Hamas: Encyclopedia II - Hamas - History

Hamas - History

Hamas - Quick timeline

• 1984. Arrest of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, condemned to 12 years of prison after the discovery of an arms cache. Yassin is freed the next year.

• 1987. Creation of Hamas by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

• 1987-1993. First Intifada

• 1988 Hamas Covenant.

• 1989. Israel outlaws Hamas and imprisons Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

• 1991. Gulf War.

• 1992. Creation of the military branch Ezzedeen-al-qassam.

• 1993. Oslo Accords

• April 1993. First Hamas suicide bombing at Mehola Junction[13].

• January 1996. Assassination of Yahya Ayyash, Hamas bombmaker.

• February-March 1996. 47 Israelis killed in three different bombings.

• October 1997. Freed by Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu for "humanitarian reasons", Sheikh Yassin is acclaimed as hero at his return to Gaza.

• September 2000. Al-Aqsa Intifada.

• January 6, 2004. 10 year truce (hudna) offered by senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi in exchange of Israel's complete withdrawal to the 1967 borders.

• March 22, 2004, assassination of Sheikh Yassin. Yassin, then an old man, restricted to a wheel-chair due to his life-long paralysis, was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike on March 22, 2004. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi replaced him as the leader of Hamas. On March 28, Rantissi stated in a speech given at the Islamic University of Gaza City that "America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God, and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon."

• April 17, 2004, assassination of Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. Rantissi was also assassinated in an airstrike by the Israel Defense Forces, five hours after a fatal suicide bombing by Hamas. Khaled Mashaal, the leader of Hamas in Syria, said Hamas should not disclose the name of its next leader in Gaza. [14]

• On April 18, 2004, Hamas secretly selected a new leader in the Gaza Strip, fearing he would be killed if his identity were made public. (NYT). However, Israel believes that the new leader is Mahmoud al-Zahar; the second-in-command, Ismail Haniya; and third-in-command, Sa'id A-Siyam. [15]

• September 2004. Israeli army chief Moshe Yaalon said that Israel would "deal with ... those who support terrorism," including those in "terror command posts in Damascus."

• September 26, 2004. Assassination of Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil. Sheikh Khalil was assassinated by a car bomb in Damascus, Syria. Khalil was described variously as "mid-level," "senior," a "distinguished member," and "believed to be in charge of the group's military wing outside the Palestinian territories." [16]Although the Israeli government offered no official confirmation, anonymous Israeli officials acknowledged responsibility for the attack. In a statement released in Gaza, Hamas threatened to target Israelis abroad in retaliation. [17][18].

• November 11, 2004. Death of Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and president of the Palestinian National Authority.

• March 2005. Hamas proclames tadiyah, a period of calm.

• January 25, 2006. Overwhelming victory of the Hamas at the legislative election, which takes 74 seats of the 132 seats.

• As of 2004, Israeli military and intelligence sources believed that the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been significantly weakened by Israeli military operations. Israeli sources have noted that no prominent attacks have been claimed by West Bank-based Hamas members (whereas bombings by the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades continued), even though the Hamas leadership had reputedly ordered an escalation of suicide attacks after the assassinations of sheikh Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi. The West Bank has been under increased Israeli military control since Operation Defensive Shield was launched in April 2002, which severely limited the mobility and organization of the remaining Hamas membership. However, the 2006 legislative elections proved Hamas was a political power, at least in the Gaza strip.

Hamas - Pre 1987 - Palestinian Islamic Activities Prior to the Creation of Hamas

Sheikh Ahmed Yassin returned to Gaza from Cairo in the 1970s, where he set up Islamic charities, founding Hamas in 1987 as an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood. According to the Israeli weekly Koteret Rashit (October 1987), "The Islamic associations as well as the [Islamic university - founded in 1978 in Gaza] had been supported and encouraged by the Israeli military authority" in charge of the (civilian) administration of the West Bank and Gaza. "They [the Islamic associations and the university] were authorized to receive money payments from abroad." By the end of 1992, they were 600 hundreds mosques in Gaza. Hamas attracted members through preaching and charitable work before spreading its influence into trade unions, universities, bazaars, professional organizations and local government political races beginning in December 2004[19]. Hamas devotes much of its estimated $70-million annual budget to an extensive social services network. It funds schools, orphanages, mosques, healthcare clinics, soup kitchens, and sports leagues. According to the Israeli scholar Reuven Paz, approximately 90 percent of the organization's work is in social, welfare, cultural, and educational activities [20]. “Thanks to Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad (Israel’s Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks) , the Islamists were allowed to reinforce their presence in the occupied territories. Meanwhile, the members of Fatah (Movement for the National Liberation of Palestine) and the Palestinian Left were subjected to the most brutal form of repression”, according to L’Humanite ^[21]. Indeed Israel supported and encouraged Hamas' early growth in an effort to undermine the secular Fatah movement of Yasser Arafat. According to UPI, Israel supported Hamas starting in the late 1970s as a "counterbalance to the Palestine Liberation Organization". [22] At that time, Hamas's focus was on "religious and social work". The grassroots movement concentrated on social issues such as exposing corruption, administration of waqf (trusts) and organizing community projects.

