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Ramtin Arablouei
Two years since the Hamas led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. The attack killed around 1200 people. 250 people were taken hostage. In response, Israel bombarded and invaded Gaza. According to Gaza health officials, more than 66,000 Palestinians have been killed in what an independent UN inquiry has classified as genocide. Since the start of the conflict, we've heard from many of you, our listeners, with questions about who are they? What do they want? And and how did we get here? So in the weeks following the October 7, 2023 attack, we talked to experts on all sides to answer those questions, people who know the history deeply and have even participated in it. This episode first aired in November 2023, and we wanted to bring it back to you again now to look back at the origins and influence of Hamas. Next week, we bring you our episode about the rise of Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli right wing. Today we'll start in 1987 with the event that birthed Hamas. In December 1987, a military truck driven by an Israeli citizen collided with another vehicle in Gaza near the Jabaliya refugee camp. Four Palestinians died. Authorities explained it as an accident, but many Palestinians viewed it as an act of revenge for the killing of an Israeli man in Gaza days earlier. But these events were just a spark that lit a flame in the days after frustration and anger from Palestinians poured out in an event known as as the first intifada or uprising. The hostility and tension are everywhere on the streets in Arab East Jerusalem, in the shouting voices of Palestinian teenagers hurling stones at cars and soldiers.
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Listener Callers
In the past month, two Palestinians were killed by Israeli sniper fire, adding to the already inflamed atmosphere in the walkie.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Talkies of Israeli troops on patrol to.
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Listener Callers
Pay for with land, housing and potable water in short supply.
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Ramtin Arablouei
In the cries of angry Palestinian women watching as their children are arrested and taken away. We want exactly what the Israeli people enjoy democracy, freedom and independence. Over 1,000 Palestinians and around 200 Israelis were killed in the 1987 intifada. It shocked the world. But for people on the ground, it was the latest event in a cycle of attack and reprisal that dated back to the establishment of the State of Israel. Here's a very simple breakdown. In 1947, the United nations called for the division of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states the idea was to create a Jewish homeland where Jews could feel safe. After centuries of antisemitism in Europe culminated in the Holocaust, and in 1948, Israel was established. But there were already hundreds of thousands of Arab Christians and Muslims living there. Almost immediately, Israel was attacked by neighboring states. The who argued that the UN Division of land was not fair to the Arabs. A war ensued that Israel won. Then two more wars were fought, one in 1967 and one in 1973. Israel won those wars as well. The reasons for those wars and their outcomes are very complicated. We do not have the time to go into those things here. What's important to know for our story is, is that those wars resulted in mass exoduses of people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews were expelled from Arab countries where they'd lived for centuries. And hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were forcibly displaced from their homes in what is now Israel. Key to the moment we're in right now is that as a result of winning these three wars, Israel gained control over the west bank and Gaza Strip, two territories that were recognized by the United nations as Palestinian lands. So this meant that Israel became an occupying power over more than a million Palestinians. Palestinians still had a burning desire to establish their own state. An organization in exile called Fatah and its leader, Yasser Arafat, emerged as one of the main voices fighting for this state. Fatah became the most powerful group in a coalition called the Palestine Liberation Organization, or PLO. But in 1987, at the start of the first intifada, a new Palestinian organization was born in the Gaza Strip that would change everything. The group was called Hamas.
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Khalid Elgindi
Hamas is an acronym for the Arabic phrase for Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas also happens to mean zeal or passion. This is Khalid Elgindi, and I'm the author of the 2019 book called America and the Palestinians From Balfour to Trump.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Khalid also served as an advisor to the Palestinian leadership during their negotiations with Israel in 2007.
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Khalid Elgindi
Hamas's overall vision was a Palestinian state in all of the land of historical Palestine, from the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Khalid says this goal to establish a Palestinian state was shared by other Palestinian liberation groups. But Hamas was different for one major reason.
- [06:40]
Khalid Elgindi
They were Islamist. Whereas most of the Palestinian factions emerged in the 1950s and 60s and were either leftist, like strongly Marxist or centrist.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Hamas basically put Islam at the center of its political program. In their charter, they made it clear that it was only through Islam that Palestinians could achieve liberation.
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Khalid Elgindi
Part of Hamas's appeal was they didn't believe in diplomacy. They didn't believe in compromise, that's reflected.
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Ramtin Arablouei
In Hamas charter published in 1988, it spells out their purpose and objectives. We've asked Throughline senior producer Devin Katiyama to read from the group's founding document.
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Devin Katiyama
There's no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
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Martin Kiir
Hamas. It is an expression of Palestinian anger, desperation and frustration.
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Ramtin Arablouei
This is Martin Kiir.
- [07:46]
Martin Kiir
I'm a lecturer in international relations at the University of Sydney in Australia.
