The Context Forthe Israel-Hamas War of 2009

BEYOND IMAGES

The context forthe Israel-Hamas war of 2009

Beyond Images Special Briefing 234

Published on 5 February 2009

PLEASE NOTE: The online version of this Special Briefing provides many links to additional resources, and to other websites. You can find this Special Briefing on the Beyond Images website(). Go to the homepage and click onthe button called ‘Israel and Hamas: 2009 Report’. You will get maximum value from this Special Briefing by accessing the online version.

Please also note: if you print off the Word Version of this Briefing, it is 54 pages long, of A4 paper.

Introduction

This Special Briefing from the Beyond Images Project provides context for the Israel-Hamas war of December 2008/January 2009.

We have provided you with a range of facts, quotes, arguments and counter-arguments, many of which are largely unseen in international media coverage.

And we provide a range of concise ‘key messages’.

The Briefing is designed to support balanced and rational Israel advocacy.

Israel does not have the right to uncritical support. But it is entitled to expect informed understanding, and our aim is to help to foster that understanding.

We have divided this Briefing into the following three Parts. Each part is backed up by a wide variety of sources including leading global media sources, expert thinktank reports, official statements, and Arab language media reports:

(i)Part 1:Hamas ideology, track-record and the ‘engagement’ debate;

(ii)Part 2: the build up to the Israel-Hamas war, from 2004 to 2008; and

(iii)Part 3: key issues during the war of 2008/9

We cross-refer to many Beyond Images Briefings which have been published on the website in the period 2003-2008, and which are live on the site today.

This Special Briefing has been written by Andrew White, lawyer and author of the Beyond Images information website (

Contents

Part 1 – Hamas ideology, track-record, and the ’engagement’ issue

1. The Hamas Charter – extracts

2. ‘The Jews could have a state in Europe’…. – by Hamas founder Sheikh Yassin

3. Hamas leaders in their own words

4. ‘We want all of Palestine’ – Hamas goals remain unchanged

5. ‘Hamas has come round to the idea of Israelin the 1967 borders….’. True?

6. ‘Armed resistance’ – the Hamas record of attacks on Israeli civilians

7. What do Hamas mean by ‘resistance’ to Israel? What’s the strategy?

8. ‘Hamas were democratically elected by the Palestinians, so we have to deal with them….’ – the issues

9. ‘The West must engage with Hamas….’, and the Northern Ireland analogy

Part 2 – The build-up to the Israel-Hamas war

10. Ariel Sharon: Israel’s vision for Gaza after disengagement

11. Qassam rocket attacks in 2005, and the killing of Israeli children

12. Attempt tosuicide bomb an Israeli hospital: open letter from Gaza doctor

13. Orange! Opposition in Israel to disengagement

14. The G8 2005 summit pledge of $3bn to the Palestinians of Gaza

15. Intensification of Palestinian attacks as Israel pulls out of Gaza

16. Hamas bomb chief’s declaration of renewed war against Israel in the week of disengagement

17. Is Gaza a large prison camp? Israel’s ‘blockade’ of Gaza

18. Rocket attacks on Israeli energy facilities: the risk of a catastrophe

19. The quadrupling of rocket attacks in the year after the pullout

20. The role of Sderot Mediaand The Israel Project in conveying the reality of life in Sderot

21. Gaza’s plight: anguished self-criticism by leading Palestinian

22. ‘Twenty seconds to take cover’: Palestinian attacks on Israeli kindergartens

23. The Palestinian weapons build-up 2007

24. ‘How many Jews did Mama kill today?’ Children on Hamas TV

25. The Hamas rocket offensive against Sderot

26. ‘The Western economic boycott has brought Gaza to its knees….’ – True?

27. How an Israeli ambulance team saved a Gaza Palestinian child’s life….

28. Access by Gaza Palestinians to Israeli hospitals: the facts

29. Israeli attacks, Palestinian attacks: moral equivalence? cycle of violence?

30. Israel offers to pull out of 93% of the West Bank, plus 7% more land: Palestinians say no, in the summer of 2008

31. Barack Obama’s statement during his Sderot visit of July 2008

32. The Grad-Katyusha missile threat

33. ‘Israel did not honour the ceasefire, so Hamas resumed rockets….’ – True?

