Hamas: Doing Islamism under Blockade

When in 1987 Hamas came into existence during the first Intifada, it was almost impossible to imagine that its project would have reached such a crucial level of complexity and importance. Hamas is in fact one of the main political forces in the Palestinian history and one of the most important and multi-faced groups descending from the major Islamist transnational organization of the Muslim Brotherhood (f.1928). Since its formation in 1987, Hamas has made significant progress, overcome multiple challenges, and profoundly influenced the Palestinian political system and resistance movement against Israeli occupation. Throughout its history the group has been facing major existential dilemmas such as how to balance pragmatism and ideology within its ranks, how to apply Islamist governance to rule efficiently, especially after the electoral democratic victory in 2006, and how to implement a full blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Within the scope of this volume, this chapter centers on a pivotal moment for Hamas: its adaptation in 2013 to the capitulation of Morsi government in Egypt. For Hamas, the 2011 Arab Uprisings represented a brief positive turning point on an economic and political level. Following Morsi’s deposition in 2013, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood went largely unpopular and repressed. Such unpopularity had profound reverberations on Hamas and its legitimacy especially in the years from 2014 to 2016. This situation has been further complicated during the Trump administration (2017–21), as Trump endorsed a more pervasive Israeli normalization and the obliteration of Palestinian statehood and resistance. While Hamas has been trying to strengthen its foreign policy and alliances with regional Islamist and non-Islamist allies within delicate balances, it has been largely operating within a nation-state model utilizing Islamic political discourse to transcend boundaries but not necessarily as a strict tool to exert governance.