HAMAS PORTRAYS ITSELF AS A DEMOCRATIC ENTITY

The political handbook for Hamas terrorists: A glimpse into the Hamas propaganda machine

A guidebook we obtained from a Hamas stronghold in Gaza sheds light on the brainwashing of those who perpetrated the October 7 massacre: demonization of Israel, Holocaust denial and alternative history.

 

By Shachar Kleiman 

Israel Hayom

Jan 25, 2024

 

Hamas gunmen, members of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in Rafah, the southern Gaza Strip, 

 

"As we reach the 1990s, the world as a whole has not revealed new evils but has gotten better in certain distinct ways. Chief among the surprises that have occurred in the recent past was the totally unexpected collapse of communism throughout much of the world in the late 1980s. But this development, striking as it was, was only part of a larger pattern of events that had been taking shape since World War II. Authoritarian dictatorships of all kinds, both on the Right and on the Left, have been collapsing. (...) But whether successful democracy eventually emerged, authoritarians of all stripes have been undergoing a severe crisis in virtually every part of the globe." This was written some three decades ago by Francis Fukuyama, one of the most important political scientists and thinkers of the modern era, in his book "The End of History and the Last Man".

As fate would have it, at that very time Hamas was gaining power within Palestinian society. This was a new form of evil, combining nationalism, political Islam, and in the future it would also adopt a form of pseudo-democracy. The Islamic Resistance Movement – or 'Hamas' as the organization is better known in its acronym form – embraced antisemitism and unbridled savagery. Men and women who were given the promise of reaching paradise were duly sent to blow themselves up on buses. People suspected of religious heresy or infidelity were murdered. Members of the rival Fatah faction were hurled off the roofs of tower blocks in Gaza to their deaths, and within the space of three decades, one of the most abominable terrorist attacks in history was perpetrated on October 7, 2023. Although Hamas had an extensive ideological basis from the Muslim Brotherhood, it decided to brand it in sparkling nationalist-socialist packaging to charm the numerous 'useful idiots' around the world.

An instruction booklet that Israel Hashavua has obtained from a Hamas stronghold in Gaza has shed light on just how the organization views Israel and it also defines basic political terms. To a certain extent, this booklet allows us a glimpse at the form of thinking that laid the ground for the October 7 massacre. "The political psychological battleground is one of the most important battlegrounds in the conflict with the Zionist occupation in the stolen land of Palestine. The cancerous enemy operates day and night to falsify the facts and steal our rights in order to fulfill its colonialist ambitions," writes Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, in the introduction to the book. According to him, the book should serve as the basis for "The select few of our people and a powerful ideological weapon in safeguarding our rights and defending our national interest in freeing our land, our prisoners and ensuring the return of the refugees, with the help of Allah."

"Political Awareness" was published in 2020 in the Jabaliyah refugee camp, and its cover features a map of the world placed inside a person's head. "Greater Palestine" and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are located at the center of the map. The book was edited by the Hamas political committee in the Northern Gaza Strip district. In a certain way, it is reminiscent of the famous slogan from George Orwell's magnum opus "1984", which underscored the tragedy of the individual living in a totalitarian regime: "War Is Peace. Freedom Is Slavery. Ignorance Is Strength."

In this manner, in the book they highlight the contradictions in liberal democracy that enable Hamas to portray itself as a democratic entity while it really controls a murderous dictatorship. If the liberals call for freedom of religion then it is free to attack their freedom. If democracy takes the form of elected representatives (even if this takes place in internal elections), then not everybody will necessarily have the right to vote. And if secularism contradicts Islam in its desire to distinguish between the state institutions and the religious clerics, then it is crystal clear to the reader what should and should not be given up.

Dr. Michael Barak is a senior researcher at the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism (ICT) and a lecturer at Reichman University. He is also an expert on Islamic fundamentalism and Egypt. In an interview with Israel Hayom, he explains that the book is intended to explain the political situation to Hamas rank and file. For example, milestones in the political evolution of the PA (Palestinian Authority) along with terminology from the field of social sciences.

According to Dr. Barak, there is nothing unique in terms of intelligence in the book, but it does echo similar material found in open sources and is intended for the purpose of indoctrination. "It appears that these booklets are distributed to the Hamas ranks as part of mental training and political awareness courses," he says. Later on, he talks about the more extensive infrastructure of Hamas propaganda.

In an imaginary universe

The text exposes precisely how it is possible to create a whole cadre of people capable of carrying out the atrocities of the October 7 attack.  Or perhaps more precisely, the stories that they tell those people and what they hide from them. This is what the text tells about Sabra and Shatila: "The 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacre – a massacre carried out by the Zionist occupation forces in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps housing the Palestinian refugees, under the guidance and supervision of the Zionist entity's minister of defense at the time, Ariel Sharon, leading to the murder of 2,500 Palestinians and Lebanese."

In reality – the massacre was the work of the Lebanese Christian Phalange forces following the assassination of Lebanon's President Bachir Gemayel. Although the famous Kahan Commission of Inquiry did also assign responsibility to the IDF soldiers in the area who were aware of the potential danger and ignored it, but in the book there is no mention whatsoever of the Christian Phalange militia.

Moreover, in the alternative universe of Hamas, it is as though the Holocaust never took place. In its reference to Nazism, the book writes that this was a political movement based on preference for the Aryan race "compared with the other human races, and it was founded in Germany following World War I when Hitler used it to gain hegemony." What else did the Nazis do? There is absolutely no mention of this throughout the dozens of pages in the book. It is perhaps because of this that the Hamas speakers and leaders have no qualms about using the term "Holocaust" in reference to the IDF strikes on the Gaza Strip.

The lack of any reference to the Holocaust also resonates against the background of the explanation of the term Zionism: "A Jewish political movement, which appeared in central and eastern Europe in the late 19th century and called for the migration of Jews to Palestine claiming that the land belonged to its ancestors. The Zionist movement is known to have colonialist tendencies, which led to the occupation of the land of Palestine and the expulsion of our people, in addition to organized acts of murder against them."

The distortion of reality does not just address Israel; however, but also the Palestinians themselves. An especially interesting example of this can be seen in how the book relates to the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The following explanation is provided regarding the fall of the Palestinian unity government: "The objective of the government was to bolster the partnership, but a faction appeared on the ground that did not accept the new state of affairs and did everything possible to undermine the government's efforts. The security forces (of the Palestinian Authority, SK) sought to drag Gaza into a state of chaos and bloodshed. The government's law enforcement forces (the Hamas police, which was established as part of the agreement with Mahmoud Abbas, SK) were forced to wipe out the sources of tension and those responsible for creating the chaos. After three whole days, they surrendered. Subsequently, the parliament was incapacitated, Ismail Haniyeh was dismissed (from his position as the head of the unity government), an emergency government was established and then the stage of the separation began."

This is a clear attempt to gloss over one of the bloodiest periods in recent Palestinian history. The military conflict between Hamas and Fatah continued for several weeks, with a varying degree of intensity, and finally ended with 120 dead. During this clash, Hamas terrorists threw one of the PA security force officers from the roof of a 15-story building. This took place only a year and a half after Hamas had won the elections. From this particular conflict, we can learn about an additional aspect of how Hamas views the idea of democracy – as far as Hamas is concerned, democracy is 'Doublespeak' for the dictatorship of the majority.

Having said that, the book does shed light on some of the organization's most profound fears: "Normalization is the policy that aims to make relations normal after a period of tension or detachment or for whatever reason – whether this involves states or institutions or groups. An example of this is the normalization between a number of Arab states and the Zionist occupation state, despite the fact that it occupies the Palestinian lands. This normalization with the Zionist entity began with the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1978 between Egypt and the occupation state. The Oslo conference in 1993 may be considered as the cornerstone that was laid in building the normalization with the occupation." As far as Hamas is concerned, there is nothing as dangerous as establishing relations between the Arabs and the Muslims, and Israel.

Antisemitic propaganda at Hamas summer schools for kids

Dr. Barak also tells of the much broader foundations that form the basis for the process of indoctrination: "They exercise expansive control via the Hamas ministry of communication and ministry of education. After becoming the ruling power in the Gaza Strip, Hamas jumped at the opportunity to cultivate and shape the young people in Gaza as the future generation of jihad, who would continue the jihadi campaign against Israel. It succeeded in doing so, among others, by tapping into the education system and the summer school programs for youth, which combined physical training with simulated combat scenarios. These programs provided it with the perfect opportunity and appropriate environment to engage in the demonization of Israel, portraying it as having robbed the land from the Palestinians, alongside pure antisemitic motifs such as emphasizing that the Jews were the source of all global evil."

