GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) – Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh has vowed to live on “zeit wa zaatar” – olive oil and dried herbs – after leading the Islamic militant group to victory over a message from armed struggle and austerity during 2006 elections.
But he has since left the impoverished Gaza Strip and is living in luxury with a few other Hamas leaders as he divides his time between Turkey and Qatar. With the new elections planned this spring, Hamas will struggle to fight as a scrappy underdog that trades its principles for material conveniences.
It remains to be seen whether the elections decided by President Mahmoud Abbas will be held. Much depends on whether his secular Fatah party and Hamas can reach some sort of agreement to overcome the bitter divisions that have prevented previous attempts to vote.
But it is clear that the image of Hamas has suffered among many Palestinians, even former supporters, since 2007, when the Gaza group seized Abbas’ forces in a week of bloody street fighting.
Since then, Hamas has established its own quasi-state with its own civil service and security forces. But it has struggled to provide even basic services with the Gaza economy devastated by three wars with Israel and a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade that limited the territory of the 2 million people to what Palestinians often call the world’s largest open air prison call.
That some of his leaders left Gaza did not help. Hamas leaders who took up the ranks when it was an underground militant group exchanged their streetwear and motorcycles for business suits and shiny SUVs. Some, like Haniyeh, have gone to luxury hotels in Turkey and Qatar, and lower-ranking officials and ordinary Palestinians have been left with the consequences of their policies.
“Every year the situation gets worse,” said Youssef Ahmed, who works in a food stall in an eastern Gaza market. “People do not have the money to buy the basics.”
Yet while Gazane grumbles privately, they rarely speak out against Hamas, which has locked up the history of critics.
Ahmed said he blamed “everyone” – Hamas, Israel and Abbas’ Palestinian Authority. But he said that Hamas, as the ruling power, had a special responsibility.
Haniyeh, who became Palestinian prime minister after the 2006 election and is now the overall leader of Hamas, left Gaza in 2019 for what Hamas said was a temporary foreign tour. He has yet to return.
A recent video that appeared on social media showed Haniyeh playing football on a well-kept field under the glass of skyscrapers of hospitable Qatar – worlds away from the Beach Refugee Camp in Gaza City, where he was born and still a family home maintenance. Another video from Monday showed him in a custom suit surrounded by bodyguards and welcomed by Qatari dignitaries at a red carpet event.
In Gaza, meanwhile, Palestinians are struggling with 50% unemployment, frequent power outages and polluted tap water.
This is mainly due to the blockade, which Israel says is necessary to prevent Hamas from importing weapons. Israel and most Western countries view Hamas as a terrorist group because it has carried out numerous attacks over the years, including suicide bombings, which have killed hundreds of civilians in Israel. A long-running dispute between Hamas and Abbas’ Palestinian Authority over the provision of aid and services to Gaza has exacerbated matters.
Hamas blames the suffering of Gaza on the PA, Israel and the international community.
“There is a general awareness that it is not Hamas’ fault, and that external parties want to undermine the democratic experience,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said. He said Hamas still had “massive” popular support and would win a majority in any future election.
He added that Hamas members in Gaza also suffered from the wars, isolation and economic collapse.
Yet suffering is not shared equally.
Qatar has sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Gaza over the past few years to bring about an informal ceasefire. That money has enabled the Hamas-led government to pay its civil servants – while levying taxes on imports, exports, businesses and tobacco that have outraged many ordinary Palestinians for aggravating their suffering. Hamas security forces have violently protested against the measures.
In another example of inequality in Gaza, a “fast track” through the Rafah crossing with Egypt is available – the only way most Gazans can travel in and out of the area – available to those who can pay high fees or have connections with Egyptian officials. In recent months, three of Haniyeh’s sons have appeared on the list released by the Hamas-run Interior Ministry. Other travelers have to go through a lengthy permit process.
Ahmed Yousef, a former Haniyeh adviser who moved to Istanbul himself, admits that the group did not fall short of its confessional ideals.
“We presented ourselves as a popular movement, not as an elite or factional movement, and that should have forced us to better address the needs and problems of the people,” he said.
Akram Atallah, a longtime columnist for the West Bank Al-Ayyam newspaper that moved from Gaza to London in 2019, said Hamas was trying to take advantage of the “duality” of a government and a militant group to its advantage. use. If it is guilty of providing basic services, it claims to be a resistance group; when he was criticized for imposing taxes, it says it is a legitimate government, he said.
Hamas can still do well in any election, if only because its biggest rival, Fatah, has an even longer record of failure. Fatah’s upper ranks are widely seen as filled with corrupt individuals who are more interested in enjoying the benefits of a VIP status with Israel than in promoting the fight for state capture.
A December poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey found that support for the parties was close – 38% for Hamas, compared to 34% for Fatah – but predicted that Haniyeh Abbas would run in a presidential contest. defeat. The group surveyed 1,270 Palestinians across the West Bank and Gaza, with a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
Assuming elections are held, “it looks like (Fatah and Hamas) the next parliament will dominate, but no one will have a majority,” said Khalil Shikaki, the center’s head. He said independent candidates and smaller factions would win the remaining seats.
Atallah, the journalist, says Hamas is still able to appeal to ‘the people’s emotions’, but that the grip it had on many people has faded.
“Hamas has been exposed as a government,” he said. “The people have found out that its leaders live much better than they do.”
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Associated Press author Joseph Krauss in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.