Gaza Under Hamas: From Islamic Democracy to Islamist Governance

by Bjorn Brenner

Hamas is designated a terrorist organisation by Israel, the EU, the USA and the UN. It has made itself notorious for its violent radicalism and uncompromising rejection of the Jewish state. So after its victory in the 2006 elections the world was watching. How would Hamas govern? Could an Islamist group without any experience of power - and with an unwavering ideology - manage to deal with day-to-day realities on the ground? Bjorn Brenner investigates what happened after the elections and puts the spotlight on the people over whom Hamas rules, rather than on its ideas. Lodging with Palestinian families and experiencing their daily encounters with Hamas, he offers an intimate perspective of the group as seen through local eyes. The book is based on hard-to-secure interviews with a wide range of key political and security figures in the Hamas administration, as well as with military commanders and members of the feared Qassam Brigades. Brenner has also sought out those that Hamas identifies as local trouble the extreme Salafi-Jihadis and members of the now more quiescent mainstream Fatah party led by Mahmoud Abbas.

The book provides a new interpretation of one of the most powerful forces in the Israel-Palestine arena, arguing that the Gazan Islamists carry a potential to be much more flexible and pragmatic than anticipated - if they would think they stand to gain from it. Gaza under Hamas investigates the key challenges to Hamas's authority and reveals why and in what ways ideology comes second to power consolidation.

Genres: Politics, History, Nonfiction

272 pages, Hardcover

Published February 18, 2017

Reviews

[Alisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a groundbreaking analysis which determines that Hamas is an example of an elected group that doesn't see democracy and Islamism as mutually exclusive. Brenner argues that existing studies of Islamist groups place too much emphasis on ideology rather than paying attention to their actions within their local economic, political, and social contexts. As Brenner explains in the book, Hamas is not a static organization nor are they a Salafi-Jihadist group, like Al-Qaeda or IS. To the contrary, Hamas is a highly pragmatic organization that is more interested in maintaining centralized control over Gaza's governance than implementing an Islamic revolution and strict Sharia law over Palestinians. Hamas' behavior in the past shows that, despite relying on authoritarian methods for consolidating their power, their initial intentions were to approach matters using democratic practices internally. However, when leadership had to choose between enforcing law or order during a security crisis, Hamas has shown that their priority is establishing order -- sometimes through authoritarian action against Fatah loyalists and Salafi-Jihadists -- over upholding individual rights and freedoms.

I highly recommend pairing this book with a comprehensive overview of Hamas' origins and relationships with the Quartet (Israel, US, EU, UN). Azzam Tamimi's book History from Within seems to be the gold standard in the field, but Paola Caridi's From Resistance to Regime is also quite good.

[Mohammed Said · Rating 5 out of 5]

A particularly interesting feature of this book: "Gaza under Hamas" is Brenner's demonstration of how the movement has made use of informal dispute resolution mechanisms to serve as a parallel justice system, a system that is more malleable to its own. purposes than the formal court-based one. This shows once again the remarkable adaptability of Hamas, able to compromise but never completely renounce its utopian Islamist ideals as a guide for political action.

This book demonstrates through field research and document analysis that Islamists not only differ in the type of political action necessary to achieve their goals, but they also differ in their interpretation of sharia and what it entails. Given all this, it seems possible that many Islamists have the potential to be as flexible and able to adapt to their environment as any other politician.

[Budd Margolis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solid work on this terrorist organization supported by many Palestinians until OCT 7th made this into a self inflicted catastrophe. The true intention of Hamas was revealed for all, but known by many, as the total annihilation of the State of Israel including all Moslems and Christians, foreign workers such as Thai and anyone else. The issue of establishing an Islamic government with a justice system and security forces is the main focus and it is well explained. And how effective and fatal the Fatah resistance to Hamas rule was.

Does this work go towards helping to resolve the gulf of misinformation? Not really but much is worthy. But, so much cruelty and criminality left out one wonders why this legitimizes Hamas?
And since October 7th Hamas no longer holds any significant power and can no longer pretend to help the Palestinian cause.