Hamas - 1987 - The Establishment of Hamas

The acronym "Hamas" first appeared in 1987 in a leaflet accusing the Israeli intelligence services of undermining the moral fiber of Palestinian youth as part of their recruitment of what they termed collaborators. The use of violence by Hamas appeared almost contemporaneously with the First Intifada, beginning with the beating of Palestinians working with the Israeli government, progressing to attacks against Israeli military targets and moving on to violence aimed at civilians. As its methods have changed over the last thirty years, so has its rhetoric, now effectively claiming that Israeli civilians are "military targets" by virtue of living in a state with a military draft. The first Hamas suicide bombing was committed during the second Intifada, in April 1994 at Hadara.

Hamas - 1991 - The Gulf War

Between February and April 1998, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin raised several millions dollars from the Gulf states, which had withdrawn their funding from Fatah following its official support of Saddam Hussein during the first Gulf War. In prison since 1989, Yassin was released under “humanitarian reasons” by Prime minister Netanyahu and expelled to Jordan, from where he was allowed to return to Gaza in October 1997. The military branch Ezzedeen-al-qassam were created a year before the Oslo Accords, in an attempt to block those negotiations.

Hamas - 2004 - A 10-year Truce

On January 26, 2004, senior Hamas official Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi offered a 10-year truce, or hudna, in return for a complete withdrawal by Israel from the territories captured in the Six Day War, and the establishment of a Palestinian state. Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin stated that the group could accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Rantissi confirmed that Hamas had come to the conclusion that it was "difficult to liberate all our land at this stage, so we accept a phased liberation." He said the truce could last 10 years, though "not more than 10 years." [23] (See Hudna)

While the group boycotted the 2005 Palestinian presidential election, it did participate in 2005 municipal elections organized by Yassir Arafat in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In those elections it won control of over one third of Palestinian municipal councils, besting Fatah, which has traditionally been "the biggest force in Palestinian politics." [24] With this electoral success behind it, Hamas contested the 2006 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council as the main component of the List of Change and Reform.

Hamas - 2005 - Israel's unilateral disengagement plan

In 2004, in a prelude to Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from the Gaza Strip, Israeli forces carried out a number of military attacks on Gaza cities and refugees camps, seeking to draw out and kill Hamas-affiliated gunmen. Awareness of high casualties during such incursions has led the Hamas leadership to instruct its activists to avoid putting themselves needlessly in the line of fire. On 12 September 2005 Tsahal withdrew from the Gaza Strip and declared an official end to Israeli military rule in Gaza, though Israel still retains control of the airspace and of the sea. However the Palestinan Authority argues that the occupation is on-going, as complete sovereignty includes control of both airspace and seaways. Critics have called the Gaza strip an "open-air prison".

Hamas claimed that this unilateral withdrawal was a victory for its armed struggle and pledged to liberate all the occupied territories, including the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Fatah, on the other hand, viewed Ariel Sharon's unilateral plan as proof of the Palestinians' failure to obtain international recognition. Both criticized the disengagement plan, citing Sharon's simultaneous encouragement of Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including Ma'ale Adummim, the largest colony near Jerusalem.

Hamas - January 2006 - Winning the Legislative Election

On January 26, 2006, the Palestinian Central Elections Committee announced that Hamas had won a majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), defeating the ruling Fatah party. According to the preliminary results the List of Change and Reform obtained 42.9 % of the vote and 76 of the 132 seats. [25]; according to Reuters 74 seats [26]. Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and his cabinet resigned, leaving Hamas to form a new government. After the victory, Israeli Human Rights organizations have called on Hamas to stop its terror campaign against civilians and to avoid using violence as a tool to achieve a political solution.

President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would not support any efforts to cut off financial assistance to the Palestinians. However, the US Bush administration and the European Union have threatened to cut financial aid to the Palestinian Authority if Hamas members hold ministerial positions. They have been criticised for being hypocritical for this, since they are self-sworn supporters of democracy, yet were denouncing a democratically elected party.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki