From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Hamas Covenant or Hamas Charter, formally known in English as the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement, was originally issued on 18 August 1988 and outlines the founding identity, stand, and aims of Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement).[1] A new charter was issued by Hamas leader Khaled Mashal on 1 May 2017 in Doha.[2]
The original Charter identified Hamas as the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine and declares its members to be Muslims who “fear God and raise the banner of Jihad in the face of the oppressors”. The charter states that “our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious” and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic state in Palestine, in place of Israel and the Palestinian Territories,[3] and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.[4][5] It emphasizes the importance of jihad, stating in article 13, “There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”[6] The charter also states that Hamas is humanistic, and tolerant of other religions as long as they “stop disputing the sovereignty of Islam in this region”.[7] The Charter adds that “renouncing any part of Palestine means renouncing part of the religion [of Islam]”.[1] The original charter was criticized for its violent language against all Jews, which many commentators have characterized as incitement to genocide.[8][9]
The relevance of the 1988 charter in Hamas’ activities has been questioned. In 2008, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, stated that Hamas would agree to accept a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, and to offer a long-term truce with Israel.[10] In 2009 interviews with the BBC, Tony Blair claimed that Hamas does not accept the existence of Israel and continues to pursue its objectives through terror and violence; Sir Jeremy Greenstock however argued that Hamas has not adopted its charter as part of its political program since it won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election.[11] Instead it has moved to a more secular stance.[12] In 2010, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated that the Charter is “a piece of history and no longer relevant, but cannot be changed for internal reasons”.[13] Hamas has moved away from its charter since it decided to run candidates for office.[12]
The 2017 charter accepted for the first time the idea of a Palestinian state within the borders that existed before 1967 and rejected recognition of Israel, which it terms as the “Zionist enemy”.[2] It advocates such a state as transitional but also advocates the “liberation of all of Palestine”.[14][15] The new document also states that the group does not seek war with the Jewish people but only against Zionism which it holds responsible for “occupation of Palestine”.[16] Mashal also stated that Hamas was ending its association with the Muslim Brotherhood.[14] After a new charter was scheduled to be issued in May 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu‘s office issued a statement in which it accused Hamas of trying to fool the world and also asked it to stop its terror activities for a true change.[17]
Background
In 1987, twenty years after the Six-Day War, the First Intifada (1987–1993) began.[18] In the late 1980s, the Palestine Liberation Organization sought a negotiated solution with Israel in the form of a two-state solution. This was not acceptable to Hamas, the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood,[19] and the charter was written to bridge the ideological gap between the PLO and Muslim Brotherhood.[20] According to Hamas’s Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Yousef, the Charter “was ratified during the unique circumstances of the Uprising in 1988 as a necessary framework for dealing with a relentless occupation”.[21] However, where the Muslim Brotherhood’s ideology proposed a more universal Islamic vision, Hamas’ charter seeks to narrow its focus on Palestinian nationalism and a strategy of armed struggle, or violent jihad.[20][22]
While the PLO was nationalistic, its ideology was considerably more secular in nature compared to Hamas. Hamas subscribed to a neo-Salafi jihadi theology that sought national liberation by violence as permitted by divine decree.[23][19] While its language was far more religious, its political goals were identical to those of the PLO’s charter and called for an armed struggle to retrieve the entire land of Palestine as an Islamic waqf.[20]
The original charter’s tone and portrayal of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a front in an eternal struggle between Muslims and Jews has been an obstacle for the organization’s involvement in diplomatic forums involving Western nations.[2] The updated charter published in 2017 walked back many of these assertions while adding questions regarding the ability of Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas to act as the sole legitimate representative for the Palestinians.[24] In addition, the 2017 charter removed many references to the Muslim Brotherhood as the ties had damaged the group’s relationship with Egypt, whom the country considers to be a terrorist organization.[25]
Relevance in the 21st century
Ahmed Yousef, an adviser to Ismail Haniyeh (the senior political leader of Hamas), claimed that Hamas has changed its views over time since the charter was issued in 1988.[21] In 2010 Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated that the Charter is “a piece of history and no longer relevant, but cannot be changed for internal reasons”.[13]
In 2006, Hamas proposed government programme, which stated that “the question of recognizing Israel is not the jurisdiction of one faction, nor the government, but a decision for the Palestinian people.”[26] However many[who?] remain sceptical of Hamas’s new stance, and view it as a ploy to hide its true agenda, “but it is equally true that the “new” discourse of diluted religious content—to say nothing of the movement’s increasing pragmatism and flexibility in the political domain—reflects genuine and cumulative changes within Hamas.”[12]
Contrastingly, Mahmoud al-Zahar, co-founder of Hamas, said in 2006 that Hamas “will not change a single word in its covenant”. In 2010, he reaffirmed a major commitment of the covenant saying “Our ultimate plan is [to have] Palestine in its entirety. I say this loud and clear so that nobody will accuse me of employing political tactics. We will not recognize the Israeli enemy.”[27]
According to Nathan Thrall, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, the original charter had been a long source of embarrassment among the reformists in the movement.[28]