This title names a new book by Helena Cobban & Rami Khouri, recently published by Just World Educational. It’s based upon recorded versions of 5 conversations held with experts on the history/development of Hamas, live conversations held online in the spring of 2024. I caught those conversations and learned so much that I scrambled to pre-order the book when the idea of publishing arose.

There’s so much misinformation around Hamas, for instance the false information that they beheaded children and raped women on October 7, 2023. Early reports have been discredited. There is no evidence that either of these atrocities happened; Israel has refused to open an investigation into these alleged crimes. The killing of civilians is bad enough, but to be charged with these repellent crimes against human dignity, without proof and with no retraction, is extremely damaging. That of course, is the whole purpose of such Israeli propaganda. It places a very evil aura around Hamas, even beyond that of condemning the violence on October 7^th.

We all know Israel’s degree of revenge continues to be extremely disproportionate. The killing and destruction in Gaza is so devastating that Gazans have lost the ability to keep track of how many are injured, buried under rubble, dead. The UK’s respected medical journal The Lancet, has estimated that bombs (more than 70,000 tons), snipers, lack of medicines, sanitation, food, safe drinking water, disease, inability to treat injuries and other health conditions, burial under rubble and other such factors have created a death toll vastly greater than that reported when numbers were still available. Gaza is 2/3 the size of Vancouver Island.

Through this discourse on Hamas, I found it very helpful to see and learn from eminently qualified people – scholars who have been studying Hamas & Middle East politics for many decades – and it has given me more clarity about who Hamas is, how they’ve evolved, and where they fit in the Palestinian liberation struggle.

Why does it behoove us to try to understand Hamas? Why is this book important?

Here is what Christian-Palestinian/human rights lawyer/ US citizen Jonathan Kuttab, has to say: “A most vital and timely book. NO one can deal with the Palestinian Question, or with Gaza, without understanding and coming to terms with Hamas. The current demonization of Hamas and the official taboo against talking to them has been used to justify daily atrocities, and even the ongoing genocide. Anyone interested in peace between Palestinians and Israelis needs to read this book, and then take action to bring Hamas into the conversation.” (Understanding Hamas & Why that Matters, Preface.)

The book offers a timeline of Hamas’ history, followed by conversations with 5 leading scholars, and then a series of Appendices that give excerpts from Hamas’ 1st Charter and its revised 2017 “Document of General Principles and Policies” (where it removed its earlier call for an end to the State of Israel), an explainer of how Hamas ended up on US list of Terrorist Groups, excerpts from Hamas’ “Our Narrative…Operation Al-Aqsa Flood”, and more.

There is so much in the book, it’s impossible to capture all its key points, but here are a few:

!. Hamas formed in response to the 1982 expulsion of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) from Lebanon, in recognition that the PLO had failed. Its name is an Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement and emerged from the Muslim Brotherhood (from whom it is now distanced).

2. 2.“Hamas is a political movement with a sometimes very rigid structure and that has used different tools – political, armed struggle and even terrorism. We don’t have to fear words. Suicideattacksagainstcivilianswereterrorism.But…wecan’tavoidthepoliticaldimensionof the movement that started in some years before 1987.” (Ibid, Dr. Paola Caridi @19)
3. 3.In 2005, Hamas suspended suicide attacks, and participated in the Palestinian Authority (PA) elections for the parliament of the PA. Those were internationally observed and monitored elections. Hamas did not expect to win. Nor did Israel and the US expect them to win. As Dr. Caridi states: “we have to look at what Hamas did in 2005 & 2006; it accepted the two-state solution without saying so, but by participating in the elections…of the parliament of the Palestine Authority…. the mistake of the international community was…in not accepting Hamas as the winner. Because the problem was that Hamas won and Fatah (PA’s choice) lost.” (ibid @26)

4. 4.Hamas is composed of many constituencies: West Bank, Gaza, Palestinians abroad, that is, boththeleadershipandactivistsintherefugeecamps,andprisons.Itdecisionsarebasedupon extensive consultation with these constituencies.All these constituencies make up the resistance to the Israeli occupation of Palestinians, which is what got Hamas elected.
5. 5.2006-7 is when the split between the West Bank and Gaza happened. After an unsuccessful coupattempttodisplaceHamas,Israel(supportedbytheUS)installedFatah,ledbyMahmoud Abbas,astheparty“inpower”intheWestBank.HamastookontheleadershipofGaza,which was then placed under siege by Israel, with an air, land and sea blockade.

