Tabnak – Soon after releasing its new policy document which
became very controversial in terms of the
approach toward Israel, Palestinian movement Hamas named its new leader. This
has caused a series of debates on what effects the selection of new leader
would have on the general approach of the movement.
Khaled Meshaal, the head
of Palestinian Hamas movement, announced yesterday that Ismail Haniya, the
president of the political bureau of the movement, was elected as his
successor.
"I would like to
announce that this new council has elected Abu al-Abed, my brother Ismail
Haniya, the president of the political bureau of the movement," Meshaal
told Aljazeera news outlet.
"The new leadership
will announce any other names in the appropriate time. The movement blesses
this election which came in a consultative, democratic way that is homogenous
with the lists and that shows the unity of the movement."
Haniyeh succeeds Hamas'
longtime exiled leader, Khaled Mashaal, and the move comes shortly after the
movement unveiled a new, more conciliatory political program in terms of its
approach toward Israel.
In a report of the
development, Voice of America claims that Hamas is trying to rebrand itself as
an Islamic national liberation movement, rather than a branch of the pan-Arab
Muslim Brotherhood, which has been outlawed by Egypt. It has also dropped
explicit language calling for Israel's destruction, though it retains the goal
of eventually "liberating" all of historic Palestine, which includes
what is now occupied by Israel.
Hamas’ new policy
document for the first time indicates the group is willing to accept the idea
of a future Palestinian state falling within borders that existed in 1967
before Israel took control of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem.
All in all, the recent development
shows that the balance of power within Hamas has been shifting to Gaza, the New
York Times writes citing the experts. The group seized control of the
Palestinian coastal enclave in 2007 after beating its main rival, Fatah, led by
President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, in parliamentary
elections a year earlier.
Ismail Haniya was born in
the Shati refugee camp to the west of Gaza City and although a close associate
of Hamas's spiritual leader, the late Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, he was relatively
unknown until he headed the Hamas list that won the Palestinian legislative
election of January 2006 and became prime minister.
Last year Avigdor
Lieberman, a hard-line Israeli politician, issued a blunt ultimatum to Haniya. Lieberman
said that if he were defense minister, Haniya would be dead within 48 hours if
he did not return two Israeli men and the remains of two soldiers that Hamas is
believed to be holding in Gaza.
However, Gaza-based
political analyst Hani Habib says to Reuters that he did not foresee a big
paradigm shift in internal Palestinian politics under the new leadership.
Haniyeh, he expects, will
be "more flexible on different aspects, maybe foremost is the
reconciliation, though I don't see a near end to divisions given the wide gap
between the positions of Hamas and Fatah."
