The Origins of Palestinian Islamic Movements: From the Muslim Brotherhood to the Founding of Hamas
The Muslim Brotherhood (Ikhwan al-Muslimin) movement, founded under the leadership of Hasan al-Banna, who stood out for his pan-Islamic approach, quickly gained widespread influence. According to Hasan al-Banna, Islam is more than just a religion; it is also a state system and a comprehensive way of life in which the rules that society must follow are systematically organised.
Although Hamas was founded in 1987, its ideological foundations date back much further. he Muslim Brotherhood organisation, which operates in Egypt, had a direct influence on the formation and ideology of Hamas. The Muslim Brotherhood was founded in 1928 by Hasan Al-Banna in the city of Ismailia, Egypt. It presented itself as a powerful political movement championing the cause of Islam. This movement found an opportunity to gain ground in the wake of two major shocks that occurred in its early years: the first was the partition of the territories under Ottoman control, and the second was the abolition of the caliphate in 1924. (1)
The Muslim Brotherhood (Ihvan al-Muslimin) movement, founded under the leadership of Hasan al-Banna, who stood out for his pan-Islamic approach, quickly gained widespread influence. According to Hasan al-Banna, Islam is not merely a religion, but also a comprehensive way of life that encompasses a state regime and a systematic set of rules that society must follow. With its pan-Islamic structure, the Muslim Brotherhood did not limit its activities to Egypt, but also established branches in other Arab states.
The Jordanian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood was established in 1946 in the city of Salt under the leadership of Hajj Abdullatif al-Qura, with the approval of King Abdullah, on the condition that it would not engage in politics. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, it gained strength in the West Bank and began to politicise. (2) The Gaza branch of the Palestinian Muslim Brotherhood was established on 25 November 1946. (3) The weakening of British mandate rule over Palestine enabled the Muslim Brotherhood to gain influence in the Gaza region.
When the 1948 Arab-Israeli war began, members of the Muslim Brotherhood organisation joined the fight against Israel and, although they achieved various gains during the war, their failure to integrate into the war and comply with the ceasefire rules led to a breakdown in their relations with the Egyptian army. (4) On 24 February 1949, a ceasefire was signed between Israel and Arab countries, resulting in the division of Gaza and the West Bank into two separate regions. The West Bank came under Jordanian control, while the Gaza Strip came under Egyptian control. The people of the region under Jordanian control pledged allegiance to the King of Jordan and subsequently launched various reform initiatives based on Islamic ideas.
A group calling themselves the Free Officers, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, overthrew King Farouk in a coup in 1952 and seized power. (5) Although the Muslim Brotherhood organisation supported the Free Officers group and Nasser, ideological differences between the organisation and the new regime soon emerged, leading Nasser to arrest and execute members of the Muslim Brotherhood, whom he saw as a threat to his power. Many people affiliated with Islamic thought were arrested and executed due to Nasser's harsh stance, despite his membership in the Muslim Brotherhood and participation in its activities during his youth. (6) On 26 October 1954, while addressing the public in Alexandria, Nasser was targeted by a young man named Mahmoud Abdullatif, who was alleged to be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Abdullatif fired eight shots at Nasser, but none of the bullets hit him. (7) After the assassination attempt, the Muslim Brotherhood organisation was unable to recover from the increased pressure and was forced to continue its activities secretly in different countries until Nasser's death.
With the Muslim Brotherhood beginning to lose its influence in Palestine, the infrastructure of the PLO began to take shape. In 1955, Nasser organised the Palestinians in Gaza to undergo commando training and sent them to attack Israel under the name ‘fedayeen.’ (8) After the Suez War, the Palestinian Liberation Movement (Fatah) was formed and began to establish its political philosophy. As the idea of armed struggle gained traction, Arab League member states established the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1964 with a traditional army. (9) The mainstream Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, fearing the loss of its members to the new political organisations emerging in the region, took an official decision against Fatah and refused to participate in the establishment of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) in 1964. (10) This division is evident today in the West Bank, which is under the administration of Mahmoud Abbas, and in Gaza, which is under the administration of Hamas.
