Hamas the Word Hamas Is Derived From

Hamas

The word Hamas is derived from an Arabic phrase, which means Islamic Resistance Movement. Hamas is the largest Palestinian political party that rules over the Gaza and is launched by the Palestinian Sunni Islamists. Presently, Khaled Mashaal is the chief head and Ismail Haniyah is the prime minister of Hamas. The headquarters are found at Gaza and in Palestinian territories (Matthew Levitt, 2006). The story begins with the killing of several Palestinians in a traffic accident done by an Israeli driver and stimulated Sheikh Ahmed Yassin (who was also the head of Muslim Brotherhood) and some others to start a "Muslim brotherhood movement" that made its way towards the creation of Hamas in 1987 (Matthew Levitt, 2006). The party attacked firstly on two Israeli and killed them on the spot in 1989. Because of this act, Yassin was arrested immediately and sentenced life imprisonment while several other Hamas activists were deported from the Israeli territory (Matthew Levitt, 2006).

The party was founded to release Palestine from the Israeli take over and to bring back the freedom for the natives of Palestine by establishing a country based on the Islamic ideology. In 1991, the military branch of Hamas "Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades" was separately established to execute attacks on the military and civilians of Israel. In September 1997, the Hamas leader Khaled was saved from being assassinated in Jordan by an Israeli agent and later he also succeed in rescuing Yassin (the spiritual leader and backbone strength of Hamas) from the Israeli imprisonment. Later the Hamas leader Yassin offered to Israel in January 2004 to end this fight if Israel gives back the Palestinian territories to be governed under the Palestinian state in Gaza strip and proved that area to be the right of Palestinian from ancient times. Israel disapproved the offer and later on 22 March 2004, Yassin was assassinated by a targeted Israeli air strike. The successor of Sheikh Yassin, Abdul Aziz al-Rantisi was also assassinated on April17, 2004 (Matthew Levitt, 2006).

The movement emblem's consists of a picture of the mosque of the dome of the rock. At the top of the emblem is a small map of Palestine surrounded by two more flags with the phrases "There is no god but Allah" and "Mohammed is the messenger of Allah" that shows the Islamic cause and ideology of Hamas. The two swords in the emblems show the sign of virtue, bravery and respect (Tamimi, 2007). That symbolizes that in a fight the focus of Hamas is on the dignity while its foe is focused on human values. The basic goal to create Hamas was to establish a platform where people can organize a movement to replace Israel with Palestine. As stated by the co-founder Mahmoud Al-Zahar in 2006, that the dream is to built a solely independent country whose flag will be shown on the map of the world with proud. Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, delivered a similar statement in which it was clearly defined that they will continue this act of Jihad until Palestine is rescued from the Israeli invaders (Tamimi, 2007).

In March 2006, the statement was reshaped and it was declared that the decision will be made according to the will of the Palestinian people and that Hamas will respect the result of the referendum. Later in 2008 Israel was offered to get back to its original position of 1967 borders granting Palestinian the same territory as they had before the Six-Day War (1967), moreover it was also demanded to set free the Palestinian refugees. The Hamas promise was broken in February 2012 by their assaults in the name of Jihad. These brutal attacks set all the negotiations aside.

The charter of the Hamas states that the cause of Jihad is superior to all. Therefore, all people who are considered Muslims must give their part for this spiritual act as creation of an Islamic ideology-based Palestine is a very good deed from religious point-of-view. It is also added in its charter that the fight between Muslims and Jews is from the beginning and it will last until one of them is completely suppressed by another therefore Muslims should fight until they are victorious or martyr (Tamimi, 2007). Showing all its intentions in this way the charter end on the sentence that the Hamas respects all the religions of the world and until they do not come in its way or be a hindrance in its path of action.

