The Lesson Is for Hamas

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

Observers speak of the lesson Fatah must draw from the defeat it has suffered, but it is just as important that there be a lesson for Hamas, the winner. Hamas achieved a great victory, one that exceeded all expectations, and it is quite likely that this victory will reverberate across the entire Arab-Islamic region. This is the first time an Islamic movement has reached the top seat through elections, and this in itself is a historic event heralding a chain of further events. Perhaps the weight of political domino theory will begin to press down on the peoples and governments of the region, and it is quite possible, even probable, that Hamas’s victory will bring about fundamental changes to the equation of the Arab-Zionist conflict. This means that the impact of this victory extends beyond Palestine and the land occupied in ‘67 to encompass a wide geographic expanse and multiple political entities. It is important for Hamas to keep several matters in mind:

First: it is important for Hamas to prove that it is willing and able to accommodate the different political and social currents, so as to affirm to the world that Islam is not a religion of closure or bigotry, but a religion of openness, tolerance, and regard for others. After the Algerian elections, they said Islam suppresses freedoms and is enamored of darkness and backwardness, and they endorsed the government’s steps to halt the elections. We face several states, chief among them America and European countries, that refuse to see anything except through the lens of their own rancor, and it is upon us to teach them that Islam is not built on rancor nor does it proceed from it, and that rational, humane scientific logic is an inseparable part of Islamic teachings. This is in addition to the domestic groups who believe what the people of the West believe, who are supposed to see Islam as it truly is and not according to their illusions. The new leadership is expected to embrace the Christian and the Muslim, the woman who covers her hair and the one who does not, the leftist and the rightist, and so on.

Second: Hamas’s leaders are required to be a model and an example for the people. They are expected to remain among the people and with the people, interacting with them and living their concerns, sharing with them pain and sorrow, joy and delight. We certainly do not want to see any of the leaders driving a car with a red license plate, or carrying a VIP card, or having a building rise for him from public money or from gratuities. Blessings upon anyone who can afford such things from his own private wealth, but the people are watching, and there will be those who take pleasure in mocking a Hamas leader whose body rests easy at the people’s expense. And even if one of those taking up administration happens to be wealthy, he must be humble before the people who elected him. This is how a leadership earns the people’s love and affection, even if it cannot solve their problems and their causes. People value someone who wears their own garment, and know that he lives their suffering, but they recoil from those with noses too proud to smell the scent of deprivation and hardship. Let me stress here that people do not imagine the liberation of Palestine to be imminent, but they do want to be rid of the nightmares of internal occupation.

Third: the new leadership understands that Islam prevails through justice, not through strangulation, and that freedom is the foundation of creativity. Repression and oppression manufacture enemies and hypocrites, while justice turns an enemy into a friend. There is nothing that wins hearts more than justice, and no path more upright toward achieving the unity of the people and mutual solidarity and support among its sons. This leadership has seen how corrupt justice tears apart the bonds among people and plants rancor and hatred in their breasts.

[Fourth — this point is damaged in the original document, and what survives begins mid-sentence:] …carried out, the first expressing just retribution, and the second expressing rancor that destroys rather than builds. We are now in a phase of rebuilding, and what is required is to strengthen trust among the people and reassurance toward the new administrators. There are, no doubt, those who will be held to account — those who committed crimes against the Palestinian people — but minor transgressions must be forgiven as far as punishment goes, while being recalled only as a matter of conscience.

Fifth: there is an important point that lies at the very heart of political theory and the philosophy of governance, one that concerns the moral fabric first, and the social fabric second. No people can stand on its own feet without a moral loftiness that enables collective work, mutual cooperation, and the pursuit of achievement rather than sabotage. It is moral loftiness that pushes toward progress, construction, and self-fortification on every front. A nation that possesses every material asset but lacks morals will soon find its wealth squandered, whereas one that lacks material assets but enjoys elevated morals — honesty, dignity, faithfulness to trust, covenant, and promise — will soon find its material capacities gaining ever-rising momentum. For this reason, the new leadership is expected to rebuild the moral and social fabric of the Palestinian people, so that people feel a genuine spiritual transformation in their lives. This matter surpasses material abundance, because it concerns inner human security and peace of mind, whereas the material question concerns consumption above all. The Palestinian ought to feel that he is in a society that feels what he feels and cares about his affairs, that he knows he is not alone, and that society will rush to his aid should the vicissitudes of fate befall him. In this way we will be more capable of material achievement, and of gaining strength in internal construction and in facing challenges.

Sixth: another point of the utmost importance concerns the political culture prevailing in this historical phase. People notice that the political vocabulary and concepts addressed at the level of the media, in seminars, lectures, and political statements, are vocabulary and concepts that the West has imposed upon us. The West has crafted for us a political culture that has become part of our own thinking, and we treat it as truth itself. For example, some of us feel that if Western funds were to stop, the Palestinian people would starve to death. It seems people have forgotten that God is the Provider, and that one who lives off another will never be satisfied except in humiliation. The West has erased from our minds the idea of self-reliance. It is also noticeable that many people believe that non-recognition of Israel will lead to ruin, because Israel will show us no leniency. It seems many people have forgotten that Israel has never once stopped its aggression. And there are those who speak of the “rules of the political game” and the dangers of failing to abide by them. These matters and others like them constitute a great danger to the Palestinian people and to the whole nation.

This culture must be changed gradually. The vocabulary must change, and so must the concepts. Political work cannot succeed according to the minds of others, but it must also not close itself off from others. And here I do not exaggerate when I say that this anticipated conceptual change sits at the very top of America’s fears. America has lavished enormous sums of money in order to exert intellectual and cultural influence, and it will not easily surrender to seeing what it has built damaged and destroyed.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “العبرة لحماس” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.