But we might, at this point, look at their elected representatives in Hamas, and the means by which those representatives choose to govern and to further their cause. Hamas is not part of the PLO and is therefore separate from Fatah, the PLO faction which runs the West Bank, although the two are getting over their differences. For those who have not followed the subject closely to date, here is a brief Hamas 101.
Hamas has a founding charter which is overtly anti-Semitic (try article 20 for starters) and its members are not averse to Holocaust denial. That is, its ethos is not merely anti-Israel, but specifically anti-Jewish. Hamas executes its own citizens unlawfully, according to the UN. It also oppresses women and homosexuals. It was democratically elected, but has not had an election since 2006 (one is vaguely planned for 2013, but no-one is holding their breath).
Finally, there is an important elephant in the room: perhaps unbeknownst to many who might watch BBC News coverage of the conflict – because they usually omit to mention it – Hamas is classified as a terrorist organisation in the US, EU and Japan. The Foreign Office will not engage with it because it “remains committed to terrorism”. It is known for its suicide bombings (till 2008) and rocket attacks, which specifically target civilians; something which even the IRA, in its heyday, at least purported to avoid.
Incidentally, much was made of the Goldstone report of the last Gaza war of 2008-9, which made a similar accusation against Israel, that it was actively targeting Palestinian civilians. In 2011, Richard Goldstone published this article in the Washington Post, effectively retracting this key finding and admitting that it had been naïve to compare Israel and Gaza on an equal footing. So his report misled the world, despite the fact that for Israel to have targeted civilians would not only have been morally abhorrent but, given the processes of accountability in place in a democracy, legally dangerous and politically disastrous.
About the investigations carried out by both sides into possible war crimes, Goldstone notes that the Israelis investigated as they were instructed, whereas Hamas were not interested:
“Indeed, our main recommendation was for each party to investigate, transparently and in good faith, the [possible war crimes] referred to in our report. McGowan Davis has found that Israel has done this to a significant degree; Hamas has done nothing.”
On the other hand, Netanyahu seems to be the most disastrously unsuccessful leader for securing peace that Israel has had in recent years, and his unpleasant coalition partner and foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, is known for his inflammatory, anti-Arab outbursts. Their encouragement of the building of settlements in occupied areas is bafflingly counter-productive. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that, with abler statesmen in office, it might not have come to a virtual state of war.
But even this duo, full of bluster and rhetoric, can hardly be claimed to have been trigger-happy by last week: any Israeli leader, of any party, would eventually have done the same. And it seems doubtful that, if rockets had been raining down on Greater London (a comparable area, by the way, to that under attack in southern Israel), the British government would have counted to one thousand before retaliating. Or practically any government in a similar situation, for that matter. As Emeritus Professor in Politics at Manchester University, Norman Geras, blogged:
“the Israeli government not only has the right, it has an obligation, to defend its citizens from being under constant threat of rocket fire.”
Despite all the available information about Hamas, there are parts of the British left who have happily “engaged” with them for years. Who invited one of its fundraisers to the House of Commons to speak. The labour movement sponsors organisations which visit it in Gaza. Although there is no official “engagement” policy within Labour, we think nothing of having our Labour Members photographed with its leaders, wearing Hamas scarves and badges (I will spare you the photos, but they certainly exist).
As Labourites, internationalists and lovers of freedom, we don’t have to stop supporting the Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and neither should we. But we might just reflect on this: is the support, or “engagement”, or however we choose to euphemise it, of some of us towards a terrorist group which deliberately targets civilians, really helping things?
Or are we, perhaps, merely useful idiots legitimising a rather nasty regime?
This post first published at LabourList
Don't you think that the party doesn't take the issue of anti semitism seriously especially when they send the chief whip to discipline MP's who share platforms with terrorists yet those MP's don't seem to learn any lessons-they continue to do it especially when you have MP's like Yasmin Quereshi tweeting about how the Tories are blinkered about the issue and that Hmas rockets were homemade but as was revealed on the news last night a Hamas official was supposed to have praised the Iranian regime for supplying them weapons! Surely the party should face up to the problem even if it means expelling those MP's and dare I say it-in some cases upsets some Islamist sections in the party!
The Qureshi comment was shockingly ill-informed. Party discipline needs attention. I will be writing a piece at Uncut on this shortly.
Why does it seem acceptable to the hierarchy to consort with preachers of hate and terrorism yet to be pro life and opposed to redefining marriage you are beyond the pale?