HAMAS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HAMAS - Essay Example This network sustained the MB during the death of Hassan-al Banna. The succeeding leaders of MB used a proactive approach to overthrow secular governments and revive Islam. Despite the tough suppression, the MB became a classless movement that extended beyond Egypt and found its way to Palestine. The first MB in Palestine was formed in 1946 and participated in the Arab-Israeli war in 1948. In 1952 a faction of the MB was formed-The Palestinian Islamist Party. Its radical rather than reformist approach did not gather mass appeal and after its leadership was exiled the party became insignificant. The foundations of Hamas originated in the Islamic Centre which was established in 1973 in the Gaza Strip. It took over mosques and zakat committees; it established a welfare system and founded medical, religious, and health facilities and gained mass popularity (Knudsen 2004). In December 1987 a road accident between an Israeli truck and the automobiles carrying Palestinian laborers caused an extensive uprising-the first intifada. The Islamic resistance was slow to react because until then the Islamic Centre, particularly its leader Sheikh Yasin, was not ready to declare Jihad. Therefore, the Centre agreed to fashion a second organization, Hamas, which would participate in the armed resistance. If Hamas succeeded, the Islamic Centre would declare the organization as their own. In January 1988 Hamas initiated armed retaliation; in August 1988 the Hamas charter was released which states the affiliations, objectives, social responsibility and universality of the organization. The main leadership then shifted to Amman, so it controlled the finances and the military division. In 1992 Hamas’s intelligence wing integrated into the military wing (Mishal & Sela, 2000) The militant wing of Hamas used violence against Israeli civilians for retribution