Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, 1938-2004 (photo: al-Majalla)
"HAMAS" is an acronym formed from the Arabic word for "zeal." It is short for "The Islamic Resistance Movement" (Harakat al-Muqawamat al-Islamiyya ). HAMAS was founded in 1987 by a Palestinian spiritual and community leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Yassin had been a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, the Arab World's oldest religious-nationalist organization, but broke away when the Brothers refused to join the first Palestinian uprising (Intifada ) against Israel which began in 1987. Sheikh Yassin, who became a quadriplegic following an accident in his youth and as an adult was nearly blind and in frail health, was educated at Cairo's prestigious al-Azhar University. He was sentenced to life in prison by Israel in 1989 for ordering the killing of Palestinians who had collaborated with Israel. He was released in 1997 in a trade of prisoners with Jordan which released two Israeli agents who had been jailed for an attempt on the life of a HAMAS leader in Jordan. Another prominent leader was Dr. Abd al-Aziz al-Rantisi.
HAMAS' influence grew steadily throughout the occupied territories sometimes working with the PLO but most often opposing it. HAMAS became popular for its stance against the political corruption and cronyism for which Arafat's PLO was known and for its work in building a network of community institutions, including schools, hospitals, orphanages and civic centers.
HAMAS also created a military wing, the `Izz-al-Din al-Qassam' brigades, which began a campaign of armed resistance against Israel. Contrary to widespread opinion, HAMAS was not motivated, at least in the beginning, by Islamic principles. It was a nationalist organization whose goal was the restoration of Palestinian land and political autonomy. The Muslims who made up its ranks were primarily Sunni (compared with Lebanon's Shiite Hizbullah - "Party of God" - for example).
HAMAS was mainly funded not by Iran (as the United States and Israel claimed), but, by money coming in from the Palestinian diaspora and from other private Muslim sources. Its largest bankrollers were, ironically, America's close allies Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Emirates, which had a long history of financing extreme Islamic and nationalist movements in other countries as a way of buying peace for their own kingdoms. These countries also financed HAMAS as a way of punishing Yasir Arafat for his backing of Saddam Hussein in the 1991 Gulf War.
HAMAS' political aims were difficult to pin down. Sheikh Yassin and other leaders said on occasion that they wanted coexistence and peace with Israel provided Israel recognized the Palestinian right to a state, and allowed Palestinians ousted by Israel in the 1948 and 1967 wars- today totaling 2.7 million refugees - to return to their confiscated homes or receive compensation (as called for in U.N. Resolution 194 in 1948). Israel rejected both demands.
However, HAMAS more often called for the elimination of the state of Israel, or its replacement by an Islamic-led state in historical Palestine which would welcome Jews and Christians, in classical terms, as "people of the book" with rights of protection under the rule of an Islamic Palestine. (see Ziad Abu-Amr, Islamic Fundamentalism in the West Bank and Gaza (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994), 76-77). Inconsistency in its aims reflected HAMAS' loose-knit organizational structure. There were many conflicting factions within its ranks. Article 6 of its Charter (published in August, 1988) stipulated that the battle against Israel must be "'waged over every inch of Palestine.'" (see Kirsten Schulze, The Arab-Israeli Conflict (New York: Addison Wesley Longman, Ltd., 1999), 80 and 116). (There were similar concerns about the PLO Charter) An additional feature of HAMAS' charter was its anti-Semitism: seen most transparently by critics in Art. 32 where the early twentieth century Protocols of the Elders of Zion is cited as "proof" of Jewish aspirations to dominate the world.
HAMAS gained steady support among Palestinians throughout the second intifada, which broke out in late September, 2000. By May, 2003, HAMAS, which laid claim to many of the suicide attacks inside Israel as well as in Gaza and the West Bank, was openly calling for the destruction of Israel. In a statement released on May 19, the organization said, "These attacks will continue in all the territories of 1948 and 1967, and we will not stop attacking the Zionist Jewish people as long as any of them remain in our land." 1948 refers to all of geographical Palestine during the final phases of the British Mandate and prior to the creation of the state of Israel. One of HAMAS' political leaders, Abdel Aziz Rantissi, was quoted as saying, "What they [the Palestinian Authority] consider as the far goal for them, we consider as just a stage in our struggle. We believe that we shouldn't give up any part of our land." (BBC, May 20, 2003)
On March 21, 2004, Sheikh Yassin was assassinated in Gaza by Israeli forces in a missile attack launched from helicopter gunships. He was succeeded in the leadership position of HAMAS by Abdel Aziz Rantissi who himself was assassinated in an Israeli missile attack on April 17.
Throughout the following year, efforts were made to draw HAMAS into the political process. HAMAS reacted cautiously. In early July, 2005, for example, the organization turned down an offer to join the Palestinian government. But, in January, 2006, HAMAS defeated rival Fatah in parliamentary elections.
Text of HAMAS Covenant, 1988 (Yale Avalon Project)