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Ramtin Arablouei
He also wrote a book all about.
- [07:53]
Martin Kiir
Hamas called Hamas in Palestine the Contested Road to Statehood.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Martin says that Hamas introduced itself as an organization dedicated to both Palestinian statehood and Islamic Jihad, or holy war.
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Devin Katiyama
The Islamic Resistance Movement consider itself to be the spearhead of the circle of struggle with world Zionism and a step on the road. Islamic groupings all over the Arab world should also do the same since all of these are the best equipped for the future role of the fight with the warmongering Jews.
- [08:25]
Ramtin Arablouei
While their charter in 1988 clearly lays all this out, Martin says we should not mistake it for some well thought out founding document.
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Martin Kiir
The people who wrote it were very insular. It was not as though the leadership of Hamas sat down and put this document together. Three people wrote it and they'd never been outside of Gaza, never traveled. But Hamas after that rarely if ever mentioned its charter.
- [08:54]
Devin Katiyama
The Zionist plan is limitless. After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on.
- [09:07]
Ramtin Arablouei
The Hamas charter contains antisemitic language.
- [09:12]
Devin Katiyama
Their plan is embodied in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. And their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.
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David Hakam
The first goal of Hamas is to destroy completely the state of Israel.
- [09:28]
Ramtin Arablouei
This is David Hakam. He's a former colonel in the Israel defense forces, the IDF, where he served for 30 years.
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David Hakam
During my military service, I was for almost eight years in the Gaza Strip. I arrived to Gaza one year before the beginning of the first Palestinian uprising.
- [09:49]
Ramtin Arablouei
David has written two books on Hamas and other Palestinian groups and is affiliated with the Miriam Institute, which is basically an Israel focused think tank. He says that Hamas was expressly dedicated to the destruction of Israel from its inception.
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David Hakam
As a matter of fact, they are speaking about, in the first phase, about the establishment of a Palestinian Islamic state on the ruins of the State of Israel.
- [10:23]
Ramtin Arablouei
Ultimately, Hamas's emergence in the chaotic bloody years of the first Intifada signaled a change in the symbolic and material direction of the Palestinian fight against occupation.
- [10:37]
Martin Kiir
It allowed Hamas to frame their narrative that this was a we are an Islamic resistance movement.
- [10:47]
Ramtin Arablouei
And in the years after their launch, Hamas began carrying out the promise of its charter. I'm Ramtin Arablouei. On this episode of Throughline from npr, we're going to tell you the history of Hamas from multiple perspectives and try to answer a few central questions. Why did Hamas form, in what context has it evolved into the organization it is today? And what does it represent to Palestinians, Israelis and the rest of the world?
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Listener Callers
Hi, this is Patrick Cornegate Jr. Calling from Washington, D.C. and you're listening to Throughline from NPR.
- [11:38]
David Hakam
Thanks.
- [11:40]
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- [12:11]
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- [12:52]
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- [13:01]
Ramtin Arablouei
In 1988, Hamas was created explicitly as an Islamist organization. Now you might be wondering what I mean by Islamist. Well, the larger context for that term goes all the way back to the early 20th century. Back then, European powers were slowly encroaching on and sometimes outright colonizing parts of the Middle East. This was a big change because since the medieval period, the Middle east and North Africa had been ruled by Muslim empires that were dominant politically, militarily and economically on the international level. This was and is a point of historical pride for many in the Muslim world. I was reminded of it all the time growing up by people in my community. But as Europe and eventually the United States rose to power, those fortunes changed. By the 20th century, several kinds of responses to that formed There was the leftist, anti imperialist, Marxist kind that was prevalent all over the world. Think like Che Guevara. There were also secular nationalists like Ataturk in Turkey. But there was another camp that basically said the problem in the Muslim world was that Muslims weren't Muslim enough, not religious enough. That if Muslims reconnected with Islam, then perhaps they could regain the glory of the past. This worldview created movements and organizations all over the Middle East. And one of those organizations based in Egypt was called the Muslim Brotherhood. They are key in the creation of Hamas.
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Martin Kiir
So the Muslim Brotherhood's goal is to connect Muslims again with Islam. And once that connection is made, then the people themselves will rise up and feel the sense of collective identity and through that collective identity, be able to. To get rid of foreign occupation.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Even though it was founded in Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood had chapters and supporters all over the Middle east, from Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Iraq. But while the group did engage in political violence, it was different from extremist Islamist groups that we might think of today, like Al Qaeda or isis. The Muslim Brotherhood started out by focusing on social welfare programs and preaching. The Palestinian chapter in Gaza and the west bank provided education, food and other kinds of social services to hundreds of thousands of Palestinians. And it would be one of its members that would help found Hamas, a guy named Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
- [15:44]
Martin Kiir
So he was a young Palestinian. He was a quadriplegic. He was born in 1936 near the modern city of Ashkelon.
