This week, Hamas commemorated the assassination by Israel of its founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, with a massive rally in central Gaza attended by tens of thousands of supporters. The wheelchair-bound quadriplegic Yassin was assassinated when an Israeli helicopter gunship fired a hellfire missile at him as he was being wheeled from early morning prayers. His killing, in an attack that also claimed the lives of both his bodyguards and nine bystanders, was widely condemned. It prompted Palestinian resistance fighters to carry out a series of bombing operations inside Israel as an act of revenge. Yassin is still widely revered by Palestinians for his moderation, commitment to national unity and wisdom. He is also viewed as a source of inspiration for many Islamists, especially in Palestine. Yassin had little faith in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). He often said in interviews with the foreign press, “I resist, therefore I exist.” On many occasions, he argued that in the absence of any semblance of a balance of power between Israel and the Palestinians, peace negotiations, irrespective of any amount of good will showed by the Palestinians, would never lead to the conclusion of a just and dignified peace deal as far as the Palestinian people were concerned. In interview with this writer a few weeks before his death, Yassin was asked to justify the campaign of suicide bombings (Hamas called them martyrdom operations) by Hamas against Israel. Yassin said: “The Israelis are offering us two choices: Either they kill us quietly — like they slaughter meek sheep at the Jewish slaughter house — or make us die an honourable death in the streets of Israel.” The massive rally commemorating Yassin as well as two other Hamas leaders, Abdel- Aziz Al-Rantisi and Ibrahim Maqadma, both brutally murdered by Israel, was meant to convey a message to Hamas's friends and foes alike. The first message was to the Palestinian people and Hamas's supporters and sympathisers, namely that the movement is still strong and withstanding mounting pressures by Israel and the Western-backed Ramallah regime of Mahmoud Abbas. Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said that Hamas was stronger than ever and that it possessed a firepower more than the Israeli estimated. Another message was sent to regional powers that no matter how Hamas is dehumanised, demonised and pushed to the corner, the movement would remain a hard number, not only in the Palestinian arena, but also in the Arab one as well. The Egyptian regime has accused Hamas since the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood president Mohamed Morsi on 3 July 2013 of interfering in Egyptian internal affairs and aiding anti-regime elements in the Sinai Peninsula. Hamas vehemently denies the charges, arguing that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian people have any interest whatsoever in alienating whichever government is in Cairo. According to Mushir Al-Masri, a local Hamas leader, “the negative Egyptian stance towards Hamas stems from the current regime's hostility to the Muslim Brotherhood ideology.” Egypt is yet to offer any hard evidence linking Hamas to violence in Egypt. But Fatah, Hamas's ultimate rival in the Palestinian arena, has been making desperate efforts to instigate the Egyptian regime against Hamas. Last week, Fatah's spokesman in Ramallah, Ahmed Assaf, claimed during a press conference in Cairo that Hamas and the ousted Morsi regime were planning to establish a Palestinian state and settle Palestinian refugees in the Sinai desert. Most serious pundits and observers in both Egypt and occupied Palestine scoff at these allegations, dismissing them as no more than “concocted fantasies”. Speaking at the rally, Haniyeh admitted that Hamas and Palestinians in Gaza were suffering due to an enduring Israeli blockade and Egypt's demolition of tunnels used for smuggling food, staples and other goods to Gaza. “We are living through a difficult stage and harsh challenges, but we are not terrified and we are not defeated. We have become familiar with difficulties and this stage is not the most difficult,” Haniyeh said. Haniyeh praised Egypt as Hamas's “brother, friend and neighbour”. There is no doubt that Hamas is facing one of the most difficult — if not the most difficult — ordeals since its founding in late 1987. But draconian restrictions against Gaza are unlikely to cause Hamas to reach a “breaking point” in the immediate and foreseeable future. In the final analysis, Hamas is a resilient and austere movement long-tried and steeled by years of internecine wars, Israeli military aggression and its hermetic blockade. The group is also strongly backed by a hardcore body of ideological followers and supporters who see support for Hamas as a religious duty.
