HAMAS as a resistance movement

The goal of this thesis is to analyze HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) that is one of the most influential movements in Palestinian politics. Firstly, the Palestine Issue was discussed since it is important to understand in which context HAMAS has existed. The Palestine Issue has been the most fundamental problem in the Middle East for nearly 60 years. At the core of the problem lie the invasion of the Palestinian territories by Israel and the dispossession of the Palestinians because of this invasion. Since 1967, Israel has systematically used the similar mechanisms of the Apartheid regime in South Africa. With the aim of creating de facto realities on Palestinian territories, Israel has constructed hundreds of illegal Jewish settlements. Like settlements, the Apartheid Wall that has been constructing by Israel since 2002 separates the Palestinians and the Israelis. In the first and second parts of the thesis, the characteristics of the Israeli colonization of Palestinian territories and the social history of the Palestinian people were examined. In the third main part, the HAMAS Movement was analyzed. Palestinian territories have always had an Islamic movement since 1930s. However, until 1987 the Palestinian Muslim Brothers, the main Islamic movement in Palestinian territories, had not been active against the Israeli invasion. With the first Intifada (1987-1993) the Palestinian Muslim Brothers changed both its name and strategies. Beginning with the first Intifada, the ?new? HAMAS movement embraced active and armed struggle against the Israeli invasion. In the third part, firstly, this historical background was discussed; then the tactics and policies of HAMAS during the Oslo Process (1993-2000) and the Second Intifada (Al-Aqsa Intifada) that began in September 2000, was analyzed in detail. In the last section of the third part, the reasons behind the HAMAS?s rise and the election triumph in January 2006 was analytically examined. In this section, the difficulties that HAMAS has encountered during its government were elaborated on. Today, HAMAS is a movement that is governing the Palestinian people, but at the same time resisting against the Israeli invasion of the Palestinian territories. Additionally, this movement provides the main social services for the Palestinian people. HAMAS is a resistance movement that has an Islamic discourse, but struggles for an independent Palestinian nation-state in the certain territories, the occupied Palestinian territories in the 1967 Arab-Israel War, including East Jerusalem, West Bank and Gaza Strip.