Hamas.
I want to preface this post by saying how much it bothers me that people think that if they are anti-Israel they must be pro-Hamas. In addition I cannot stand the misconception that by being critical of Hamas; one is automatically condoning the international rejection of its legitimacy, and Israel’s desire to remove it from power. There are many governments that one can accept as legitimate and any international move to reject them would be outrageous, and yet one can also be critical of the way they are governing. Too many pro-Palestinian foreigners who come here are too scared to be openly critical of Hamas because they are scared to ‘hurt the cause.’ Others simply swallow the message Hamas feeds them, however one visit to a hospital to see the torture victims at the hands of the government must make one become a little more critical.
Though I think that Hamas should have been accepted as the democratically elected party, I am extremely critical of its practices, this is also how every Gazan friend of mine feels. Of course because I am working in the field of human rights, I am dealing with a specific sector of the population, much more liberal and left-wing. However, I have also heard criticisms being leveled at Hamas’s regime from every taxi driver, shop keeper, and waiter that I have discussed politics with. Again, I live in Gaza City, and if I were in Khan Younis or Rafah I would probably meet many more Hamas supporters.
The two largest local NGOs, Al Mezan and PCHR have boycotted the courts since 2008, when Hamas illegitimately installed Hamas judges, not something that the party was allowed to do. In addition it does not allow NGOs to visit prisoners to monitor their conditions, for the most part. However I have seen countless pictures of victims tortured for being members of opposition parties, art schools ransacked and closed for teaching inappropriate subjects, and heard the stories of wives whose husbands were kidnapped and murdered by the secret police. Hamas’ trademark is ‘shooting your kneecap to the ceiling’; this is reserved for those that criticize the government’s practices too openly: a gun is fired from under the knee upwards and blows one’s kneecap out of one’s leg.
I have seen criticisms of many Hamas policies, for example I was at a workshop of Hamas and Fatah officials a few days ago where the majority of the audience (non-Hamas) was begging for Shalit to be given back, with one Hamas official flatly refusing.
It is totally understandable that a regime like this has taken power, given the circumstances that the Palestinians have been living under. No one can criticize the Palestinians for Hamas winning the elections by a landslide. However, refusing to criticize Hamas is not helping the Gazans. The situation here is bad enough due to the siege, but the refusal to acknowledge the repressive regime’s conduct makes it worse.
Unfortunately the international community exacerbated the situation. It was almost inevitable that this kind of party would take power (supported, I might add, a few times by Israel to counter the PLO) and the only way to let the situation correct itself is to let Hamas rule. The Gazans keep confirming what had always seemed to me to be the case- because Hamas has a extremely weak foreign policy, and only knows how to deal with internal issues, and even internally makes mistakes, it would have failed on its own. The people in the next elections would see that a change was needed, and they would vote in a change (they proved that they were capable of using the elections for change before). The international community needed to let Hamas do its job, and let the Palestinians decide for themselves. But instead by ignoring Hamas, they galvanized the Gazan community and made those that supported other parties flock to Hamas just because of what it represented, and because this was a form of rebellion against the West.
Unfortunately Fatah was not perfect either, and corruption was rampant. And Fatah’s willingness to follow the international community in delegitimizing Hamas was completely unacceptable and it holds responsibility for worsening the situation as well. People here were sick of the failings of the previous government and wanted a change; however the situation changed for the worse. Now many people live in fear; I cannot tell you how many friends of mine are too scared to leave their homes because they are Fatah, and they have been sitting at home jobless for 3 years. At this point most people say to me that though they are not pro-Fatah, it is the lesser of the two evils and that they would rather return to a Fatah government then keep the existing regime. But because Gaza has been cut off by the siege, there is no way for them to implement a change. I always am astounded when I hear Israel calling for the Gazans to get rid of Hamas, how on earth can they if they have been locked up, the key has been thrown away, and Hamas is in power? Where is the room to initiate change?