A very little knowledge is exposed about the actual number of members and structure of Hamas. Its followers and supporters are estimated to be in tens of thousands. It is generally said that Hamas is extended to three different parts to carry out their activities separately and administered by separate heads. The social welfare and political wings administers the social issues, political agenda and related issues of the organization. The third wing that is the military wing is responsible to give the response of the hits, carrying weapons and armed forces training and other suspected acts (Beverley Milton-Edwards, 2010). Hamas has further two decision-making headquarters known as consultative council (Majlis al-Shura) and political bureau. All the activities of Hamas are reported to the consultative council for further interrogation or suggestion. Once approved form the consultative council the activity can only then be enforced. Political bureau is the highest decision making body of Hamas that is constituted by 15 members and operates from Damascus. The nominated members are not only elected from Palestine but all the regions where Hamas members are present.

The military wing was constituted in 1992 and named "Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades." The Qassam cells make it very difficult to estimate its actual number of members due to disguised operations and memberships. The exact number of members of this wing is known only to the leader of the wing but it is estimated that thousands of members are being trained here in military style to operate weapons ranging from a simple rifle up to rocket. It is said that they have been trained to attack in any emergency that may occur leading to war. The importance of this wing can be examined form the following statement of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in 1998: "We cannot separate the wing from the body. If we do so, the body will not be able to fly. Hamas is one body." (Beverley Milton-Edwards, pg 204,2010)

Apart from the military wing, the welfare wing of the Hamas has brought great deal of fame and good will to the organization's name. One estimate shows that about 90% of Hamas activities revolve around the social, cultural and educational well-being of the Palestinians. It has provided relief programs to the territories where fights are always at its peak, open educational institutions, hospitals, provide employment opportunities for the people and finance the families whose members have been martyred for the cause of Hamas (Hroub, 2005). Hamas is deeply involved in the acts of crimes and spreading terrorism in the name of rescuing Palestine from the occupation of Israel. The killing rate increases after the creation of the military wing of Hamas largely. Al-Qassam Brigades did the first suicide bomb attack in 1993. Since then, Hamas has always cleared its position by saying that suicidal attacks are just a warfare strategy. From 2004-08 almost 400 Israelis were killed and the rate of killing increased by the use of Qassam rockets during 2001-08. In 2005, Aerial Sharon decided to bring back the Israeli militants from Gaza in order to stop Hamas from firing rockets repeatedly. During 2007, Hamas have done 22% rocket and mortar attacks on Israel. 8 million Israelis are at the threat of being killed by the suicidal attacks of Hamas who has already attacked thousands of rockets on Israel.

These attacks by Hamas are not an easily stoppable thing because theses attackers have a very strong mindset of Jihad with a strong desire to get martyrdom. This concept of martyrdom has made the guerilla warfare strategy more complex than ever before. According to a report issued in 2006, Hamas has smuggled more than 1300 tons of rockets and other explosive weapons for the achievement of its purpose (Hroub, 2005). In December 2011, the 24th anniversary of Hamas was celebrated with zeal at the Gaza strip. A notification was also issued by Hamas on its twitter account about its over all performance during all these years. Human rights associations consider Hamas responsible for the murder for the innocent civilian people of Israel. In response to this, Hamas has justified its act by saying that the attack was never made on the civilians; they were just the accidental result due to low quality of the rockets and weapons that they were misguided and hurt the civilians instead of military people.

The financial backup for Hamas is provided internationally by the Saudi Arabia during early 2000s. It has been reported that Iran, Gulf States and Saudi Arabia are the primary financing countries of Hamas. Almost 50% of its expenses are afforded by Saudi Arabia. In 2002, the Saudi Charity announced to finance the families of the militants who were killed in suicide bombings (Hroub, 2005). Hamas money is kept in the Saudi bank al-Taqwa for the past 15 years. The Islamic Republic of Iran gives 10% financial aid, providing approximately $30 million annually. However, the financial aid to the Hamas group is decreasing day by aid, Saudi Arabia has dried up its aid, and similar is the case with Iran, Syria and Egypt due to their own financial and political crisis of the country. Due to shortage in the supply of aid, employees of Hamas were not paid their salaries in July 2011.Domestically funding is gathered from the governmental budget. In 2010, the government has approved 540 million dollar excluding the other 90% aid that is granted internationally by the Muslim Brotherhood. Still |Hamas is facing financial crisis due to its fast growing network (Rosaler, 2003).To cover its expenses, Hamas has imposed a tax of 14.5% on smuggled goods.The U.S. took advantage of the financial crisis of Hamas and threatened Hamas to let USAID continue its operation in Gaza otherwise the western finding coming to Gaza will be stopped. The risk of shortage of finance compelled Hamas to let the U.S. continue without having any audit. Hamas when entered in the Palestinian politics got splendid success by getting 74 seats in the legislative in 2006, on the other hand Fatah got only 45 seats. People were tired of the corrupt governance of Fatah.