(Next week: Part 2)

My current World Beyond War Course on Media & Communication for Peace has

begun with an examination of how to consume, critique and interact with media. This is a most compelling topic for me as a novice “Peace Writer”. We live in a time when mainstream corporate media in the west is seriously skewed toward supporting a status quo of imperial dominance – rooted in unbridled capitalism and growing militarism, funded largely by the US, by far the world’s biggest military spender. I intend to place my focus on media coverage of Israel, now in its 57^th year as the occupier of Palestinian Territories, and its 2^nd year of a genocide on Gaza. Beginning here at home, I want to study the entity known as Honest Reporting Canada and consider its role in shaping text media on Israel-Palestine consumed by Canadians.

Honest Reporting Canada (HRC) started over 20 years ago when its founders observed that “falsehoods being reported by the news media about Israel often manifest as anti-Jewish sentiment and often turn into hate crimes against Canadian Jews.” Their website makes a link between reporting about Israel and “hate crimes” “often” following, but fails to give a single example of such an occurrence. (http://honestreporting.ca ) HRC describes itself as “Israel’s sword and shield”.

Just Peace Advocates states HRC’s purpose as being: “to control the narrative in Canadian media by overwhelming newsrooms with complaints of coverage critical of Israel, or supportive of Palestinian solidarity.” (Just Peace Advocates, October 11, 2024: CRA asked to investigate HRC). Why, you might ask, is Canada Revenue Agency being asked to investigate this group?

Because they are a registered charity under Canadian law. That means that anyone who donates to HRC gets a tax receipt, a write-off of their donation against their income. It means that Canadian taxpayers pick up part of the tab for HRC’s work. HRC’s website beckons donors with the promise that “any donation up to $250,000 will be matched dollar for dollar by several HRC benefactors.” Last year – 2023 – HRC provided over $1 million in charitable tax receipts. Now this is a small amount in comparison to the sums raised by the many Zionist charities in Canada – which could be as much as a billion dollars annually (Yves Engler, Canadian Foreign Policy Hour, 4^th October, 2024). It is yet another example of how tied in our charitable tax structure is with Israel’s settler-colonial project, and how we subsidize the Zionist lobby’s direct influence on the media we consume.

HRC further promises that “our educational initiatives combat the pernicious targeting of the Jewish people and the nation-state of the Jewish people, both recipients of hatred, double standards and contempt.” If there’s any doubt that HRC considers mere criticism of the State of Israel to be antisemitic, HRC “works to challenge anti-Jewish rhetoric, particularly when antisemitism hides behind a mask of anti-Israel criticism”. (Italics mine, from website, above.)

One way HRC does its work is by coaching its 60,000 subscribers to respond to its cues, write media outlets complaining that any criticisms of Israel are antisemitic. No one wants to be

considered antisemitic, so, as their website boasts, HRC is often successful. The website provides a glossary of “Problematic Mideast Terms” and the preferred substitution. Here are some examples:

Settlement Neighbourhood

West Bank Judea & Samaria

Occupied Territory Disputed Territory

Militant Terrorist

Language shapes thinking, and we can see how the preferred substitutions create the illusion, the fiction, that the Occupied Palestinian Territories (that is: West Bank, East Jerusalem & Gaza) are not occupied since 1967, they are “disputed”. And that gated, armed, Jewish-only, settler- colonial settlements aren’t actually “settlements”, they are much more friendly – neighbourhoods in fact! And that a Palestinian militant who resists those designations, non-violently or otherwise, is a “terrorist”.

Why has Just Peace Advocates filed a complaint to CRA re Honest Reporting Canada? Because they are very likely in violation of Canadian and international law. Canada has stated, in accord with international law, that the West Bank settlements are illegal. Canada has never formally recognized the so-called “annexation” of East Jerusalem by Israel. The International Court of Justice has ruled (19^th July, 2024) that the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories is illegal, and that all member States are obliged to oppose that occupation.

On October 18^th, 2024, a UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry released its “Legal analysis & recommendations on implementation of the International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion, Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem.” The Commission’s Position Paper states:

“With respect to non-profit or non-governmental organizations, States must carefully review any organization that is financially or politically supporting the unlawful occupation. States shall not give support to these organizations, for example through allowing the organization to have

tax exempt status or providing tax deductibility for donations to the organization and must ensure that financial contributions to support the unlawful occupation, including settlements and settlers, cease.”

To have Canadian taxpayer money going to silence criticism of Israel’s illegal actions very likely violates CRA criteria for holding charitable status. Now that CRA has formally revoked the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund and the Ne’eman Foundation, perhaps the door is opening to demand real accountability of other charities such as HRC and require them to live up to their name or lose their comfortable status. You can tell CRA what you think as well by going online and filling out CRA’s RC193 Service Feedback Form.