Part 3 - Key issues during the war 2008/9

34. Israel strikes Hamas in Gaza: Palestinian, Egyptian, European and American voices blame Hamas

35. The humanitarian case for Israel’s war against Hamas, by Amos Oz and others

36. The fighting in Gaza, proportionality and the laws of war

37. Gaza Palestinian victims of Hamas human rights violations and war crimes

38. Israeli humanitarian support to the people of Gaza: food, medical supplies, access to hospital treatment, fuel and electricity – the facts

39. Building coexistence: a message from the UK Chief Rabbi

Otherrelevant Beyond Images resources

Part 1 – Hamas ideology, track-record, and the ‘engagement’issue

1. The Hamas Charter: Extracts

The ‘Islamic Resistance Movement’ - Hamas – was founded in 1988.

Article 1 of the founding Charter of Hamas declares that Israel will remain ‘until Islam eliminates it’

Article 2 declares that Islam is involved in a ‘wide ranging battle against the Jews’

Article 6 states that Hamas ‘strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine’

Article 12 declares Jihad to be a religious duty

Article 13 states that ‘peace initiatives, so-called peaceful solutions, and international conferences to resolve the Palestinian problem are contrary to be beliefs of the Islamic resistance movement….’

While the Charter calls for Muslims to educate the world about Allah, and to create “social solidarity”, it also contains blatantly anti-semitic statements. Its recurring, central theme is the struggle against the very existence of Israel.

Key messages:

The Hamas Charter is a declaration of permanent war between Hamas and Israel

Hamas has never amended or revoked the Charter. It’s that charter, and the actions and attitudes which it reflects, which is the root reason why Gaza has been plunged into self-imposed international isolation (the main exception being Iran) since the Hamas takeover

If Hamas have changed their views (which we don’t believe they have – see section 5 below), why have they notamended their Charter?

For more click here:‘The Hamas Charter: Extracts’ (Beyond Images Briefing 165, dated 15 January 2006)

2. ‘The Jews could have a state in Europe…..’ – from an interview with Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin

Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin told German news magazine Der Spiegel in an interview published on 8 December 2003 that the Jews could “have a state in Europe”. He also stated that Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 borders would be an “interim solution”.

At the time Sheikh Yassin was killed in an Israeli strike in March 2004, Hamas had been responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israeli men, women and children in indiscriminate suicide bombings. Sheikh Yassin was the inspiration for these attacks.

Key messages:

There can never be peaceful coexistence between Israel and its neighbours as long as such views carry influence

Unfortunately, such views continue to guide Hamas. And they also shape the thinking of those in Western intellectual circles who deny the legitimacy of a Jewish state in the region, and who claim that Israel is a criminal implant on the indigenous Palestinians

Recognising Israel’s right to exist as a sovereign entity in the land of Israelis the foundation for peace. The Hamas narrative of history denies that recognition

For more click here:‘“The Jews could have a state in Europe…”: the goals of Hamas, by its founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin’ (Beyond Images Briefing 74, dated 10 December 2003)

3. Hamas leaders in their own words….

In the months after Israeli disengagement from Gaza, and in the run-up to the Palestinian elections of January 2006, Hamas leaders escalated their calls in Arab and Iranian language media for violent rejection of Israel.

Typical is the following:-

“… We do not recognise the Israeli enemy, nor his right to be our neighbour, not to stay on the land, nor his ownership of any inch of land…..”

- Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas ‘foreign minister’, from an interview with Palestinian TV, reported by Newsday, 17 January 2006

And this:-

“This assembly takes place after the liberation of Gaza. Who knows when we will celebrate the liberation of Jerusalem, Haifa, Jaffa and the rest of Palestine. Hamas, together with the Palestinian people, will implement its policy using a new language, without feeling any urge to meet with the enemy or negotiate with it…. Hamas will continue to wield its weapons and to claim its right to resist. Resistance will continue to be a strategic option until the last piece of Palestinian land has been liberated, and until the last refugee returns…”

- Khaled Mashal, Damascus-based Hamas leader, at a Damascus conference, reported by Iranian News Agency INRA – – on 31 December 2005

(Note: Israel wished to prevent Hamas from taking part in the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, because Hamas did not accept the principles of Oslo and the two-state solution. But under international pressure, Israel withdrew its opposition.Hamas was elected, in large part because of the revulsion among Palestinians over the corruption of Fatah).

