365 Beatriz Gutiérrez López The Muqawama (Resistance): The Case of Hamas as the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which were involved in armed conflicts and began to win over the more radical followers of the Muslim Brotherhood. It was at this point that the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood set up the Islamic Resistance Movement, known by the acronym Hamas, and equipped itself with a fledgling armed unit called the Majd (glory) to persecute collaborators of the Israeli government.23 However, it quickly attracted the attention of the Israeli authorities, which began to employ decapitation tactics against the movement’s senior members and main activists. Paradoxically, from the earliest stages the new organisation showed great resilience to the former’s counterinsurgent tactics and, time after time, replaced the leaders of the organisation as soon as the Israeli authorities had removed them, always under the direction of Sheikh Yassin, whether from his prison cell or as a free man. In addition to the dynamic of removing or decapitating Hamas’s political-military structure, Israel launched a new tactic that is often underestimated when analysing the case of Hamas and the development of the muqawama doctrine. We are referring to deportation - a tool used by Israel in disregard of international law - which consisted of capturing militants from the different groups that fought in the First Intifada and transporting them by bus to the demilitarised zone occupied by Israel in southern Lebanon. This is what happened to almost 415 senior and mid-level members of Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in December 1992 when they were deported for almost a year to the mountainous area of southern Lebanon and denied entry to Israel. Despite the difficulties, however, the deported members were able to take advantage of the opportunity to operate in a space outside Israel’s control, and this was extremely important for two reasons: firstly, the deported Hamas members came into contact with an armed group that was firmly established in the region, with whom they forged close ties; we are referring to Hezbollah, from whose insurgency doctrine Hamas adopted theoretical and practical ideas, political-military coordination procedures and new tactics such as suicide attacks and the use of tunnels.24 And secondly, perhaps influenced by the example of Hezbollah and with the advantage of being able to hold meetings with members of Hamas living in the Gulf countries, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria in the camp in Marj al-Zuhur, which had been built by the deportees themselves, the deported Hamas leaders decided to subdivide the organisation so that it could continue to operate despite Israel’s leadership decapitation tactics.25 It was at this time that the leaders of Hamas were split into two political structures – one for the 23 Majd is an acronym for Majmouath Jihad u-Dawa (the Holy War or Sermonizing Group). See LEVITT, Matthew. “Hamas, politico, beneficencia y terrorismo al servicio de la yihad” (Hamas: politics, charity and terrorism in the service of Jihad), Barcelona: Editorial Norma, 2008, p. 31. 24 KATZ, op. cit., pp. 43-47. 25 TAMIMI, Azzam. “Hamas. A History from Within”, Northampton: Olive Branch Press, 2007, pp. 66-69. http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee
Revista del IEEE 6
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