In the age of the internet, there are many theories circulating regarding the origin of Hamas, with people from all walks of life claiming that they “know” the truth. One of these theories is the claim that Israel created Hamas as some kind of “Manchurian candidate,” reducing the group to being nothing more than a puppet of the Zionist state. This extreme opinion is countered, perhaps, by an equally extreme opinion on the opposite end of the spectrum, claiming that Israel had no hand whatsoever in the group’s emergence. As always, we Muslims are a balanced nation, and the answer to many of our questions lies somewhere in the middle.

But first, let us investigate who or what Hamas actually is.

The name comes from HMS, the acronym of the Arabic phrase Ḥarakat al-Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah or the “Islamic Resistance Movement,” which is glossed by the Arabic word ḥamās (meaning “zeal,” “integrity,” and/or “bravery”). The group was officially founded in 1987 during the first intifāḍah (uprising) by figures such as Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi. They issued their first founding document in 1988. Western politicians and media often refer to this as the “Hamas Charter.” If we accept[1] this primary source as truly having originated from Hamas, we can surmise that the “Islamic Resistance Movement” (i.e., Hamas):

• is “one of the wings of Moslem Brotherhood in Palestine”;
• is striving to “raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine”;
• holds that Palestine is “an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day” and thus “the law governing the land of Palestine [is] the Islamic Sharia (law)”;
• defines nationalism as “part of the religious creed,” meaning that “[r]esisting and quelling the enemy become the individual duty of every Moslem, male or female”;
• rejects “so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences” as contradictions of its principles; and
• believes that “[i]n face of the Jews’ usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.”

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Charity and Combat

In 1973, the charismatic, wheelchair-bound Palestinian Sheikh Ahmed Yassin established the Islamic social and charitable group known as al-Mujamma’ al-Islāmiyyah, a branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza. The Mujamma’ built schools, mosques, libraries, and the Islamic University of Gaza. It formed religious institutions, operated medical clinics and orphanages, and provided food and aid for those in need. To that effect, the group gained recognition and affection from the local communities in the occupied territories.

During the 1970s and 1980s, the Mujamma’ would take an aggressive stance towards nationalist, communist, and liberal elements in Palestinian society, trying to revive Islam within the population. According to Israeli sources, Israel allowed this Islamic revival in an effort to weaken the secular-nationalist groups that were the main enemy of Israel at the time.

Until the mid-1980s, the Mujamma’ had no armed component to it, and it did not openly advocate armed resistance against the occupying forces. This drew criticism from another Islamic group that is still active today—Ḥarakat al-Jihād al-Islāmī fī Filasṭīn or the “Palestinian Islamic Jihad” (PIJ) movement. The PIJ was both a political and military movement, which may possibly have led to the formation of Hamas in an effort by the Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine to launch its own military endeavors.[2]

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Allowing Something to Transpire Isn’t the Same as Orchestrating It

In a famous speech, former US Representative for Texas, Ron Paul, argues that Hamas was “encouraged and started by Israel to counteract Yasser Arafat.” In other words, he is saying that the US, through Israel, established Hamas. He then goes on to say that an adverse effect of this policy was that Hamas got too popular and were voted into power, something that the US had not intended.

According to journalist Robert Inlakesh, Israel allowed Hamas to grow in an effort to counterbalance the Fatah movement. However, this does not equate to or mean that Israel engineered the group from the inside. Allowing something to happen in order to pursue a strategy of weakening your enemy—in this case the PLO—does not mean that you brought it about. Often, however, the two seem to be conflated.

It is the same principle with the October 7 attacks. Some are questioning the likelihood of Israel not having known about the attacks beforehand and suggesting that they may have even allowed them to happen in a twisted attempt of pursuing national interests. However, even if this were to be the case, this does not mean that they had somehow orchestrated the attacks. Allowing something to happen is not the same as bringing it about.

It’s possible Israel may have allowed the Mujamma’—which would later turn into Hamas—to grow as a charity organization in order to weaken the influence of groups like Fatah and the PFLP, but this does not mean that Hamas is somehow a direct creation of the Israeli intelligence apparatus.

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Conclusion

Hamas is a multi-faceted movement. Despite the disagreements that may exist surrounding their origins, there are certain unobjectionable facts that we can all agree on:

• Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic movement.
• It recognizes the need for armed resistance to Zionist occupation as part of the struggle to free Palestine from Israeli occupation.
• It garnered support from Palestinians who had grown frustrated with political leaders engaging in fruitless peace talks.
• It possesses both a military wing and a political wing.
• It won the 2006 Palestinian legislative election and, after winning a battle against Fatah in 2007, has governed the Gaza Strip ever since.

We can also conclude that Israel played a role in the emergence of Hamas through its hands-off approach toward the Mujamma’, the precursor to the group. But the claim, that Israel directly created the group as a Mossad front doing the bidding of Israel is baseless and, frankly, ridiculous. This claim has more to do with peoples prejudices towards the group than actual evidence.

Israel does not control Hamas. In fact, their actions show that they consider Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Iran as some of their greatest enemies. Israel’s only stake in the emergence of Hamas was in their support for the Mujamma’ in the ’70s and ’80s which was only done to counterbalance the strength of those whom Israel considered to be its real enemies at the time: Fatah, PFLP, and the PLO in a tactic of “divide and conquer.” Israel could not have predicted what this “hands-off” approach to the Mujamma’ would ultimately result in: the creation of the Muqāwamat al-Islāmiyyah movement, and what it has transformed into today.

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Notes

[1] There are some who posit that the “Hamas Charter” is not an official Hamas document at all. See Hamas: A Beginners Guide by Khaled al-Hroub where he claims that, “The Charter was written in early 1988 by one individual and was made public without appropriate general Hamas consultation, revision or consensus, to the regret of Hamas’s leaders in later years. The author of the Charter was one of the ‘old guard’ of the Muslim Brotherhood in the Gaza Strip, completely cut off from the outside world. [. . .] Hamas leaders and spokespeople have rarely referred to the Charter or quoted from it, evidence that it has come to be seen as a burden rather than an intellectual platform that embraces the movement’s principles.”

[2] Robert Inlakesh, “Did Israel Really Create Hamas?,” The Last American Vagabond, November 24, 2023, https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/did-israel-really-create-hamas/.