Thus, Hamas formed the legislative government with Mahmoud Abbas as its President. Since then, Hamas has performed very well for the welfare of the country. The candidates of Hamas had promised an improved socio-economic life for the Palestinian and they proved every word of it. Many successful projects have been started and the voters are quite satisfied with their performance. (Rosaler, 2003).The entry of Hamas in politics is still controversial because of it's insist upon the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state without recognizing Israel as a separate state. Time will decide the role of Hamas in the political future of Palestine.Hamas has always been greatly criticized for its lethality towards the new generation by brainwashing their minds in the name of religion and freedom. Hamas has been accused of keeping deadly weapons in the area of mosques, schools and at residential areas where these weapons can be easily hidden.

Human Right Watch has accused Hamas for doing unlawful and injustice in the warfare techniques. The biased behavior of Hamas has always stopped it from doing table talk with Israel to solve the conflict peacefully. Hamas is also accused of using mortar attacks and rockets in the civilian area that is a part of war crimes. Hamas always targets the innocent civilian people to be shot dead by its attack. It has also been noticed that Hamas use the children as human shield to protect themselves form the military attack of Israel. Hamas militants usually grab the children to save themselves from killing or being caught by the Israeli militants (Zanotti, 2011).Many other human right abuses done by the Hamas group includes the brain washing of young children by misusing the media. Many videos have come on screen showing the training of young children for the militant attacks. Hamas also sponsor the summer school training programs in which children are taught to operate the weapons properly. Children magazines are also issued in which Jihad related issues are discussed and the stories of the martyr are given for their heroic deeds of bravery. The core idea behind this is to motivate a child from the childhood to be attracted towards the cause of Jihad. Hamas has also established a channel named Al-Aqsa T.V in which news talks, and other related programs supporting the cause of Hamas are broadcasted (Harub, 2000).

Several legal actions have been taken against Hamas group but no charge has been able to stop it from the deadliest working it is doing since its inception.In 2001, the U.S. justice department filed 200 charges against the charitable trust Holy Land Foundation for Relief and development. Similarly, Hamas has been charged to pay $106 million to Ungar families whose members were shot dead in 1996 murders committed by Hamas group. In 2009, the founders of Council on American-Islamic Relation (CAIR) were sentenced to life imprisonment and a charge of $12million for providing financial aid to Hamas (Harub, 2000).The legal actions against Hamas are not just taken by the U.S. But by Germany as well based on Hamas's inhuman and terrorist activities. Germany has also banned to give any financial aid to Hamas for any relief work done by them, because according their research, the fund is used for both purposes; providing relief as well as for the availability of arm and ammunition of the military wing of Hamas (Anat Kurz, 1997). Germany banned the International Humanitarian Aid Organization as it provided financial aid to Hamas for relief project in Gaza. Sixty two percent of the Palestinian is in favor of the actions of Hamas. Besides, majority of the people on Jordan and Morocco are also in favor while Lebanon takes Hamas negatively. On the other hand, fifty-seven percent of native of Israel are agreed to negotiate with the Hamas to settle down the problem and they think that a dialogue between Hamas and Israeli government will settle down the conflict largely.The impact of Hamas is deeply rooted in the politics of Palestine. Although it is recognized as, a terrorist organization by many countries but only this recognition will not stop the matter from spreading. As Hamas is getting more promotion with the passage of time from the religious point-of-view. The organization aspires to establish a Muslim caliphate within Palestine and this dream has leaded the organization so far on the way to terror and injustice. Terrorist activities are just a way to achieve the above-defined goal and for the accomplishment of this goal, the organization is ready to go beyond any limit (Anat Kurz, 1997).