Key messages:

Hamas ideology is reflected not just in its Charter, and in its track record of violence against Israeli civilians (see Section 6, below)

It is also reflected in the words of their leaders, their unrelenting demonisation of Israel, and their denial of its legitimacy

What matters is what they say to their own followers, not at polite meetings with European politicians and civil servants who would like to ‘engage’ with them

For more click here: ‘Hamas leaders in their own words’ (Beyond Images Briefing 166, dated 31 January 2006)

4. ’We want all of Palestine…’ – Hamas goals remain unchanged

Many parts of the Western media dilute the statements of Hamas leaders, and whitewash the ideology of the movement.

For example, the BBC News website currently includes a profile of Hamas ‘foreign minister’Dr Mahmoud al-Zahar which concentrates on his imprisonment by Israel, and on his medical qualifications. While describing him as ‘hardline’, it only refers once to his beliefs, and this is the quote which the BBC News website provides:-

“We are not playing at terrorism or violence. We are under occupation. The Israelis are continuing their aggression against our people, killing, detention, demolition, and in order to stop these processes, we run effective self-defence by all means, including using guns….”

This statement, chosen by the BBC to reflect the views of al-Zahar, makes him sound like a defensive-minded leaderwith a legitimate claim. Extreme in methods, but understandable in goals.

The BBC website makes no reference to the following statement, also by Mahmoud al-Zahar:

“Israel is a vile entity that has been planted on our soil, and has no historical, religious or cultural legitimacy. We cannot normalise our relations with this entity. The history of this region has proven time and again that occupation is temporary. Thousands of years ago, the Romans occupied the land and eventually they left. The Persians, the Crusaders, and English [also] came and went. The Zionists have come, and they too will leave. [We say] no to recognising Israel, regardless of the price we have to pay [for our refusal]….”

- Mahmoud al-Zahar, quoted in Palestinian newspaper Al-Hayat, London, 12 October 2006

Key messages:

Is it any surprise that an increasing number of people favour engagement with Hamas, when the views of its leaders are blurred in this way?

This pattern recurs in media coverage of Hamas. They are described as extreme, but their most benign statements are routinely quoted, and their rejectionist statements are concealed by the media from public view.

Every time Dr al-Zahar is quoted in the media, the simple question should be asked – what about his description of Israel as a “vile entity” with no legitimacy ? Why not make mention of that, too?

For more click here:‘We want all of Palestine’ – Hamas goals remain unchanged (Beyond Images Briefing 186, dated 12 November 2006)

5. ‘Hamas has come round to the idea of Israel within the 1967 borders….’ – true?

Many Western commentators claim that Hamas has indeed come round to the idea of Israel existing within the 1967 borders.

For instance, Jeremy Greenstock, the former British Ambassador to the UN, wrote in the Guardian newspaper on 16 January 2009 that “Hamas has no charter for the destruction of Israel in its political programme, and just wants the Israel occupation [since 1967] to end…”. This view was echoed recently by many politicians debating the war in the British parliament.

This claim is not new, and in fact for many years certain Hamas spokespeople have been stating that they could accept Israel inside the 1967 borders.

But that is not all they say. In statements in Arab language media Hamas leaders admit in the same breath that this ‘acceptance’ of Israel is a tactical ploy in their long-term strategy of resistance, leading to Israel’s eventual elimination.

For example (with our emphasis added):-

“Hamas supports the establishment of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967 – as an interim solution….”

- Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas Prime Minister in Gaza, interviewed by Gulf News Daily, Bahrain, 20 January 2006 (‘interim solution’ is the same phrase that was used by Sheikh Yassin, Haniyeh’s mentor – see section 2 above)

“We aim to liberate all the lands… if we have the option we will establish a state on every inch of land within our 1967 borders, but this does not by any means imply that we will relinquish our right to all the Palestinian lands. We want all of Palestine from the Mediterranean sea, to the Jordan river….”

