QandAs: Buzz

What Is Hamas?

Answer:
Hamas is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance

Movement. You have probably heard this mentioned in discussions of the Arab – Israeli conflict, and we are going to take a look at what Hamas really is.

This is a Palestinian group that is dedicated to the elimination of the state of Israel so that it can be replaced with an Islamic state. The United States and Western nations considers this organization to be a terrorist group because of the suicide attacks on Israel that they have sponsored. However, the group is very popular among the Palestinian people because it offers to them a network of schools, medical clinics, and civic services, along with its armed resistance to the Israeli military occupation. This group is a branch of the Muslim brotherhood, which is an organization that is based in Egypt and has been advocating Islamic government throughout the Arab world for many decades. This group can into prominence during the 1990s when they rejected the Oslo peace process that tried to establish a Palestinian state next to Israel. During this time, they announced their intention to eliminate Israel from existence as a state. In 2006, they were able to take control of the Palestinian Authority by winning a majority of the seats in the parliamentary elections.