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How Fatah got religion and lost power
by Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook
God was left out when the Palestine Liberation Organization
was founded in 1964. Its 1968 charter made no mention of Allah,
nor did it cite the Koran. The PLO Charter is an Arab nationalistic
document which defines the Palestinian goal as the destruction
of Israel, thereby facilitating the unification of the Arab world.
God is everywhere, however, in the 1988 charter of Hamas.
For the Islamists, whose government was elected by the
Palestinians in January 2006, the ultimate goal is for Islam to
rule the world. The Palestinian conflict with Israel, meanwhile,
is carried out in the name of God - not Arab nationalism.
Welcome to the New Middle East.
But how did this radical change come about? How did 11
years of Fatah-PLO socialization wind up with the radical
Islamists capturing the hearts and minds of Palestinian society?
To understand this transformation from secular nationalism
to radical Islamic rule, let's start with Machiavelli. In The Prince
he implored leaders to use religion for political purposes.
Rulers should appear to be religious: "There is nothing more
necessary to appear to have than this last quality [religion]."
FOR YEARS, the Fatah leadership of the Palestinian Authority
actively followed this philosophy. They promoted religion and
unwittingly paved the way for the current Hamas regime.
Both Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas routinely had the
media give prominence to religious leaders. Many of them
promoted religiously-based hatred and violence against Jews
and Israel. Fatah leaders appeared on TV praying in the
mosques even when the sermons delivered preached genocide.
Islamic education was given prominence in the PA's school system.
Arafat, though himself secular, did not hesitate to call
Palestine an Islamic trust or wakf. And the draft of the
proposed Palestinian constitution recognized Islamic law.
Most significantly, the incessant promotion and glorification
of jihad and shahada ("death for Allah"), intended to motivate
suicide bombings gave prominence to Islam as the driving force
in the battle against Israel.
FATAH'S RELIGIOUS pretense was so successful that it
Islamicized its own people, especially Palestinian youth.
In a March 2005 poll, 70 percent of Palestinians preferred
Islamic law, Shari'a, to the laws of the PA parliament. Less
than a year later, in January 2006, Hamas completed its
journey from a fringe movement to the Prime Minister's Office.
The push by Arafat and Abbas to make religion a dominant
motivation behind the war with Israel had been more
"successful" than they could have anticipated.
In stark contrast to the PLO Charter, in Hamas's charter
the name "Allah" appears a resounding 105 times; with
39 quotes from the Koran and the sayings and practices
of Muhammad.
Every part of Hamas's ideology is presented as God's
eternal truth. Indeed, those who drafted the document
opened it with the words, "In the name of Allah the most
Merciful," followed by verses from the Koran that focus on
Islamic supremacy - fitting for a religious work, not a political
document.
HAMAS IS an an acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement;
the word "Palestine" is not even present in the movement's
name. That's in contrast to the "Palestine Liberation Organization,"
whose focus is on the liberation of Palestine and not on God or Islam.
Fatah and Hamas both seek Israel's destruction - so from
an Israeli perspective there is little practical difference between
the two. But for Palestinians, the two movements represent
completely divergent goals.
The PLO Charter saw the Palestinian state as temporary,
leading to "Arab unity" [Article 11], while the Hamas Charter
sees the destruction of Israel as leading to Islamic unity -
and a time when muezzins will announce from Palestine's
minarets the birth of the "State of Islam." [Article 9].
THIS TRANSITION from secular Arab leadership to radical
Islamic leadership has significant implications. Under a Hamas
government, peace and acceptance of Israel's right to exist
will never be possible because Hamas sees the destruction
of Israel and extermination of Jews as reflecting God's
unchanging truths [Articles 7 and 3].
And whereas pronouncements made in Arabic by the
Arafat-Abbas regimes, or a look at the school books they
have produced, make it clear that Fatah never accepted
Israel's right to exist, secular Palestinian nationalism always
had an intrinsic potential for moderation.
It was also possible that a future charismatic secular leader
might one day change direction and bring Palestinians to
accept Israel.
But because of its divinely dictated ideology, however,
acceptance of Israel is impossible for Hamas. The need for
Israel's destruction is not the opinion of political leaders,
as with Fatah, but God's immutable will.
Indeed, Hamas leaders insist that they do not have
opinions of their own - they play the modest role of
intermediary, informing society of God's plan, as explained
in Article 12 of the Hamas charter.
Indicative of the new reality was how the Al Ayyam
newspaper described the scene in March 2006, when
the new Hamas-led parliament selected Ismail Haniyeh
as the new premier: "After the vote, one of the Hamas
MPs, Hamad Al-Bithouey, waved a Koran and called out
loud: "Allahu akbar."
The Hamas legislators responded with calls: "The Koran
is our constitution, Mohammed is our prophet, jihad is
our path and dying as martyrs for Allah is our greatest wish."
The current efforts between Fatah and Hamas to form a
new unity government do not reflect a closing of the
ideological gap, but a desperate need for renewal of
Western funding.
Whatever happens in the current efforts between Fatah
and Hamas to form a coalition government, the fundamental
ideological and theological shift in orientation described above
is unlikely to change.
This article is based on the presentation Itamar Marcus
made to the Institute for Counter-Terrorism conference on
"Terrorism's Global Impact."
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