- [15:55]
Ramtin Arablouei
Yassin came to Gaza as a refugee. Like many other Palestinians after the establishment.
- [16:01]
Martin Kiir
Of Israel, he was a product of the occupation.
- [16:05]
Ramtin Arablouei
He had joined the Muslim Brotherhood as a young man in Egypt. In Gaza, he focused his efforts on Palestinian statehood.
- [16:14]
Martin Kiir
He wasn't an ideologue. Now, there's certainly that Islamic frame of reference, but you wouldn't say that he was an ideologue. There's a. This very action orientated and that when I say action, it doesn't necessarily mean violence. It's a. We need to. We need to be the controllers of our own destiny to do this.
- [16:33]
Ramtin Arablouei
He founded an organization in Gaza in 1973 which was licensed to operate by the Israeli government. In 1979, he came with a request.
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David Hakam
From the Israeli, you know, military government in the Gaza Strip in order to bring him like the green light for the establishing of Al Mujama Al Islami.
- [16:57]
Ramtin Arablouei
This organization David's talking about, Al Mujam Al Islamiya, or the Islamic center, was the precursor to Hamas. It was an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. The Israeli Government approved Yassin's request for the Islamic center because it was basically a charity organization. But according to David, it did more than that.
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David Hakam
During the 80s, Al Mujama Al Islami did its utmost with the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin at his head to gain, you know, public support, to take control of local associations, to open, you know, mosques.
- [17:36]
Ramtin Arablouei
So Sheikh Yassin and several other Gazans established Hamas out of the Islamic Center.
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Tariq Bakoni
Hamas was created because a number of Palestinians who believe in armed resistance and this Islamist ideology created the organization.
- [17:50]
Ramtin Arablouei
This is Tariq Bakoni. He's a scholar and president of the board of Al Shabaqah, a nonprofit focused on Palestinian policy research and author of.
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Tariq Bakoni
The book Hamas contained the rise and pacification of Palestinian resistance. When Hamas was established out of that structure and it began to engage in.
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Ramtin Arablouei
Resistance activities, the like attacks on military posts and abducting Israeli soldiers, immediately Israel's.
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Tariq Bakoni
Approach to dealing with Hamas changed and it stopped being one of approval. It started being an antagonistic relationship because obviously now it's a resistance party in retrospective.
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David Hakam
I think this was, I call it the original sin of the Israeli authorities, Israeli security authorities that did not understand that period of time. What can be developed by of this innocent organization movement Al Mujama Al Islami.
- [18:51]
Ramtin Arablouei
As the first intifada went on, many Palestinians became more and more frustrated, not only with the occupation, but with the PLO Fatah as it attempted to negotiate a two state solution with Israel.
- [19:06]
Khalid Elgindi
The reality was that Fatah and some of the smaller parties were interested in joining a peace process that would result in a compromise situation of a West bank and Gaza state.
- [19:20]
Martin Kiir
It's certainly by this stage, 1987, 20 years of occupation. What have the PLO done? When I say PLO, what has Fatah done? Nothing virtually. We've been fighting for 20 years, resisting for 20 years. Nothing has changed. In fact, it's actually gotten worse. We are further away from independent state than we've ever been before.
- [19:43]
Ramtin Arablouei
This sense of desperation and frustration among Palestinians is part of what allowed for Hamas argument that compromise and negotiation are losing strategies, that fighting was the only way forward. And part of Hamas's appeal at this time is, was that their founders and members were from Gaza. They grew up there under an occupation that according to a 1985 UN committee report included a stagnant economy, broken communities, depleted natural resources and violations of fundamental human rights. Meanwhile, many of the PLO fatal leaders lived in exile and in some cases luxury.
- [20:26]
Martin Kiir
The key Fatah people, most of Fatah are living in the diaspora. They're the ones living in the four, four story houses, driving around in their gold Mercedes. They're not experiencing the day to day privations of the occupation, whereas Hamas, they're a product of the occupation. You can see them walking in the streets, you can see them at the market. People may not necessarily agree with, with their narrative with the IS as an Islamist movement. They get a lot of respect for the fact that they live amongst the community.
- [21:01]
Ramtin Arablouei
The body of an Israeli border policeman kidnapped two days ago by the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement was found today in the Israeli occupied West Bank. In 1992, Hamas carried out a plan that would set in motion a cascade of events altering their path. They took an Israeli border policeman hostage, a man named Nassim Toledano, and he.
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Martin Kiir
Was eventually killed by the kidnappers.