In addition, Dr. Barak also lists a number of examples of brainwashing via non-institutional channels: "The online children's magazine in Arabic Al-Fateh (the Conqueror/Victor in Arabic), which publishes a whole section of shahids' wills with a view to nurturing role models for the children – the shahids who gave up their lives for Al-Aqsa and the honor of the Palestinians. There are also computer games like 'Gaza Man' from the period of IDF Operation Protective Edge back in 2014, in which the Palestinian player, wearing a traditional Arab keffiyeh or checkered head scarf, fights an Israeli soldier to protect the Palestinian residents from alleged 'murder by the occupier' and the bombs of the Israeli air force, while resorting to gunfire.

"Another game is called 'Fursan al-Aqsa' (The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Arabic), which first came out in October 2022. This game has recently been subject to a number of upgrades due to the current war. In the promo video that was launched to market the upgraded version of the game, the image of the IDF Spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, was integrated alongside IDF soldiers dancing in joy at the efforts to dismantle Hamas, but they are eventually bombarded to show that they did not succeed in destroying it. The game simulates fighting in the narrow alleyways of Jenin and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque."

This content, by the way, is readily available on the internet for whoever wishes to access it. The game's video clip on YouTube shows the following: The player must take action against the IDF base at "Camp Ariel Sharon" – the official name of what is better known to all Israelis as Ir HaBahadim, or literally the City of Training Bases. "This training city is a complex of military bases in southern Palestine, bordering on the Negev desert, which belongs to the occupation forces of Israel. This base serves to train new soldiers and to develop new weapon systems. Your mission is to infiltrate the base and reach the IDF Logistics School (Bahad 6) to destroy the missile launchers, to steal the UAV model, and to kill all the IDF soldiers there." This is part of the text in the game's mission instructions, clearly encouraging the young to take part in terrorist attacks.

Dr. Barak explains that the figure behind all of this is the head of the Hamas government media office, Salameh Ma'arouf, who has not made any public statements since November. "He heads the Hamas-run government media office and was responsible for developing digital literacy among the youth in the Gaza Strip, in order to train them and equip them with the tools to engage in the propaganda effort against Israel on social media. He was also in charge of transferring budgets to journalists and activists on social media in Gaza, to teach them how to cover Israel's strikes. In conjunction with the PIJ (Palestinian Islamic Jihad), he ran instruction sessions on how to use social media as a weapon against Israel."

Training courses in Beirut

Hamas is not alone. His key partners in the propaganda campaign are Iran, Hezbollah, and the PIJ. "An important player helping Hamas and the PIJ in the propaganda campaign is the Islamic Radio and Television Union (IRTU), an Iranian media concern that is related to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which was established in 2007," Dr. Barak explains. "This is an umbrella organization of 210 media channels associated with Hezbollah, the Houthis, the Shi'ite militia groups in Iraq, the PIJ, and Hamas. Two of these channels include the Hamas Al-Aqsa network and the PIJ's Falastin al-Yom media outlet.

"In this manner, Hamas and the PIJ obtain funding, guidance, and training from the Iranians and Hezbollah, who have managed to train dozens if not hundreds of journalists via Zoom, in Beirut, Gaza or via the IRTU branch, which was run until the current escalation by Salah al-Masri, a PIJ member. The person in charge of the IRTU, and who coordinated the propaganda mechanism with Hamas and the PIJ, is a senior Hezbollah figure named Nasser Akhdar. This function is currently fulfilled by Sheikh Ali Karimian who has very close ties with Hezbollah."

Many people have become exposed to the tremendous power of this propaganda machine on social media during the current war. Yet, it is precisely this profound involvement of Iran that once again raises the question regarding the actions it has opted to adopt during this campaign. Despite the soaring tensions along Israel's northern front and the constant launching of UAVs on the other fronts – from the Red Sea in the south to Syria in the north – Iran and Hezbollah have yet to take that extra step to launch an all-out war.

Dr. Barak believes that Hezbollah did know about the Hamas attack itself, though not the actual date and timing, and that in the end, the Iranians decided not to sacrifice Hezbollah for the sake of Hamas. After all, one of Hezbollah's key objectives is to curb an offensive against the Iranians themselves and to safeguard Iran's nuclear project from a joint Israeli-US strike. "Sinwar gambled on Hezbollah's involvement following the October 7 attack," says Barak, "and to a certain extent, both Hezbollah and Iran have been leading Hamas up the garden path."