Hamas and the Transformation(s) of Political Islam in Palestine

Current History

Volumn 102, Issue 660, 2003, Pages 13-20

  Roy, Sara ^a  

^a HARVARD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 85048214716     PISSN: 00113530     EISSN: 1944785X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1525/curh.2003.102.660.13     Document Type: Article

References (6)

1. See Sara Roy, “The Transformation of Islamic NGOs in Palestine,” Middle East Report, Spring 2000, in which some of the findings described herein were first presented.
2. This essay will focus only on Hamas, since it is the largest and most influential of the Islamist parties.
3. See “Interviews from Gaza,” Middle East Policy, December 2002, p. 109.
4. Some points in this section are raised and discussed in greater detail in Mouin Rabbani and Sara Roy, “Palestinian Politics and September 11th: Critical Changes in Policy and Structure,” Middle East Policy, December 2002; and Mouin Rabbani, “The Costs of Chaos in Palestine,” ms., 2002.
5. Mark Perry, “Israeli Offensive Disrupts US–Hamas Contacts,” Palestine Report, October 9, 2002 . A senior American diplomat indicated that the United States understood that “[t]here is a difference between Hamas and, say, the Iranian mullahs. The one tradition is nationalist and revolutionary, the other is clerical and religious. We know the difference. We know who the honest actors are. We don’t happen to like Hamas tactics, but we know there’s a world of difference between what they want and what, say, Mullah Omar wants.”
6. The tanzim is an armed militia consisting of Fatah street cadre/activists and elements of the PA’s Preventative Security Force that has undertaken many military operations.