- [21:29]
Listener Callers
We don't think that it is kidnapping, it's capturing because we are in the state of the war and we are struggling to expel our enemy from our land. This is our land.
- [21:42]
Ramtin Arablouei
Hamas did this at a time when the PLO was starting negotiations with the Israeli government on a peace deal that could potentially create a two state solution.
- [21:51]
Listener Callers
Prime Minister Rabin said Hamas wanted to murder both Jews and peace, but they would not succeed. Nothing will move us from here, Rabin said. Not stones, Molotov cocktails or knives. Not Hamas, not the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and not the plo. He said, we will live here forever. Rabin said Israel would pursue the war.
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David Hakam
I was there. I was in all the meetings that took place with our Prime Minister, Yitzhak Kabim.
- [22:20]
Ramtin Arablouei
At the time, David Hakham was serving in the Israel Defense Forces and as an advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
- [22:29]
David Hakam
And after the killing of Toledanu, there was a decision taken by Yitzhak Habin as the Israeli Prime Minister to expel 415 Hamas activists from both the west bank and the Gaza Strip.
- [22:47]
Listener Callers
During the night, security forces woke up more than 400 of the 1500 Palestinians who have been arrested in the past two days. The deportees were blindfolded, their hands bound with plastic handcuffs and loaded onto buses which headed for the Lebanese border.
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Martin Kiir
It was a way of dismantling and disrupting Hamas and it did for a time because these were the key members of key leadership of Hamas. But it was a public relations disaster for Israel.
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Commercial Announcer
About 400 Palestinians deported by Israel are trapped in a no man's land in southern Lebanon.
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Martin Kiir
The international community found out and it was like, well, okay, how come you're deporting 415 people.
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Khalid Elgindi
To Israel's surprise, they became a kind of cause celebre as these self sacrificing the exiles. They represent kind of a microcosm of what the Palestinian movement is about. And it was also seen as an especially cruel move. I mean, of course, it's a violation of international law. You can't deport elements of the population.
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Martin Kiir
The international media starts to take more attention. What is it about Hamas? Why were these people deported? Is it a human interest story or whatever? So people start to pay more attention to Hamas. Hamas is now narrative. They're interviewed on international media. They get their narrative out, they get their story out for the first time really to the outside of the Arab world.
- [24:21]
Listener Callers
The only ones doing anything to help the Palestinian people, he says, is Hamas.
- [24:27]
Martin Kiir
Well, all of a sudden you can, you can talk to these people and it's 10 fingers, 10 toes, two arms, two legs. They're just like me. And the other thing that happens is that Hezbollah, which is another resistance movement to Israeli occupation, this time of southern Lebanon, looks after these deportees.
- [24:55]
Ramtin Arablouei
Hezbollah is an Islamist organization based in Lebanon that was founded during the Israeli invasion of that country in the 1980s. The group is backed by Iran.
- [25:06]
Khalid Elgindi
Both movements see a convergence of interests in their opposition, their militant opposition to Israel.
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David Hakam
They were totally indoctrinated ideologically by Hezbollah, by Iran.
- [25:20]
Khalid Elgindi
I think Hamas saw Hezbollah as someone they could learn from politically, tactically and in other ways.
- [25:27]
Martin Kiir
Hezbollah introduces Hamas to the idea of suicide terrorism, to car bombs, a more violent resistance to Israeli occupation.
- [25:38]
Tariq Bakoni
It adopts a tactic of suicide bombing from Hezbollah and brings that back to Palestine when they are, when the international community essentially forces Israel to take them back in.
- [25:49]
Martin Kiir
People come back in dribs and drabs. Israel admits that over time that, okay, these 10 people were illegally deported, supported these five people.
- [25:57]
David Hakam
This was another mistake taken by Israel. I'm not speaking about the expel. I'm speaking about the coming back to the territory.
- [26:08]
Ramtin Arablouei
Coming up, Hamas begins to put the lessons learned in Lebanon into practice.
- [26:24]
Listener Callers
Hi, my name is Fabio Ferrari.
- [26:27]
Ramtin Arablouei
I'm calling from New York City.
- [26:29]
Listener Callers
You are listening to Throughline from npr.
- [26:35]
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- [27:37]
Ramtin Arablouei
Part 21994 when the first intifada ended around 1993, the path to a potential two state solution seemed more possible than ever. Israel and the PLO culminated months of negotiations in Oslo, Norway. It was the first agreement in what would come to be known as the Oslo Accords. The agreements recognized the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people and called for the creation of the Palestinian Authority to handle some policing and municipal authority in some parts of the west bank and Gaza Strip. In exchange, they had to ensure the security of Israeli civilians from Palestinian attacks. Israel agreed to negotiate on the status of its settlements during the peace process. The terms of the deal would be implemented over the course of five years and promised further negotiations. Many in the world viewed the deal as a groundbreaking step towards a Palestinian state and towards peace. PLO leader Yasser Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were all given the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, but many in Israel and the Palestinian territories saw it completely differently.
