Inside Hamas: my journey to its secret heart
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
The police unit we tracked had only weeks earlier been members of the Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s frontline fighters. They were ill-prepared to cope with a population who were either their official enemies in Fatah or were hungry, jobless or just angry with the siege. Some members of the unit ended up fomenting violence, clubbing defenceless people with 4ft-long sticks. The violence we captured from this police unit seemed to be excused by the Prime Minister, but a young female Hamas MP spoke out against it and for human rights. Other MPs affirmed the rights of protest and of freedom of speech.
Hamas again made things worse for themselves, however, by turning a blind eye when a small militant faction, Islamic Jihad, fired crude rockets from Gaza into Israel. That, of course, doesn’t seem like the policy of a government that wants to change Western opinion. But Hamas took no notice precisely in order to maintain their credibility as an authentic resistance group.
Then there is the problem of Hamas’s notorious charter. We asked Khaled Mishal about it in Damascus. Written 20 years ago by one of its hardliners, Fattah Al Dukhan, who is seen in the film, the charter is a fairly unreconstructed rant about Israel and Jews in general. Yet Hamas hasn’t changed it or updated it, despite many attempts by the more PR-aware senior Hamas members to do so. So it remains a basis upon which to dismiss them as uncompromising extremists — a reason to exclude them from any talks.
The charter is not quoted or even mentioned by the leadership these days and doesn’t appear to chime with their present policies. But Mishal was adamant that the charter was none of our business; it was an internal matter for Hamas alone to consider. As we pressed him, I laughed and said, ‘You’re just being stubborn, aren’t you?’ He blurted out in English, ‘Well yes.’ Then he regained his composure, smiled and replied, ‘We will change it when we want to change it, not when others want us to.’ Later on, he offered Israel a traditional Islamic truce — 10, 20, 30 years without fighting, if Israel would retreat back to the 1967 borders. ‘We will talk with anyone,’ he said.
Hamas’s politics are Islamist but democratic. These ‘modern Islamists’, as they style themselves, are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the extremists who want to turn the clock back 1,200 years, overthrow the whole corrupt Western system and let Islam rule the world. Such headline-grabbers have no widespread support in the Islamic world. But Hamas does, and so, by the way, does Hezbollah. Both have a popular mandate and both present themselves as national liberation movements.
Of course, Hamas is no ordinary organisation and the situation in the Palestinian territories is no ordinary situation. I hope the documentary will demonstrate that Hamas are human. Their politics are unquestionably foreign to a Western audience, but that in itself does not mean they must be dismissed out of hand. I was lucky to have such remarkable access to Hamas. After all, and whatever your views on their methods and politics, they are here to stay, and the more we understand such organisations the less scary they will seem and the easier it will be to engage them in dialogue when the time comes — as it inevitably will.
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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.