian resistance.

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas. (Photo by Reuters)

In his book “Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land”, David Shipler wrote on how the Israeli Military Governor of the Gaza Strip at the time, Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, confessed to Israel’s financing of the Hamas movement as a counterweight to the PLO & Marxist Palestinian movements. “The Israeli Government gave me a budget and the military government gives to the mosques.” At one point in 1984, the Israeli military even arrested a leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza and future founder of Hamas Sheikh Ahmed Yassin after learning that he was stockpiling weapons in mosques. Yassin convinced the Israeli military that the weapons weren’t for use against Israel, but to be used against the PLO and communists in Gaza. He was subsequently released a year later as part of an agreement, with Israel no doubt hoping that he’d continue his fight against the secular Palestinian movements.

Even before the current brutal 11 year siege, living conditions in Gaza were tough. As Fatah’s power began to wane in the Gaza strip [due to Israeli efforts to limit their influence and strength], Islamic organizations [primarily, the Muslim Brotherhood] stepped in to aid the people through social welfare programs, education programs, and a focus on building up Palestinian society. These organizations were supported both actively and passively by Israel, hoping to cement their power and rule as a replacement to Fatah and the PLO.

At the outbreak of the First Intifada (uprising) in 1987, Hamas was formed out of what was the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. While Israel actively sabotaged Fatah efforts, stymied their growth, and assassinated its leaders, they allowed Hamas to flourish in the small vacuums created — never directly confronting the growing Hamas organization in any meaningful way. Their plan was to break the unity of Palestinian society, and turn the overwhelmingly secular Palestinian resistance movement against Israel into a fractured movement comprised of religious fundamentalists/extremists and secular orgs who Israel hoped would spend more time fighting each other than resisting Israel.

Flag of Hamas

Unfortunately, their plan worked, probably even better than Israel would’ve hoped. The downside is that they lost control over their pet-project of Hamas, and we have the organization we see today.

Hamas is the direct result of Israeli settler-colonialism, Israeli meddling, and the rage of Palestinian people at decades of oppression and dispossession and living under the boot of the Israeli military.

In 2006, the Palestinian legislative elections were held. These elections came immediately after the Second Palestinian Intifada. These elections were primarily the result of US pressure and closed-door meetings, with the idea that elections could end the Second Intifada for good and pressure Palestinian society to seek more political solutions and drop resistance fighting for good.

At this point, Fatah was being heavily influenced by the US and, to a lesser extent, Israel itself. The death of Arafat and most of the prominent Palestinian leadership left an opening for the two to slip in and corrupt the party from within, worsening the image of a party already seen as corrupt by many. In their mind, controlling what was the most supported Palestinian party at the time meant controlling the Palestinian people. This is not what happened, however. The corruption was obvious from the start. The US was pulling Fatah’s strings, training Fatah thugs & police, and whispers of Israel advising Palestinian politicians and political leaders behind closed doors. Fatah politicians became less concerned with genuinely opposing Israel, and more so with increasing their personal wealth and power. The US, through USAID, gave over $2 million to Fatah, hoping to bolster their image and standing with the Palestinian people, on top of $500 million in budgetary aid also meant in part to help Fatah secure the vote of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian saw through this, and Fatah, the organization that was once loved by all and seen as the future of Palestine, became a widely hated organization and synonymous with corruption, repression, defeat, and proxy US rule.

Flag of Fatah

The US miscalculated their investment and believed that Fatah’s history would lead to an easy victory. When the US realized that their party was likely to lose, they sought ways to alter the outcome of the elections. Israel began arresting Hamas politicians en masse, and leaked audio revealing Senator Hillary Clinton expressing regret at pushing for Palestinian elections:

“I do not think we should have pushed for an election in the Palestinian territories. I think that was a big mistake,” said Sen. Clinton. “And if we were going to push for an election, then we should have made sure that we did something to determine who was going to win.”

The only other party running against Fatah that really had any relevance at all [given the downfall of the PFLP, also due to Israeli actions and assassinations], was Hamas — the Israeli catalyzed religious extremist movement. Despite many Palestinian parties running, the elections were basically between two parties — the horrendously corrupt and US-backed Fatah party, or the only other party still fighting against Israel that isn’t controlled by a foreign power — Hamas.

Hamas won. The US, Israel, and Fatah did not approve, and helped Abbas to invalidate the legitimacy of the elections that they pushed for and attempted to manipulate. Just consider the audacity for a moment.

The US & Israel heavily pushed for elections on a society that did not want them and was in no way ready for them, attempted to manipulate the elections by arresting politicians and funding the party they wanted to win, and then chose to invalidate and ignore the results when they didn’t agree with the outcome.

The US response was to arm and train Fatah soldiers to fight Hamas and seize control anyways — leading to the Palestinian Civil War of 2006/2007.

Map of the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Hamas lost in the West Bank, were they were defeated by Fatah and Israel, but were victorious in the Gaza Strip where Fatah forces were weakest following decades of Israeli operations limiting their strength and promoting Islamic Organizations in their place.

The Gaza strip was then placed under siege by Israel and Egypt, with all aid cut off by most of the world. This isolation led to Hamas becoming even more extreme, leading us to where we are today. Fatah, corrupt as ever, continues to rule over the West Bank, while Hamas continues to rule the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians as a whole have no love for either Fatah or Hamas, but we are also left with no alternatives due to the fact that Israel actively continues to kill potential leaders, ban the formation of new organizations, and jail historical figures who could lead Palestinian society. Meanwhile, we’re left with Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank who is almost unanimously despised by Palestinians, siphoning what little money we have into his own mansion (which is currently sitting vacant) and passing various neoliberal reforms that continue to beat our already beleaguered economy, and Hamas, who are the ONLY power in Gaza maintaining basic welfare/humanitarian services while also imposing a rule of religious governance and seen as responsible for any attacks against Israel originating from the region.

To blame Hamas alone for the current state of Gaza, or to consider Hamas as more of an issue for Palestinian society than Israel itself is to ignore the complicated history of international meddling of Palestinian politics. Israel wanted a counterbalance to the PLO and to introduce a radical religious element into the Palestinian resistance movement, and here we are today.