Hamas is a terrorist group!

Hamas must be wiped out!

That’s what we constantly hear.

As a result, I’m interested in the background of Hamas; why does it exist and what its purpose is.

Zachary Foster is a Jewish historian who studies the history of Palestine.

He got his PhD from Princeton University in Near Eastern Studies and his MA from Georgetown University in Arab Studies. His website contains loads of old maps and writings about Palestine.

Palestine Nexus

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The bombing of Gaza isn’t war—it’s annihilation, a deliberate shredding of a people trapped with nowhere to run.

— Norman Finkelstein, historian

His general focus is on how people in Palestine thought about themselves as a group, especially in the 1800s and early 1900s.

He also has a very good grasp on the history of Hamas.

In a nutshell

Hamas, as we mostly know it now, began in 1987 but started as a 1970s charity called Mujama al-Islamiya, running clinics and youth programmes.

Israel supported it to weaken groups like the PLO (led by Yasser Arafat), who were trying to negotiate a two-state solution, which Israel hasn’t ever wanted because it would mean ending up with less territory.

By the late 1980s, Israel’s harsh occupation of Palestinian areas angered Hamas, triggering them to become violent and write a charter to destroy Israel. Eventually, peace offers in 2006, 2008, 2012, and 2017 were rejected by Israel, who wanted more territory, shaping Hamas into the 'terrorist' group it has become.

Every bomb dropped on Gaza buries the lie of a just war—hospitals, schools, homes, all reduced to rubble for power.

Roger Waters, Pink Floyd co-founder

🎙️ Podcast episode