E-Book Content
Inside Hamas
Inside Hamas
The Untold Story of Militants, Martyrs and Spies Zaki Chehab
Published in 2007 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU 175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010 www.ibtauris.com Copyright © Zaki Chehab, 2007 The right of Zaki Chehab to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. isbn 978 1 84511 389 6 A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress catalog card: available
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro by Steve Tribe, Andover Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International, Padstow
Contents
Preface 1. Choreographed Victory
vii 1
2. Hamas Is Born
15
3. Ez Ed Din Al Qassam Brigades: The Military Wing of Hamas
39
4. The Informers
69
5. The Martyrs
85
6. The Politics of the Sheikh
103
7. International Relations
129
8. Fiction Precedes Fact: The Al Qaeda Connection
173
9.The Future of Hamas
197
Conclusion
221
Notes
229
Index
237
Preface
Tense with anticipation after clearing my luggage with the Jordanian customs, I braced myself for the border crossing ahead. On that sunny May morning in 1998, as I approached Israel for the first time, I was preparing for the inevitable grilling in light of my Palestinian heritage. I boarded one of the ageing buses which ferry passengers at regular intervals between the Jordanian side of the border and the Israeli checkpoint. Glancing around at my fellow passengers as we travelled across no man’s land – the narrow King Hussein Bridge separating Jordan from the Israeli border – I noted that the majority of my fellow travellers were Palestinians like me. Young Israeli soldiers supervised by Israeli intelligence took turns asking the purpose of my journey. As the interrogation wore on, it sunk in that, despite the fact that I was standing in the land of my forefathers, it was I who was the stranger. As I was body-searched, the questions continued. Whom was I going to see? Was I carrying any weapons? Where was I born? I was born in Tyre, just a few miles from Israel’s border with south Lebanon. They appeared suspicious of my answers and asked me to wait in the interrogation room while they excused themselves to a side room to confer. Nothing in their attitude reflected the triumph of the signed Oslo Peace Accords, negotiated over a five-year period and which seemed to herald the end of decades of bloodshed, hatred and wars. I was finally given
Inside Hamas permission to enter Israel, not because of my Palestinian background, but thanks to my British passport. As I emerged on the Israeli side of the border, my first thought was to wonder what ancient secrets the craggy hillsides must hold about this beautiful but troubled land. Driving towards Jerusalem, the often repeated stories of my parents and grandparents as they described their homeland unfolded in front of my eyes. I no longer felt a stranger as the scenery, until now just a mental picture, rolled past the windows. But beyond the fields of my parents’ memory were the Jewish settlements. Row upon row of white houses with red rooftops spread along the hilltops like mushrooms, a man-made blot on the natural landscape.