Hamas’ participation in Palestinian elections challenges militants to be democrats

It’s here that one of the spiritual leaders of Hamas greets visitors and crafts his sermons — once exclusively sharp-tongued calls for Israel’s demise and lofty praise for suicide bombers. These days, Sheik Hamid Betawi is practicing a more accommodating vocabulary. It includes words such as reform, dialogue and voter outreach.

“We have to look at more comprehensive ways to deal with our own problems and our problems with Israel. It can’t just be violence,” said Betawi, whom,” he said. “Hamas is the old colour. It’s the colour of ignorance, violence, intolerance, sectarianism.”

Hamas has backed hundreds of candidates for the ongoing municipal elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and plans to participate in national legislative races in January.

So far, it’s taken nearly a third of the seats on local councils. The Hamas platform stresses better education and economic development in the Palestinian territories, whose workers lost their main job market when Israel began sealing the borders two years ago with barriers that include a 25-foot-high (7.5-meter-high) concrete wall.

Hamas’ most compelling pitch, however, is as a fresh alternative to the dominant Fatah faction of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who is widely seen as incapable of reining in the corruption and cronyism that grew rampant under the late Yasser Arafat.

On Monday, relatives of people killed in the Palestinian intefadah, or uprising, held a protest to demand promised stipends. “You are riding in expensive cars and we are starving,” they chanted.

It’s a sweet sound to Hamas as it looks ahead. The January elections are for spots in the expanded, 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council for the 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and 1.3 million in Gaza, which came under full Palestinian control last month following the removal of the last Jewish settlers and Israeli soldiers.

Some forecasts predict Hamas could win up to 40 percent of the seats.

Sheik Betawi is among the old guard being considered for the ballot. Listening at length to Betawi is a showcase of Hamas’ dual identities — often in conflict. He speaks forcefully about Hamas’ willingness to work within the system, including political talks with Israel through the Palestinian parliament. He also rebukes the rival militant faction, Islamic Jihad, for not joining Hamas and Fatah in a temporary — and now very shaky — truce with Israel in February.
Right to fight

But then Betawi switches back to familiar Hamas proclamations. It’s the “absolute right” of Palestinians to fight Israel occupation, he says, and Israel is to blame for suicide bombers for pushing young men to “feel that death is better than the life they are forced to live.”

“Politics doesn’t mean we step back from what is justified,” said Betawi. “As long as the occupation exists, as long as the wall exists, as long as the Israeli military actions exist, the people have the right to fight. ... And that can include martyrs (suicide bombers) as it has in the past.”

Israel and the United States have already made their judgment on Hamas’ political ambitions:

Both nations view Hamas as a terrorist group. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has even threatened to disrupt the vote unless Hamas stays on the sidelines.

But some wonder whether Israel is missing an opportunity to begin groundbreaking contacts with an old foe — similar to how Britain used the Irish Republican Army’s political wing, Sinn Fien, to work toward eventual accords.

“The message from Israel seems to be: that a group that tries to break the mold and seek some level of moderation is not good enough and we shut the door,” said Menachem Klein, a political researcher at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies. “This can only be counterproductive.”

Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization rarely invoked religion in its battles for Israeli concessions and its dreams of statehood. But Hamas emerged during the late 1980s as an Islamic alternative to the PLO with two pillars: a network of social programs and a militant wing strongly opposed to peace efforts.

In Hamas’ view, any land-for-peace deal was an unacceptable surrender of “Islamic lands” to Israel.

Arafat’s death in November 2004 was a turning point. It offered the chance for Hamas to begin a strategic evolution to directly challenge Fatah in elections.

“Hamas had to listen to Palestinian society. Everyone is saying there needs to be another way besides violence and more violence,” said Asim Ismail, an Islamic scholar in Nablus. “We have to be realistic. Hamas senses this. With Israel, we Palestinians are like a small child playing with a cobra. We are just destroying ourselves by constantly angering the beast.”

But there are troubles within. Palestinian factions have increasingly turned against each other. Last Sunday, Palestinian police and Hamas militiamen squared off in the worst skirmishes in nearly a decade in Gaza. A deputy police chief was killed in the gunbattle. The next day, nearly 40 policemen stormed the government building in Gaza City to protest a lack of bullets and equipment.

It’s also unclear how hardcore militant groups will respond to Hamas’ emerging political influence — and the prospect of Hamas lawmakers dealing with Israeli counterparts. Some analysts predict that radicals could defect from Hamas and start their own cells. Or, more likely, that Islamic Jihad could restart suicide bombings to protest continued Israeli raids and arrests and wipe out the tenuous truce before the January vote.
Too much blood being spilled…

“There is too much blood being spilled for this truce to hold,” said Ala Sanakra, a Nablus-based leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — a group that has carried out dozens of suicide attacks and is named for a site in Jerusalem where Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) rose to heaven.

Sanakra sipped carrot juice in a hotel lobby. A day earlier, two Al Aqsa members were killed in a shootout with Israeli forces near Nablus. His cell phone rang. It was another follower wanting to know why Al Aqsa wasn’t striking back. Sanakra explained that the Fatah leadership — which has some influence over Al Aqsa — has urged restraint.

“See,” he said after hanging up the phone. “Everyone thinks Israel wants a war to break the truce and block Hamas from going to the elections. Believe me, there is no shortage of Palestinians who would be willing to become martyrs.”

There was plenty of evidence to back him up at a voting station for municipal balloting.

Signs there drew red lines through drawings of what wasn’t allowed inside: smoking, cell phones and guns. But outside the poll, Hamas supporters phoned friends to make sure they cast ballots. Teenage boys danced and showed off pistols wedged into their jeans. Cars passed by covered in Hamas’ green banners and Quranic verses.

A 34-year-old woman, dressed in full Islamic chador, wore a Hamas headband. She had just cast her ballot in the third round of municipal elections, which are taking place in stages around the West Bank and Gaza. This day, Hamas took five of 13 local council seats up for grabs.

“We don’t only speak the language of violence. We speak the language of advancement: education, electrical projects, sewage, water, to build more schools,” said one of the Hamas-backed winners, Saada Shalabi, a 40-year-old computer technician. “This is part of the mission of Hamas. Fighting the occupation is one thing. But we have to also fight against poverty and corruption here for the Palestinians.”