The Assumption of Power by Hamas

By

Anaïs Bérard

M2APT0506

25th January 2006, Hamas won the legislative elections in Palestine with 75 seats to the ruling Fatah which obtained only 45 seats. The news provoked a shock all over the world, including in Palestine. Indeed, Hamas was born in 1987 as an Islamic radical movement and in 1990's, the organization was responsible for many terrorist attacks against Israel. In addition, Hamas rejected the Oslo agreements signed with Israel in 1993 and encouraged armed struggle against its enemies.

18th February 2006, the date of the inauguration of the new Palestinian Parliament, Mr Abbas urged Hamas to form a Cabinet that recognised the interim peace agreements with Israel. However, the Hamas members rejected the call for recognizing and negotiating with Israel.

Through several articles discussing the assumption of power by Hamas, we can see the positions of different governments including Fatah.

All the articles refer to Mahmoud Abbas’ speech concerning the inauguration of the new Hamas dominating Palestinian parliament and the criticisms of the members of Hamas.

The Times and Israel National News address the issue of the economic sanctions imposed by Israel against Palestine because of Hamas extremism. The Israel National News on Sunday is clearer. Experts have prepared a series of recommendations, but the Israeli cabinet did not approve all the security advice, especially calls for a ban on the entry of workers from Gaza. The newspaper focuses on the fact that the cabinet is refusing to finance a terrorist Palestinian government that is why the sanctions are essentially financial.

The first article of the Israel National News refers to the invitation extended by Russian President Vladimir Putin in early March. According to this source, Israel is very concerned about this Russian invitation. According to the Russian cabinet, their aim is to work toward Hamas accepting the Quartet's positions. However, for Israel, this is above all a means for Russia to sell weapons. The news has not been denied by Russia.

The last article of the Times discusses secret talks in the United States to envisage ways of sidelining Hamas. The meeting in Texas brought together supporters of the Fatah party of M.Abbas and members of the Israeli government.

It is very surprising to see that Fatah, the Israeli government, and the members of the Quartet do not want to respect the final results of a democratic election. Even if Hamas is an extremist and radical movement, the elections happened without fraud and the majority of Palestinian peoplevoted for Hamas.Democracy includes respecting final results even if those do not satisfy political rivals. Nevertheless, we must condemn violence. However, Israel, Fatah, and the West should rather wonder why Hamas won the Legislative elections.

The positive point of the situation is the links between M.Abbas and Ehud Olmert. We can hope that this relation may relaunch a fair peace process . Unfortunately, it is sad to need to reach such a political deadlock, that is to say the victory of an extremist movement, to be able to relaunch the peace process.

In addition, regretfully, we note that some people are always trying to peddle weapons. It is very easy to talk about peace, and democracy without any action to promote the latter.

Finally, we want to underline that Israeli economic sanctions will penalize Palestinian people. One of the reasons for Hamas’s triumph has been the ever-increasing vexations by the Israeli government. So, current Israeli politics have not been the best means to fight against Hamas.

The situation in the Middle East is very complex. In my opinion, the present situation is the result of the inaction of Western governments. Indeed, seeking for a just share of the territories has not been prevalent in the different political agendas. Now, we are paying the piper for this inaction and the governments must act in a situation of crisis. It is time to find a solution because the situation is really dangerous for all the world.

Sources:

I read several articles for this news point and the most interesting were the following :

Times On Line. "Israel threatens to wage economic war as Hamas takes over". February 18, 2006

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2046459,00.html

Times On Line. "US holds secret talks to weaken Hamas". February 19, 2006

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2047139,00.html

Israël National News.com "Russia and Hamas to Discuss Arms, Israel Considers Sanctions". Saturday, 17 February 2006

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=98705

Israël National News.com "Olmert´s Cabinet: No Money to Hamas, But Gates Remain Open". February 19, 2006

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=98770

Samir’s Remarks and Questions :

Anais’s news point addresses the recent electoral victory of the Hamas movement in Palestine.She describes the context of the election ( the crisis of the peace process, the defiance of Hamas against the road map, the non-respect of former agreements between Palestinian authority and Israel, like for example the Oslo Agreements or the recognition of Israel as a legitimate state.

This comment provides us with a good explanation about the region’s problems, the failure of western countries, especially the United States, which is the only power capable of ending the conflict, the ambiguity of Arab countries: when most Muslims have to decide for a new democratic vote, the rise of Islamic movements like Hamas is very rapid.

I have three questions:

What do you think about the risk of granting democracy to Muslim countries: to give an example: in the 90’s in Algeria, a democratic election handed over the reins of power to Islamists and radical groups who repeatedly stated that if they came to power, their would suppress democracy, which they considered to be incompatible with Islamic principles ? Does democracy currently represent the danger for many Muslim countries of seeing Islamic movements gain access to power?

-Secondly, the Fatah also have to be blamed for giving Palestinian people the image of a corrupted and incompetent administration.

In fact ,without the charismatic halo of Mr Arafat, the Fatah movement was unable to resolve the daily problems of Palestinians and the recent retreat from the Gaza strip by Mr Sharon demonstrated that they have to change by taking control over extremists . The Palestinian authority is in danger of seeing many other unilateral Israeli retreats, which will not consider Palestinian aspirations like the destruction of the security wall , the dismantlement of huge settlements on the West Bank, and the returning of some refugees.

So do you think that by their vote , Palestinians have expressed a rejection of the Fatah movement and have censured it for its harmful role, or do you think that this crucial vote may express a true Islamic demand from the Palestinians who have opted for the fundamentalists ?

Thirdly , I think that Mr Sharon, who can be seen as a hero for peace or as a disgusting butcher, is now considered to be a great leader by most democratic countries , thanks to the Gaza strip retreat.

Today, the Gaza strip is living in chaos: terrorist groups and Islamic movements have now taken control of this territory, which has become a dangerous new Far West for foreigners.

Do you think that if the international community does not strongly re-involve in the peace process, this situation of chaos will be generalized to the whole of Palestine and Israeli territories , marking points for extremists like the Likoud MPs (deputies) who are saying that giving territories to Palestinian is like providing more opportunities for instability and civil war.?