The film-maker Mike Chamberlain has gained unprecedented access to the Islamist organisation. He recounts the cloak-and-dagger methods that led him to its leaders and its foot soldiers
When Mishal arrived in his office — which doubled as a TV studio — the first thing I noticed was that he looks surprisingly like George Clooney in Syriana. That calmed me a bit, but all the same I was nervous as I started to interview him. He was, and is, the leader of what much of the world calls a terrorist organisation — and he’s probably still high up on the Israeli hit list. In the event everything went smoothly.
I was here, in this small office in Damascus, because a couple of years earlier I had become interested in the mechanism of how an armed guerrilla or ‘terrorist’ group can make the transition to a non-armed political organisation, and had been looking into the possibility of making a film about Hamas. At a conference on terrorism in London, I had been directed by Conciliation Resources, a brilliant but underfunded peacemaking group, to a man who knew Hamas intimately and might be able to facilitate access to this organisation. The man was Alastair Crooke, an ex-MI6 officer, who personally negotiated a number of Israel–Palestinian ceasefires while serving as a special adviser to the EU’s Javier Solana. He was instrumental, for example, in the negotiations that ended the siege of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. He is also charming and extremely intelligent and — crucially for my purposes — Hamas seemed to trust him.
In the general election in the Palestinian Territories in January 2006, Hamas beat Fatah in the West Bank and in Gaza. Yet there were no attempts by the international community to start serious talks with Hamas. Indeed, the West refused to recognise the organisation as the legitimate government, and the European Union, the UN and the United States effectively cut off all existing aid to the Palestinian government. Financial assistance was then channelled to Hamas’s opposition, Fatah, led by President Mahmoud Abbas. A powder keg was being primed.
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sebastian
February 7th, 2008 11:02amMike Chamberlain has, with all due respect, been but the solitary passenger on a Hamas fairground Ghost Train of stage managed spine-tinglers and dangled, sheeted contents of false, hidden tombs. Probably only the well informed Israelis really know what lies at Hamas' secret heart. And they're no more likely to share this with a man with a notepad and camera, than Hamas is. How does it feel to know you've been taken for a ride, Mr. Chamberlain?
jack jones
February 8th, 2008 5:36pm"Later on, he offered Israel a traditional Islamic truce — 10, 20, 30 years without fighting, if Israel would retreat back to the 1967 borders." This is known as a "Hudna" and is a temporary cease fire in order for the armies of islam to regroup until there powerful enough to start another offensive. Mr.Chamberlain is either ignorant of islam or like most is choosing to ignore it's basic tenets of perpetual war with the "infidel" because it kills the myth and legend of the "diversity fairy" that most journalists/politicians seem to believe in these days. I hate to burst your bubble but these guys want you dead too...just when they choose. At the moment your useful.You could become even more useful and end up spending several years wrapped in gaffa tape in a cold cell. Two words to look up and study from an islamic context Mr Chamberlain. Taqqiya and Hudna. The former is most important for you because if you grasp it you might realise how you've been played by Hamas and the practitioners of the religion that dare not speak it's name.
jack jones
February 8th, 2008 5:38pm"Later on, he offered Israel a traditional Islamic truce — 10, 20, 30 years without fighting, if Israel would retreat back to the 1967 borders." This is known as a "Hudna" and is a temporary cease fire in order for the armies of islam to regroup until there powerful enough to start another offensive. Mr.Chamberlain is either ignorant of islam or like most is choosing to ignore it's basic tenets of perpetual war with the "infidel" because it kills the myth and legend of the "diversity fairy" that most journalists/politicians seem to believe in these days. I hate to burst your bubble but these guys want you dead too...just when they choose. At the moment your useful.You could become even more useful and end up spending several years wrapped in gaffa tape in a cold cell. Two words to look up and study from an islamic context Mr Chamberlain. Taqqiya and Hudna. The former is most important for you because if you grasp it you might realise how you've been played by Hamas and the practitioners of the religion that dare not speak it's name.
Maurice Ferera
February 9th, 2008 6:58amMr Chamberlain chooses to ignore every anti-Israel statement made by HAMAS leadership, the way in which HAMAS disposed of FATAH prisoners in their recent civil war, their tacit if not overt support of kassam rocket attacks against Israel, their recent handling of protests by unarmed civilian demonstrations etc. etc. Reading this, I got no deeper understanding of Hamas - but got plenty of understanding of Mr Chamberlain's abilities as a journalist. Is this article really supposed to pass for serious journalism?
Napoleon
February 9th, 2008 12:12pmI was not going to post, but as I have seen that no one(that posted) agrees with Mike, I decided to post just to say that I loved the article, and totally agree with Mike.
Arieh Gertler
February 9th, 2008 1:20pmYour reporter Mike Chamberlain has unwillingly became a tool in the hands of Hamas terror organization and shows them in a moderate light. Not talking of what Hamas is ready to do to Israelis, not talking of the home made rockets that he sends with a clear intention to kill Israeli citizens, should your reporter see what Hamas did in Gaza to his fellow brothers from Fatah, starting from shooting in knees to throwing them from 17-floor houses to their death. Those moderate Western journalists who try to "understand" the terrorist motives should learn from Winston Churchill - the evil has to be eliminated and not understood. There is only one way to treat those Hamas terrorists - to KILL them.
TDK
February 9th, 2008 10:58pmbut Israel did withdraw to the 1967 border in the Gaza strip. And Hamas responded by immediately launching (or in this naive version, tolerating the launching of) rockets into Israel. I would have though that if Hamas was an honest partner in peace it might have tried to encourage Israel, that it could be trusted to keep the peace, as a prelude to Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank.
Shimon Felix
February 11th, 2008 8:20amWell, I guess if you want the access you have to play the game - Hamas's racist, anti-Semitic charter is dismissed as an irrelevant relic,the "traditional Islamic truce" of 20, 30 years, is not just a way for Hamas to arm itself to act on the genocidal aims of its charter, it's "traditonal", Hamas allows deadly rocket fire at Israeli civillians in order to retain credibility as a "resistance group" - resistance to what? Israel's non-existent "occupation" of Gaza, etc., etc. But hey, he got a movie out of all this nonsense. And it will be a good one, too, after all these Hamas guys wear sharp suits and look like George Clooney.
Mikets
February 11th, 2008 7:38pmHamas has, as they say, a respect for democracy - 'one man one vote one time'
Elliot
February 13th, 2008 1:19amWhat is this apology for Hamas? They are as democratic as Taliban or al-Qa'eda. I gather Mike Chamberlain doesn't wish to be assasinated after his interview, but he really ought to have published it in the Guardian or some other liberal PR mouthpiece.