- [28:56]
Martin Kiir
I think there's a lot of misinformation about what the Oslo Accords actually were. They certainly weren't about peace. The Oslo Accords were designed to transfer administrative control of Palestinians from the Israeli occupation to Palestinians. So it would be the Palestinian Authority who is in charge of the provision of basic services to Palestinians. Making Palestinians responsible for their own administration means that if anything goes wrong, if there are starving Palestinians, if there are Palestinians who can't access health care, basic services, that's not the responsibility of the occupation, that's the responsibility of Palestinian Authority. Even though the occupation controls everything that's going on, controls all of the money.
- [29:40]
Khalid Elgindi
That goes in, there was a lot of suspicion. It looked like in some ways a bad deal, but for the Palestinian public there was this sense of, well, let's give it a chance, let's see what happens with this peace process.
- [29:54]
Martin Kiir
Fatah signed it to get back in control of Palestinian life. The PLO had been forced out of Lebanon in 1982. They've been cast adrift. No direct contact. They're becoming irrelevant. So Arafat was desperate to get back in control.
- [30:11]
Ramtin Arablouei
And the suspicion grew into despair as it became clear the peace deal wouldn't deliver a better life for most Palestinians.
- [30:19]
Khalid Elgindi
It's really when the process began to falter, when the peace dividends in economic terms never actually materialized, when, you know, closures were imposed, when Israel didn't meet its commitments to withdraw from certain areas by a certain deadline.
- [30:38]
Martin Kiir
Hamas has said that the Oslo Accords was the biggest betrayal of Palestinian nationalism ever.
- [30:47]
Ramtin Arablouei
Hamas opposed the Oslo Accords from the beginning. Unlike the plo, Hamas did not believe in compromise and negotiation. They didn't think it would make a difference. And this gave Hamas an incentive to oppose the peace deal because they feared what might happen if it were to succeed.
- [31:05]
Martin Kiir
Hamas had gained enormous support and popularity in the territories, and it was fast becoming the dominant resistance movement. And so for Hamas, it was like, well, okay, what if there's a genuine peace agreement between the PLO and Israel? Where does that put us? How are we supposed to resist? How can we be a resistance movement if there's peace?
- [31:31]
Ramtin Arablouei
Hamas was not the only faction on either side against a peace deal in Israel. Far right Jewish settlers also opposed the Oslo Accords. Here's why. Since 1967, hundreds of thousands of Israeli Jews have created settlements on internationally recognized occupied Palestinian territories. These settlements come in the form of villages, towns, and full blown suburbs. Many of these settlements are sanctioned by the Israeli government and protected by police and military. They have become so extensive that they've essentially carved the west bank into a collection of small territories separated by Jewish settlements. This was and is a major source of tension in the conflict on both sides. And when the Oslo Accords were being negotiated, some of those Israeli settlers feared their settlements could be dismantled as part of an agreement. So in 1994, one of those settlers did something that would change the course of the conflict.
- [32:38]
Martin Kiir
There is the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.
- [32:41]
Ramtin Arablouei
Hebron is a Palestinian city in the west bank. It's about 17 miles southwest of Jerusalem.
- [32:47]
Martin Kiir
Which is sacred to both Jews and Muslims. There'd be events, religious events, significant events for both Jews and Palestinians. And on one of those days where it was a Palestinian or Muslim holy day, there was an American Jewish settler, Barack Goldstein.
- [33:09]
Khalid Elgindi
He walked into the mosque during dawn prayers while there were, you know, the mosques were full. It was Ramadan, so there was quite a large number of worshipers. And he gunned down 29 people in.
- [33:23]
Ramtin Arablouei
The middle of the mosque, Baruch Goldstein was celebrated by a small minority in Israel. And for Hamas, this event also had a radical impact.
- [33:34]
Khalid Elgindi
That was a turning point for Hamas. They switched to attacking civilians. So after 1994 is when we see, you know, when they attack a bus, for example, or a cafe, something along those lines, and they blow up large numbers of civilians.
- [33:59]
Commercial Announcer
A bomb exploded today on a crowded downtown bus in Tel Aviv.
- [34:04]
Ramtin Arablouei
It was one of the worst terrorist.
- [34:05]
Commercial Announcer
Attacks in Israel's history. And it was the third strike against Israeli targets in less than two weeks.
