Summary
Author of Chapter 12 of From the River to the Sea, “Hamas and a century of resistance” (2 December 2023), which places Hamas within a century of Palestinian resistance designated as terrorism by a Western colonial pattern (From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, lines 800-892).
Details
- Casualty ratios from UN and B’Tselem figures as he gives them: first Intifada 1:14, second Intifada 1:12, and 2008 to September 2023 1:21 killed and 1:24 injured, Palestinians to Israelis (line 812).
- In 1994 Hamas offered to stop killing Israeli civilians if Israel pledged “finally and irrevocably to cease killing unarmed Palestinian civilians”; Israel refused to deal with the offer (lines 814-818).
- Hamas converted from the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood on 11 December 1987, days into the First Intifada, after Islamic Jihad’s 1981 break with Brotherhood gradualism (lines 848-856).
- For most Palestinians Hamas “is an integral part of their century-long national struggle for liberation and self-determination”, supported and criticised by its performance on the national cause; the “terrorist organization” label “holds little relevance for the Palestinians” (lines 886-890).
Related pages
From the River to the Sea: Essays for a Free Palestine, Hamas, Palestine Liberation Organization, Oslo Accords