- Mahmoud al-Zahar, Al-Hayat, London, 12 October 2006

“In the eyes of the resistance, tahdieh (calm / ceasefires) is a trick within the resistance plans…. I cannot be satisfied with the 1967 borders alone….”

- Khaled Mashal, Damascus-based leader of Hamas, quoted by MEMRI, Report Number 894, in April 2005 (see

Key messages:

These and many other Hamas statements are routinely ignored by Western media and politicians or they are simply unaware of them

Hamas admit they do not regard a two-state solution as a basis for peace, but as an ‘interim solution’ only, and as part of their long-term strategy of wearing down and eliminating the Jewish state

It is a serious misreading of Hamas goals and tactics to believe that Hamas has come round to the idea of two-state coexistence side by side with Israel

For more click here: ‘Hamas has come round to the idea of Israel within the 1967 borders….’ (Beyond Images Briefing 230, dated 19 January 2009)

6. ‘Armed resistance’? Hamas bombings of Israeli civilians

In recent years, much attention has been givento Hamas rocket and missile fire into Israel. But many people seem to have forgotten the Hamas track-record of suicide bombings carried out against Israeli civilians, which stretches back to 1994. There have been at least 42 suicide attacks, together with many attempts and foiled attacks, as well as drive-by shootings, machine-gun attacks etc. Here are some of the suicide bomb attacks for which Hamas claimed responsibility, in the period 1994 to 2006:-

No32A bus, mainly carrying Israeli schoolchildren, Patt junction, Jerusalem

19 dead, 70 injured

Sbarro Pizzeria, Jerusalem

15 dead, 130 injured

Snooker club, Rishon Letzion

15 dead, 55 injured

Student cafeteria, HebrewUniversity, Jerusalem

10 dead, 85 injured

Park Hotel Passover meal, Netanya

30 dead, 140 injured

Teenagers on pedestrian precinct, Jerusalem

11 dead, 180 injured

No2 bus carrying Jewish worshippers back from the Western wall

23 dead, 130 injured

Shopping precinct, central Jerusalem (triple suicide bombing)

23 dead, 150 injured

Moment café, Jerusalem

11 dead, 54 injured

Shopping centre, Netanya

5 dead, 100 injured

Matza restaurant, Haifa

15 killed, 40 injured

Dolphinarium discotheque, Tel Aviv

21 dead, 120 injured

Port facilities, Ashdod

10 dead, 16 injured

Petrol station, Ariel

3 dead, 20 injured

Beachfront bar, Tel-Aviv

3 dead, 60 injured

Hitchhiking post, Tzfirin

9 dead, 30 injured

Café Hillel, Jerusalem

7 dead, 50 injured

Suicide bombings of Israeli passenger buses

Number 11 bus, Haifa – 16 dead

Number 960 bus, Haifa – 11 dead

Number 361 bus, Meron – 9 dead

Number 4 bus, Tel-Aviv – 6 dead

Number 20 bus, Jerusalem – 11 dead

No 37 bus, Haifa – 17 dead

No 6 bus, Jerusalem - 7 dead

No 14A bus, Jerusalem – 17 dead

No 18 bus, Jerusalem – 49 dead (the same bus route attacked on successive weeks)

Two buses following each other in Beersheva – 16 dead

Key messages:

Hamas has never renounced terror

Theirleaders have never expressed the slightest remorse for these killings, or regret over the suffering caused

This violence is a central plank of what Hamas describes as‘armed resistance’ (see section 7 below)

Many of those who planned and inspired these attacks hold high positions of power in Hamas today

Hamas glorifies those who carried out these killings. They encourage children to celebrate in the streets when bombings take place (see for instance Beyond Images Briefing 104 – ‘Sweets on the Streets’)

This culture of violence blocks progress towards peace

For more click here:‘Armed resistance’? Hamas bombings of Israeli civilians’

(Beyond Images Briefing 169, dated 27 March 2006)