363 Beatriz Gutiérrez López The Muqawama (Resistance): The Case of Hamas similarities between this and the Maoist insurgency doctrine- may be lost and recovered, provided this does not restrict insurgent operational capabilities. While on the subject of operational considerations, it makes sense to clarify here a number of issues concerning religion and identity. Firstly, from a religious perspective, Palestine is considered Dar al-Islam, i.e., Muslim ground belonging to the Ummah but occupied by an infidel- Israel. Therefore, according to the Koran, the Ummah should be repaid after a long struggle sine die generation after generation. Based on this argument, Palestine is waqf, or a divine gift to devout Muslims, and is therefore inalienable and must be passed intact from generation to generation until the end of time.17 Secondly, and from the point of view of identity, this protracted war is built on the concept of the fellah, or peasant farmer, as a cultural reference symbolising the heroic war advocated by the muqawama doctrine, and based on two key elements: sumud (steadfastness) and sabr (patience).18 These are the basic qualities required of the agricultural labourer, which the muqawama doctrine has recovered to identify Palestine’s role in the protracted war. It is a metaphor for the steadfastness required to grow crops in such a challenging land as Palestine and the patience needed to wait and see whether the land will bear fruit, with the perseverance required to confront a powerful enemy such as Israel and to ultimately defeat it, thanks to the steadfastness of the struggle of the Palestinian Mujahid, and despite the material and technological imbalance between the two sides. • Bloodshed over maintenance of the territory. The aim is to cause as many casualties as possible to enemy troops. Consistent with how the doctrine envisages its own civilian population, the entire Israeli population is seen as combatant,19 and the goal therefore is to persecute the Israeli population in general by preventing it from taking the initiative and forcing it to respond reactively to the course of events. On this point, the extension of the territory as an insurgent base or area of operations (vide infra) is relegated to the background and the priority is to cause casualties; this becomes even more important when you consider the low level of tolerance that the Israeli society (and western societies in general) have of civilian casualties, in contrast to the muqawama doctrine which associates death in battle with martyrdom. 17 HROUB, Khaled. “Hamas. Political Thought and Practice”. Washington DC: Institute for Palestine Studies, 2000, pp. 69-70. 18 The subject of identity references in the armed struggle of Hamas is addressed in detail in the article by Doctor SINGH, Rashmi. “The discourse and practice of ‘Heroic Resistance’ in the Israeli- Palestinian conflict: the case of Hamas”, Politics, Religion and Ideology, 13/4, 2006, pp. 529-545. 19 An example of this aspect of the doctrine would be the wave of suicide attacks on Israel between 1993 and 1996 and again during the Second Intifada (2000-2005). See KATZ, Samuel. “The Hunt for the Engineer: How Israeli Agents Tracked the Hamas Master Bomber”, New York: Fromm International, 1999. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
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