- [34:11]
Ramtin Arablouei
On October 19, 1994, a member of Hamas named Saleh Abdelrahim Al Sawi boarded a bus on a very busy street in Tel Aviv. He carried with him massive explosives. He rode the bus to a busy area with cafes and pedestrians. At 9am he detonated the explosives. The massive blast lifted the bus off the ground and ripped it apart, eviscerating passengers. 21 Israeli citizens and one Dutch citizen were killed.
- [34:43]
Commercial Announcer
An anonymous caller to Israel Radio claimed responsibility for today's bombing in the name of Hamas, the Islamic militant group.
- [34:51]
Ramtin Arablouei
The attack shocked Israelis. Their Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, promised a tough response. We cannot fight these barbarians with silk gloves, he said.
- [35:02]
Commercial Announcer
All measures are foreseeable.
- [35:04]
Tariq Bakoni
Hamas uses that moment to really change the scale and the type of its resistance and to begin carrying out operations against Israeli civilians as a way of instilling a form of deterrence against Israeli occupying forces. Basically saying, if you kill Palestinian civilians, your civilians will also die.
- [35:27]
Martin Kiir
And it's very shocking for Palestinians. There's a lot of debate within Hamas about the utility of these. You know, if we, if we do this, there's no coming back from this.
- [35:39]
Ramtin Arablouei
The bus bombing in October of 1994 was one of Hamas's first attacks on civilians. It would not be their last. That year, there were six suicide bombings in a span of several months, and even more attacks in cafes, shopping malls and events. At the time, David Hakham was serving in the Israel Defense Forces. He challenges the idea that the Hebron massacre was the main reason for Hamas's move towards attacking civilians. Instead. He says Hamas carried out these attacks to derail the Oslo peace process because ultimately they opposed the two state solution. Not because they didn't want a Palestinian state, but because they refused to recognize Israel's right to exist.
- [36:24]
David Hakam
The main reason behind these activities was in order to spoil and to harm the Oslo process between Israel and the plo. This was the main reason Hamas was.
- [36:40]
Khalid Elgindi
Able to capitalize on that. Despairing of the peace process, of course, Hamas also contributed to that, despairing by its campaign of attacking civilians and almost always, of course, triggered an Israeli harsh response. Mass arrests, harsh treatment, internal closures, preventing movement and access that really decimated the Palestinian economy. And it was part of the way Hamas could disrupt any progress.
- [37:18]
Ramtin Arablouei
Coming up, another bloodier intifada and Hamas finds its way to power.
- [37:31]
Listener Callers
Hi from Knoxville, Tennessee, this is Mary and you are listening to Throughline from npr.
- [37:38]
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- [38:42]
Ramtin Arablouei
Part three the day after after the end of the first intifada and the signing of the Oslo Accords, extreme factions on both sides seem to keep inflaming tensions and undermining the peace process. In 1995, an Israeli right wing extremist assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. By 1997, Hamas had carried out more than a dozen attacks against Israeli civilians, killing hundreds. Meanwhile, Israel continued to occupy the west bank and Gaza Strip, being accused by many, including Amnesty International, of repression. Also, illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian territories continued to expand. And by 2000 it all boiled over in the second Palestinian intifada or uprising.
- [39:36]
Tariq Bakoni
Unlike the first intifada, the second intifada was very bloody from the get go, even though Palestinian resistance began similar to how the first Intifada began, which is through popular mobilization. This was met with enormous use of force by the Israeli occupying forces. And so the Palestinian intifada militarized very quickly.
- [40:00]
Ramtin Arablouei
Hamas violent escalation inspired other Palestinian groups to do the same. Soon, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad were all conducting attacks inside Israel on civilians. Eventually, Israel responded with a massive invasion of the West Bank. They destroyed infrastructure and devastated the population, killing thousands of civilians.
- [40:25]
Tariq Bakoni
This was happening in a post 911 world where the the Israelis successfully to an American public and administration argued that they were fighting their own Al Qaeda, that they were fighting their own war on terror, which justified its heavy handedness.
- [40:42]
Ramtin Arablouei
During this time, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, the founder of Hamas, was assassinated by missile shot from an Israeli attack helicopter. Many other members of Hamas's leadership relocated to neighboring countries. They were losing fighters and by 2005 their suicide attacks in Israel had considerably slowed down. That same year, Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, a man widely seen as a hardliner and supporter of Israeli settlements, pulled all of Israel's military forces and settlements out of the Gaza Strip, a move that surprised everyone.
- [41:19]
Khalid Elgindi
This was a huge step and was quite controversial inside Israel.
- [41:24]
Ramtin Arablouei
This is Khalid Al Gindi again.
- [41:26]
Khalid Elgindi
The calculation that Sharon had made was the settlement project in Gaza was a losing bet. You had 6,7000 Israeli settlers living among one and a half million Palestinians. Demographically, it was a losing prospect. So let's cut our losses in Gaza.
