To the Brothers, Leaders of Hamas

by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem

You know that I, along with many others, have stood in the face of policies that squander the homeland and Palestinian national rights, and in the face of aggression not only against the Palestinian people but against the Arab and Islamic nation as a whole. Our position remains firm and unshakeable, out of our conviction that rights are not for squandering or bargaining, and that sacred things are a divine trust not subject to negotiation, concession, or substitution. You also know that we hold a firm conviction that this homeland can be liberated only by free men who have dedicated themselves to God, and who see in sacrifice an act of worship expressing the highest and greatest degree of piety.

Many Palestinians have struggled against tyranny, oppression, corruption, monopolization of power, dealing with the enemy, security coordination, and every form of betrayal cloaked in patriotic slogans. Intellectuals and thinkers have focused on the freedom of the Palestinian individual, on the grounds that there is no creativity without freedom, and that only free people are capable of achieving liberation. Slaves are fit only for slavery, and nothing suits them but occupation. It is no wonder that our people have still not managed, despite sixty years having passed since the usurpation of Palestine and forty years since the June defeat, to shake off this hateful occupation. The Palestinian people have lived under the weight of social tyranny, political repression, economic oppression, and religious domination, so that their will was subdued, their self-confidence shaken, and their thoughts and opinions given over to the deceivers, the frauds, and the misleaders among Arab and Palestinian politicians — and so the occupation relaxed and stretched out comfortably. A free people does not accept humiliation, does not submit to occupation, does not make peace with a tyrant, and does not defend a loathsome, corrupt wrongdoer. A large number of the Palestinian people do exactly that, and outdo one another in misleading themselves while believing they are the ones who truly know. What we see now on the Palestinian scene is nothing but the product of this manifest delusion, and the outcome of recklessness, moral laxity, ethical decline, social degradation, and the internalizing of humiliation and defeat.

We resisted Arafat’s policy, which was built on corruption and the cultivation of loyal cronies, and we paid a heavy price for that; the price still pursues us, and we continue to oppose those who succeeded him in repressing freedoms and in intertwining their hands with the hands of the Israelis and the Americans. Our stance against these corrupt, destructive policies was never personal or self-interested, nor born of any worldly ambition; rather, it was rooted in religious, national, and patriotic principles and values that tie the fate of the homeland and the future of the people to human freedom — a freedom without which no national belonging or public participation can be strengthened. In this we parted ways with the people of the West, and specifically with the Americans, who worked assiduously to recruit intellectuals and academics with money, so they would adopt Western thought and culture at the expense of authenticity and national interests. The Americans used the language of democracy in order to suppress freedoms and force people to relinquish their rights. As for us, we defend human freedom because there is no humanity without freedom, no faith without freedom, and no conscious obedience to what God has legislated without freedom.

For this reason, we absolutely do not accept any policy built on repressing people and stifling their freedom. Fatah repressed us, opened fire on us, assaulted our property, damaged our reputation, and tried to implicate us in things we did not want, but despite all that, we absolutely do not accept the persecution of Fatah members simply because they belong to Fatah. If we want Fatah and other movements to wage the battle of building the human being and liberating the land, we must defend the freedom of their members, their sons, and those who belong to them.

Here I am not accusing Hamas of suppressing freedoms, but I hear accounts that raise doubts in my mind; and as a Palestinian writer and academic who has always stood against injustice, tyranny, oppression, repression, and extortion, I want to be certain of what I am hearing. I do not rely on the media for my information, because it is for the most part a tool of misinformation; instead, I rely on accounts from friends and acquaintances, and sometimes from students seeking help and assistance. The content of the accounts I hear varies, and I have found that most of them say the security situation in Gaza has improved considerably since Hamas took control of affairs there, but I also hear that there is persecution of Fatah members simply because they belong to Fatah. If that proves to be true, then I will choose to carry the trust that requires defending everyone who seeks freedom and cannot find it.

Persecuting Hamas members in the West Bank is no justification for persecuting Fatah members in Gaza. A Muslim deals with others only according to the standards of what is right, not according to standards of spite, provocation, and retaliation. We want to build a fraternal people, and we work hard to rid ourselves of rancor, malice, and hatred. There are those who work diligently and deliberately to destroy the homeland and its citizens, and we cannot allow ourselves to become a tool in their hands.

I believe the Palestinian people are against the security chaos, against drug and prostitution dealers, and against thieves and the corrupt, and they have demanded for many long years that these people be pursued and their corruption eliminated. I am among those who demand the pursuit of these criminals, and the pursuit of those who coordinated on security matters with Israelis and worked as spies, agents, and collaborators for Israel and its security services, regardless of factional affiliation. The corrupt, the collaborator, the security coordinator, the drug dealer, and the thief must be punished as severely as possible, because he destroys society morally and socially, undoubtedly weakens it in the face of the enemy, and renders it incapable of achieving anything or confronting its concerns and problems. We must not let mercy for such people overtake us, and we refuse to defend them under the pretext of their factional affiliation. Factional affiliation is not a certificate of innocence for a degenerate, a criminal, or a traitor, and in principle his own faction should punish him before the hand of general justice reaches him.

I ask you to review the developments taking place in the Gaza Strip and to make certain that no one is being persecuted because of his factional affiliation or his lineage. A son of Fatah is a son of this homeland, and he has made sacrifices just as the sons of other factions have; and if there are leaders among the Palestinian people who mislead others or use money to entice and seduce, then the rank-and-file member must not be held accountable for the crime of a corrupt leader.

Here I would remind you that Islam prevails through justice, good example, and good conduct, and it retreats in the face of oppression, repression, and poor example and conduct. Many people around the world are waiting to see what the Hamas experiment in Gaza will produce. Your enemies wish for your failure, and they rejoice at every mistake you make, while your friends wish for your success and rejoice whenever you get it right. Do not let this experiment fail, for its failure will not be confined to the Gaza Strip, nor will its price be paid only by Hamas’s leaders there. You are now putting the Islamic idea itself to the test — a heavy trust that requires the utmost balance, wisdom, resolve, and firmness. Be friends to those who disagree with you, and do not weaken before those who are at odds with the homeland.

Source: Translated from the original Arabic, “إلى الإخوة قادة حماس” by Dr. Abdul-Sattar Kassem.