Rebels, Terrorists or freedom fighters?: The Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas)

Anomie: Anarchy in the 21st Century

In our first episode of Season 3 we begin our investigation of the role of armed groups in the furthering or failure of revolutionary politics with a look at the Islamic Resistance Movement aka. Hamas.

The IRM is a Palestinian Sunni-Islamic fundamentalist, militant, and nationalist organization. It has a social service wing, Dawah, and a military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and became the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip following the 2007 Battle of Gaza. It also holds a majority in the parliament of the Palestinian National Authority. Canada, the European Union, Israel, Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States have designated Hamas as a terrorist organization. New Zealand and Paraguay have designated only its military wing as a terrorist organization. It is not considered a terrorist organization by Brazil, China, Egypt, Iran, Norway, Qatar, Russia, Syria and Turkey. In December 2018, the United Nations General Assembly rejected a U.S. resolution condemning Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hamas leaders Ismail Haniyeh and Khaled Mashaal are based in Qatar.

In this discussion we look objectively at how Hamas was founded, its tactics, its long term strategy and most importantly whether the former has prevented it from achieving its goals of Palestinian liberation.