Hamas survives one year of power

[Jabhad]

Hamas survives one year of power

By Alan Johnston

BBC News, Gaza

There has been no collapse in Palestinian support for Hamas

 

Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Meshaal and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal and President Abbas met in Damascus

A year after coming to power in the Palestinian territories, the Hamas government is claiming a grim kind of the victory. Despite intense international and domestic pressure, it has survived.

Hamas won a sweeping victory in last January's general election. But its government was immediately subjected to diplomatic and economic sanctions by Israel and the West.

 

The Americans and the European Union have been demanding that Hamas endorse past Palestinian peace agreements, and accept the state of Israel's right to exist.

 

A senior Hamas political adviser, Ahmad Yusuf, gave his assessment of what has been a long, hard year.

 

"It's been like a world conspiracy against this government - led by the United States."

 

Deepening poverty

 

Mr Yusuf said Arab countries had collaborated with Washington. Elements in the ousted Fatah party had attacked the new administration, and the Israelis had continually tried to undermine it.

 

"With this combination of powers working against this government, I think just to keep ourselves surviving - and our people still not starving to death - that to us is a big achievement."

 

Hamas's policies - and the West's response to them - have led Palestinians into even deeper poverty.

 

 

Palestinian anger is against the Israelis and the international community. For the boycott they don't blame Hamas

Lama Hourrani, women's rights activist

For many poor families, particularly in Gaza, this has been an extraordinarily difficult 12 months.

 

Even worse, there have been terrifying, deadly clashes in the streets between Hamas and Fatah militants.

 

And of course Hamas has many critics.

 

You hear the government being described as too rigid, and lacking experience.

 

It has also been accused of unfairly favouring its own cadres when it comes to handing out jobs.

 

"You are either with the Hamas government, or you are rejected - I don't see them seeing the things in between," says Bassam Nasser, an analyst at a centre for conflict resolution in Gaza.

 

"I do not see them being pragmatic. I do not see them professional in managing their government."

 

Boycott blame

 

But the vast majority of Palestinians blame the outside world for the bulk of their troubles, and there has been no collapse in support for Hamas.

 

"Still the anger is against the Israelis and the international community," says Lama Hourrani, a women's rights activist who has been critical of Hamas in the past.

 

Of the great mass of people here she said, "For the boycott, they don't blame Hamas - and I don't blame them.

 

Hamas rally

There has been no collapse in Palestinian support for Hamas

"The international community is not supporting the Palestinians and they are the ones who worsened the economic situation with the Israelis - sure."

 

You get a sense that Hamas believes that it can soldier on - that time is on its side, that its isolation will gradually break down.

 

"Hamas is convinced that the worst is already behind it," says International Crisis Group analyst Mouin Rabbani. "And there is a case to be made for that argument."

 

"What we have seen in the last few months is that the amounts of funds reaching the Occupied Territories have been increasing."

 

This money has largely been channelled through the Fatah-controlled presidency, but it has helped to ease the dire, general economic situation.

 

"That makes it easier for Hamas to hang tough," says Mr Rabbani. "That makes it more difficult for people to insist that Hamas resign or leave office".

 

Hard line

 

There are continuing efforts to forge a new government of national unity. This would draw Hamas into a coalition with Fatah.

 

The aim would be to form an administration that the West might regard as being moderate enough in its attitude towards Israel.

 

That in turn ought to end the American and European economic and diplomatic boycotts.

 

But despite months of negotiations, the unity government has failed to take shape - in part because Hamas refuses to soften its line on Israel.

 

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniya

Palestinian Prime Minister Haniya says a truce with Israel is possible

Hamas does not only demand an end to the occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

 

It also refuses to relinquish claims to the lands lost to Israel in the war of 1948.

 

It regards the uprooting of the Palestinian people as a vast injustice that will - eventually - be reversed.

 

"This land must be governed by the Muslims - not by the Israelis or the Zionists," says Ahmad , referring to all the territory from the River Jordan to the Mediterranean.

 

"We believe this is our land - but we can give the Jewish people the right to live among us".

 

The Israelis take Hamas at its word, and regard it as a long term threat to the very existence of their state.

 

Hamas does have an offer on the table. It proposes a 10-year truce in return for a complete withdrawal from the Occupied Territories.

 

It argues that a decade of calm would change the atmosphere, and that other, lasting solutions to the conflict might emerge.

 

Rising tide

 

Israel is not interested.

 

It refuses to engage with Hamas in any way - regarding it only as a terrorist organisation responsible for suicide bombings that have killed hundreds of Israelis in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and elsewhere.

 

But Mouin Rabbani believes that the Hamas position is worth exploring.

 

"I think that Hamas has made a strategic transformation - reconciling itself to a two-state settlement," he says.

 

"I think those who want to put these assumptions to the test have a very simple task ahead of them. Confront not only Hamas but all the parties in this region with a realistic opportunity for a comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian peace - and then let's see how the different parties react.

 

"I remain convinced that, faced with the prospect of a credible peace, most Palestinians will throw their support behind those who are prepared to make it work," says Mr Rabbani.

 

Again, Hamas believes that time is on its side, and that it is riding a rising tide of Islamic feeling in the region.

 

Ahmad Yusuf argues that his party is now too powerful to be ignored.

 

"If the Israelis fail - or the world community fails - to deal with Hamas that will mean that there will be no chance for peace at all," he says.

[Allamagan]

...and insha'Allah many good years to come. Go Hamas!