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The popular demands for democracy and economic security emerging from the Arab Spring have finally reached Palestine. Responding to pressure from many Palestinians to reconcile with ruling political party Fatah, Hamas officials have announced a change of strategy: popular resistance against the Israeli occupation.
"Every people has the right to fight against occupation in every way, with weapons or otherwise. But at the moment, we want to cooperate with the popular resistance," Hamas Political Bureau Chief, Khaled Meshaal, told AFP after unity talks in Cairo on 24 November. "We believe in armed resistance but popular resistance is a program which is common to all the factions."
The prospect of a non-violent Hamas is hard to believe, especially considering that the party’s charter advocates violent resistance to the Israeli occupation through and through. Yet, coupled with the group’s expected departure from Damascus next week, the implications of a non-violent Hamas are tremendous. And though the following scenarios depend on several big ifs, this is certainly a cause for great hope on the part of anyone wishing for an end to Israel’s colonization of Palestine.
First, a non-violent Hamas would allow the two largest Palestinian political factions to agree on a foundation for reconciliation. Reconciliation would include the formation of a unity government, expected to be the central topic of the next meeting between Hamas and Fatah in Cairo just days before Christmas, and the holding of long overdue national elections, scheduled for next summer.
Second, if Hamas and Fatah manage to reconcile, the next step in the game for Hamas would be to join the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO), something that the group has apparently sought since 2005. To join, Hamas would be required to agree to the positions and agreements that the PLO has made in the past, notably, recognizing Israel (on what borders, might I ask) and renouncing violence against civilians.
Third, if elections are successful, then the Palestinian Authority (PA) would once again control the Gaza Strip, the precondition for UN consideration of the PLO’s application for statehood, which, if approved whether by the Security Council or the General Assembly, would increase the probability of Palestinians to end the Israeli occupation and build an internationally recognized state.
Meanwhile, as members of Hamas’s Political Bureau begin to leave Damascus for their new headquarters in Egypt and Qatar, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, Hamas officials are visiting other countries in the region, such as Turkey and Sudan, in an effort to re-establish and strengthen ties with them. This is significant in that it strongly suggests that Hamas, while distancing itself from Iran and Syria, understands the value of diversifying its support base ahead of an expected shift in internal Palestinian politics. Solid regional support for Hamas would provide several outlets from which to pressure the group to continue to moderate.
The onus is now on the international community to do its utmost to encourage and even facilitate Hamas’s transition, but it must be done without Israeli and American interference, both of whom do not wish well for the Palestinians.