- [41:47]
Ramtin Arablouei
David Hakam says that this move was a huge mistake for Israel.
- [41:52]
David Hakam
Ramtin it was only one sided decision taken by Israel with no Palestinian, I would say partner, this was, I would say a great, great, a big, big mistake taken by the Israeli government. And as a matter of fact, it led later on to the taking control of Hamas in the Gaza Strip area. Entered to the situation that we are witnessing nowadays.
- [42:24]
Ramtin Arablouei
Some critics claim that Sharon did this in order to freeze the peace process. In that same year, 2005, Hamas also made a controversial move. They decided to begin participating in elections against Fatah, the ruling organization in the plo.
- [42:41]
Martin Kiir
There is a strong argument that any participation in these elections legitimizes these Israeli constructions from the Oslo Accords. And we just become complicit in the Occupy, in the administration of the occupation. But the people, other people say, well, no, this is our chance to get our narrative out there to the international community.
- [43:02]
Khalid Elgindi
I think they see an avenue for power through the official channels that exist.
- [43:08]
Martin Kiir
And they campaign really well. Fatah does not campaign well. They're very fractured.
- [43:13]
Khalid Elgindi
They do better than anyone expected, probably better than even they expected. And I think they were hoping to be the kind of significant minority and be the opposition bloc. But they ended up with a majority of the seats in the parliament which allowed them to form a government entirely on their own.
- [43:33]
Ramtin Arablouei
The US had actually pushed the Palestinian Authority to hold the elections. And the day after, President George W. Bush congratulated the Palestinian people on a free and fair election. But as for the results of that.
- [43:47]
Martin Kiir
Election, Israel in the United States says absolutely not. Condoleezza Rice, she was the Secretary of.
- [43:54]
Ramtin Arablouei
State at that time in her memoir.
- [43:57]
Martin Kiir
Says that she accepts that Hamas has won the election, but she cannot accept their program. Hamas can change or fail is essentially the Bush administration's strategy towards Hamas.
- [44:11]
Ramtin Arablouei
The U.S. had designated Hamas a terrorist organization in 1997. So they put a set of demands on them after they won the election. If they met the conditions, then the government of Palestine would continue to receive foreign aid from the United States and.
- [44:25]
Martin Kiir
Its European allies, renounce violence, recognize Israel, accept all previous agreements. Rice says in her memoir. They knew that Hamas would reject them.
- [44:38]
Ramtin Arablouei
And that's exactly what happened. Hamas did not meet the US's demands, so the US, EU and Israel essentially boycotted the new Hamas controlled government immediately.
- [44:51]
Martin Kiir
Israel imposed an economic and political siege on Gaza. They stopped all the work permits from Gazans into Israel.
- [45:00]
Khalid Elgindi
That creates this dilemma. There is very dire economic consequences and there's a crisis internally because Palestinians are looking for a way out of the situation.
- [45:17]
Ramtin Arablouei
This put immense pressure on the Palestinian Authority and its president, Mahmoud Abbas to cancel the results of the elections. This would mean they'd have to forcibly remove Hamas from power in order to keep the west bank and Gaza Strip from completely falling apart under the weight of the boycott. Obviously Hamas did not like this idea because they'd won the elections fair and square. This crisis caused rising tension between Hamas and Fatah, and by 2007 they were on the verge of a civil war. That's when Saudi Arabia, as one of the most powerful countries in the Arab world, stepped in to mediate. They called together the two sides in Mecca, where they convinced Hamas to do what was for them the unthinkable.
- [46:03]
Martin Kiir
They come out with the Mecca agreement, which is a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. And in that Mecca agreement, Hamas says that it will respect the previous agreements signed by the plo.
- [46:18]
Ramtin Arablouei
The move showed that Hamas was willing to compromise on its hardline beliefs. To some extent, we don't like that.
- [46:25]
Martin Kiir
Israel's there, but we can't ignore it.
- [46:27]
Ramtin Arablouei
But they stopped short of explicitly recognizing the state of Israel. So Israel and the US did not accept the solution that came out of the Meccan negotiations.
- [46:36]
Martin Kiir
Now Israel cannot accept a unity government. The United States refused. The Bush administration refuses any palace to recognize any Palestinian government with Hamas in it. So Hamas fears that there will be a coup and they'll be overthrown. So they strike first in Gaza.
- [46:53]
Khalid Elgindi
And so there was fighting between Mahmoud Abbas loyal forces and Hamas.
- [46:59]
Ramtin Arablouei
A civil war broke out between Hamas and Fatah. It was bloody. Hamas channeled its Military power and viciousness against fellow Palestinians.
- [47:09]
David Hakam
Hamas threw and kicked out, removed the government of Unity, and took control, total control of the Gaza Strip. It was in June 2007 when Hamas took control.
