Political Ideology of Hamas

Michael Irving Jensen holds a Ph.D. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Copenhagen and a Masters in Developing Studies from SOAS, University of London. He is currently a lecturer in Middle Eastern History and Politics at the University of Copenhagen and runs the private consul- tancy Middle East Awareness. LIBRARY OF MODERN MIDDLE EAST STUDIES See www.ibtauris.com/LMMES for a full list of titles 62. Identity Politics in the Middle East: 73. The Arab–Israeli Conflict in the Media: Liberal Thought and Islamic Challenge in Egypt Producing Shared Memory and National Identity Meir Hatina in the Global Television Era 978 1 84511 135 9 Tamar Ashuri 63. The New Voices of Islam: 978 1 84511 814 3 Reforming Politics and Modernity – A Reader 74. Desert Voices: Mehran Kamrava (ed.) Bedouin Women’s Poetry in Saudi Arabia 978 1 84511 274 5 Moneera Al-Ghadeer 64. The Political Ideology of Hamas: 978 1 84511 666 8 A Grassroots Perspective 75. 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The Emergence of Modern Istanbul: of the Islamic Intellectuals Transformation and Modernisation of a City Sena Karasipahi Murat Gül 978 1 84511 783 2 978 1 84511 935 5 THE POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF HAMAS A GRASSROOTS PERSPECTIVE MICHAEL IRVING JENSEN TRANSLATED FROM DANISH BY SALLY LAIRD Published in 2009 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Distributed in the United States and Canada Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 Copyright © 2009 Michael Irving Jensen The right of Michael Irving Jensen to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Library of Modern Middle East Studies: 64 ISBN: 978 1 84511 059 8 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall from camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the author with the assistance of Kalligraf DK-7800 Skive CONTENTS Preface and Acknowledgements vii Abbreviations xi 1 Islamism in Palestine and the Quest for the Sound Muslim 1 2 The Context: the Development of Palestinian Islamism and the Relationship with the Palestinian Authority during the ‘Old Order’ 11 3 The Islamists’ Understanding of Islam: Their View of History and the Need to Engage in Civil Society 47 4 Football and Islamism in the Gaza Strip 61 5 The Islamic University of Gaza, the Students and Islamism 97 6 Conclusion 141 Appendix: Notes on the Fieldwork and Methodology 153 Notes 161 Bibliography 183 Glossary 197 Index 201 PREFACE AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This book has, as so much other research, been born out of wonder and curiosity. The initial curiosity was raised during a stay on the occupied Palestinian West Bank back in 1991. We were a small group of foreign students who had ignored the first Intifada, which at this point was at its peak, and had chosen to study during the summer at the Bir Zeit University north of Jerusalem. One night, during a seminar on the countless Israeli offences against Palestinian human rights, a small group of masked Islamists entered the room, equipped with large machetes, and broke off the seminar and read out a handbill. The message was clear and simple: “AIDS infected decadent westerners – you have 24 hours to pack your clothes and leave this area, otherwise Hamas will take its precautions.” Only a few students followed the request, while the main group stayed put to witness the political aftermath unfold over the next couple of days. Apparently, the incident was broadcast on Israeli TV. It also reached the highest level of the National Palestinian Leadership in the occupied territories. Two days after the incident, the late Faisal Husseini came to visit and put forward an unreserved apology on behalf of the Palestinian people. This was followed by discussions and show- downs in the Palestinian camp. Hamas came forward with an apology and assured us that the incident was not backed by their leaders, but was an inde- pendent act of young kids belonging to the movement. At first the incident sharpened my interest in the Islamic Resistance Movement in Palestine and in particular in the movement’s political and social functions. This interest later resulted in several stays and studies on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, both during the first Intifada and after the Oslo Agreement in 1993 and the Aqsa Intifada. My interest in political development in the Palestinian occupied and autonomous areas and particularly the development within the Islamic movement Hamas has only increased since then. The Hamas elec- toral victory in 2006 made my desire to publish my work on Hamas in viii THE POLITICAL IDEOLOGY OF HAMAS English even stronger. This book is a revised and updated edition of my book originally published in Danish, Hamas i Gazastriben (2002), based on the fieldwork I conducted in relation to my Ph.D. During the years I spent on the project I have received inspiration and support from a number of colleagues both in Denmark and abroad. First and foremost I wish to thank my mentor throughout the years, the former Director of the Danish Institute in Damascus and current Professor at Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jørgen Bæk Simonsen for moral and professional support. I would also like to extend my acknowledgements to my colleagues at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute, University of Copenhagen: Anette Haaber Ihle, Lene Kofoed Rasmussen and Daniella Kuzmanovic for prolific discussions during the process. I am also grateful to journalist and scholar Birgitte Rahbek for repeatedly having found time to read through parts of my publications. I wish to acknowledge a number of other colleagues at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute, the Danish Institute for International Studies as well as at the Danish Center for Culture and Development (in alphabetical order), i.e. Hanne Adriansen, Christel Braae, June Dahy, Jakob Feldt, Maria Fodeh, Thomas Illum, Mahmoud Issa, Abdul Rahman Jabari, Nathalie Khankan, Mogens Trolle Larsen, Gry Krogager Lund, Helle Gudio Nielsen, Ivan Smilianov, Anne Stadil, Svend Maan Søndergaard and others. Among my foreign colleagues I would like to extend my sincere apprecia- tion to Professor Michael Hudson of Georgetown University, who on several occasions encouraged me to publish my study of Hamas in English. I also wish to thank Professor Ahmad Moussalli from the American University in Beirut, who like Michael Hudson was visiting Professor at Copenhagen University. Furthermore I would like to extend my acknowledgement to Professor Francois Burgat (Aix en-Provence) and Professor Augustus Richard Norton (Boston University) for supporting the project through seminars and conferences. I wish to thank the many young Islamists and their leaders in the Gaza Strip, who, despite the pressing and tense political situation in the area, received me with open arms and participated in a series of interviews consti- tuting the backbone of this study. A great thanks also to the Board of the Islamic University in Gaza, the Head of al-Jam’iyya al-Islâmiyya Sheikh Ahmad Bahr, and especially to the late Hamas leader Ismael Abu Shanab, who through a long series of interviews openly sought to extend his views on the political reality in Palestine.

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