With the 1967 War, Israel expanded its territory and occupied the West Bank and Gaza. With this major defeat of the Arabs, organisations within the Gaza borders began to emerge in a more militarised manner. While the effects of the lost war continued, the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza reorganised under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Between the 1970s and the late 1980s, various organisations emerged under the umbrella of the ‘Islamic Movement.’ Through mosques, healthcare institutions, and educational structures, the Islamic Movement's influence and sphere of activity in the region expanded significantly. This network of social institutions was largely based on the Islamic Centre (al-Mujamma al-Islami), which was founded in 1973 in the Gaza Strip by Sheikh Ahmed Yasin and officially recognised by the Israeli military administration in 1978. (11) In an interview with a New York Times reporter in the early 1980s, retired Brigadier General Yitzhak Segev, who was stationed in Gaza at the time, admitted that Israel supported the Islamic Movement against Yasser Arafat's Fatah and the PLO in the region. (12) Supported by Israel as a deterrent against the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), the Islamic Movement drew strength from the ideological and political atmosphere created by the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, consolidating its influence and power in the region.
The PLO's military defeats in Palestine and its inability to develop a concrete national strategy have brought the Palestinian Islamic Movement to the fore as a natural alternative. (13) After the 1980s, as a result of Israeli oppression, the Islamic Movement went beyond providing social services and began to transform into an armed militia in the region. With the outbreak of the First Intifada on 9 December 1987, the Islamic Movement strengthened its belief that a solution could only be achieved through the use of arms; subsequently, on 14 December 1987, HAMAS was officially established in Gaza under the leadership of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
In this context, the establishment of Hamas in Gaza on 14 December 1987, led by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, paved the way for the Palestinian resistance to take shape ideologically and organisationally on Islamic foundations. Hamas not only embraced armed resistance but also strengthened Islamic identity among Palestinians. Its establishment both increased the motivation of the local population to resist and caused the Palestinian-Israeli issue to progress along Islamic ideological lines.
Footnotes:
(1) Bozarslan, H. (2018). A History of Violence: The Middle East (5th edition, p. 86). İletişim Yayınları.
(2) Görgün, H. (2000). İhvân‑ı Müslimîn. Diyanet Vakfı İslâm Ansiklopedisi. Access address: https://islamansiklopedisi.org.tr/ihvan‑i‑muslimin
(3) Filiu, J.-P. Les fondements historiques du Hamas à Gaza (1946-1987).
(4) Ibid.
(5) Altunışık, M. B. (2022). The Middle East and foreign policy: Arab countries and Israel (1st edition). Istanbul Bilgi University Publications.
(6) Kodaman, T., & Saraç, E. HAMAS (Hareket-Ül Mukavemet-Ul İslamiye- Islamic Resistance Movement).
(7) Tan, A. (2020, 5 June). Middle East notes (20): Egypt and Gamal Abdel Nasser. Independent Türkçe. https://www.indyturk.com/node/190716
(8) Fahir Armaoğlu, The Palestinian Question and the Arab-Israeli Wars (1948-1988), November 2023, Istanbul
(9) Haloum, R. (1989). Documents on Palestine (1st edition). Alan Publishing.
(10) Roy, S. (2011). Hamas and civil society in Gaza. Princeton University Press.
(11) Ibid.
(12) “Blowback: How Israel Went from Helping Create Hamas to Trying to Bomb It Out of Existence.” The Intercept, 19 February 2018. https://theintercept.com/2018/02/19/hamas-israel-palestine-conflict
(13) Çınkara, G. (2024). The Politicisation of the Islamic Movement in Palestine: HAMAS (1946-2024). Ombudsman Academic (Special Issue 2 (Gaza), 163-194.