- [47:24]
Ramtin Arablouei
Israel responded by executing a blockade of the Gaza Strip. This means that they control how much food, water and electricity the people of Gaza have access to.
- [47:35]
Tariq Bakoni
What Israel began doing was to limit the entry and exit of people and goods, which meant that if you were living in Gaza, you will not be able to leave the Gaza Strip unless you get a permit. And those permits are almost impossible to get. The entry of food into the Gaza Strip is restricted. And there was a policy at the early years of the blockade by Israeli governments to count the number of calories that would go into the Gaza Strip to make sure that the population there isn't starved, but to maintain them just above what is a humanitarian catastrophe. The fuel that's needed for electricity generation is restricted and rationed. So essentially to strangle Gaza. So it doesn't survive, but it also doesn't collapse, so it's maintained in that state. The blockade is a form of collective punishment.
- [48:31]
Ramtin Arablouei
What Tarek means by collective punishment is that the blockade punished all Gazans, about half of whom are children. For the actions of Hamas, Gaza became one of the most densely populated places on on earth and one of the poorest. With an unemployment rate at nearly 50%, Hamas held no elections during that time. Meanwhile, Israel became, per capita, one of the richest countries on the planet, with a population that enjoys a quality of life on par with any country in Europe. Yet it is also true that Hamas expanded tunnels underneath the ground in Gaza to sneak in food and supplies from Egypt, store weapons, and to attack Israel. One of Hamas's biggest financial and military supporters during this time was Iran.
- [49:22]
Khalid Elgindi
Iran is trying to capitalize on Pan Muslim sentiment with regard to Jerusalem and the holy places. They see the Arab states as having essentially surrendered to Israel and that they are the true champions of Jerusalem and the Palestinian cause. And so it's part of how Iran projects its power and legitimacy in the broader Arab and Muslim world.
- [49:50]
Ramtin Arablouei
US Officials have said there's not much direct evidence that Iran actually helped plan hamas attack on October 7, 2023. But there is no denying they gave Hamas weapons and money over the 16 years of blockade. And they weren't the only ones sending money to Gaza. Israeli news reports and analysts say that Qatar has provided over a billion dollars. And this is what David Hakham says is the problem, that Hamas has been more focused on fighting than on the needs of the Palestinian people.
- [50:21]
David Hakam
I'll tell you frankly here we have to put the blame on Hamas government in Gaza. They were taking a lot of money coming, but Hamas used it in order to develop its military capabilities against Israel. Hamas is in control of Gaza and Hamas doesn't take any, you know, step in order to improve the situation of living, the standard of living of the Palestinians. They are doing the opposite. They are concentrating on fighting against Israel.
- [51:00]
Ramtin Arablouei
Israel and Hamas have fought multiple wars, but there's also evidence that they've cooperated. In fact, according to the Jerusalem Post, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2019 told a private meeting with fellow members of his political party that his government had allowed funds from Qatar to reach Gaza because it was part of a broader strategy to keep Hamas and the Palestinian Authority separate and to ostensibly prevent the formation of a Palestinian state. Meanwhile, the suffering of the Gazan population has only increased ultimately. Tariq Barkoni says that this story is about more than Hamas.
- [51:46]
Tariq Bakoni
The issue isn't Hamas. The issue is always the Palestinian political demands, the Palestinian demands for return, the Palestinian demands for self determination. This is what's troubling Israeli authorities. The Palestinian Liberation project, like any liberation project, is diverse and multifaceted. Hamas is one faction in that, let's say in an ideal world, from the Israeli perspective, Hamas, Israel removed from the equation. There will be an organization committed to armed resistance for the liberation of Palestine emerging the day after.
- [52:33]
Ramtin Arablouei
For more coverage and for differing views and analysis of the conflict, go to npr.org mideastupdates that's it for this week's show. I'm Ramtin Arablouei and you've been listening to Throughline from npr. This episode was produced by me and Lawrence Wu, Julie Kane, Anya Steinberg, Casey.
- [52:56]
Devin Katiyama
Miner, Christina Kim, Devin Kadayama, Peter Balanon.
- [53:00]
Ramtin Arablouei
Rosen, Akshara Ravishankar, Irene Noguchi. Fact checking for this episode was done by Kevin Voelkel. The episode was mixed by Josh Newell. Music for this episode was composed by me and my band Drop Electric, which includes Anya Mizani, Navid Marvi, Sho Fujiwara. Thank you to Rund Abdelfattah, Johannes Durgi, Larry Kaplow, Aya Batrawi, Tony Cavan and Anya Grundman. And as always, if you have an idea or like something you heard on this show, please write us@throughlinepr.org thanks for listening.
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