Hamas V. PLO

  • The irony in the ongoing conflict is that Hamas, whose founding members were encouraged by Israel in the 1970s and 80s against Yasser Arafat’s secular national movement, has turned out to be Israel’s biggest rival in the Palestinian territories.

HAMAS

  • Hamas was established after the first intifada broke out in 1987, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. 
  • Intifada was the Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. 
  • The first intifada lasted from 1987 to 1993, and the second began in 2000.
  • As strife between Israel and Palestine continued to soar as the latter resorted to the First Intifada, or uprising, in December 1987, Hamas as an organisation led by Sunni-Islamic fundamentalists, began to take shape. 
  • Hamas could gain immediate and immense popularity within the protesting Palestinians because it was able to fill the political space left by Yaseer Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), Which “moved towards the path of a diplomatic settlement.

PLO

  • PLO was founded in 1964.
  • It had enjoyed observer status in UN till 1974.
  • It was declared by the United States to be a terrorist organization in 1987. 
  • Current Chairman: Mahmoud Abbas. 
  • Fatah, formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
  • Fatah had been closely identified with the leadership of its founder and Chairman Yasser Arafat. 

HAMAS V. PLO

  • After Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan, and Gaza Strip from Egypt in 1967, the PLO, vowing to liberate the whole of Palestine, would start a guerilla war against Israel. 
  • The Muslim Brotherhood would still stay away from politics, but their leadership was increasingly critical of the PLO’s secular nationalism.
  • Unlike the PLO, which was modelled around the leftist guerilla national movements in the third world, Hamas had a completely different vision. 
  • The charter it issued on August 19, 1988 was studded with anti-­Semitic remarks.
  • When the PLO moved to join peace efforts seeking a solution to the Palestinian issue, Hamas hardened its position. 
  • It opposed the Oslo agreement, which allowed the formation of the Palestinian Authority with limited powers within the occupied territories. 
  • The PLO tried to capitalise on the rebellion by declaring independence, recognising Israel’s right to exist and ‘renouncing’ terrorism.
  • When the PLO recognized Israel, Hamas rejected the two-state solution and vowed to liberate the whole of Palestine “from the ( Jordan) River to the (Mediterranean) Sea”.

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