A Study Of The Transformation Of Palestnian Hamas

In the course of three decades of development,Hamas witnessed and gradually adapted to the major political developments and changes in the internal and external Palestine,and to some extent realized its own transformation.This article will analyze the process of transformation of Hamas in five dimensions,teasing out the transformation of ideology,political practice,organizational structure,social services and foreign relations.The thesis focused events which lead to "qualitative change" of Hamas during its development and examed the opportunities and difficulties which Hamas faces during the process of transformation transition and made predictions about its development direction of in future.First,Hamas's identity and role experienced a quality change.As a result of Hamas'success in the Palestinian Legislative Council election in 2006 and the control of the Gaza strip in 2007,it transformed from a political organization as "non-state actors" to a quasi-state as a governor.Its label as a terrorist organization and an extremist group had gradually faded out.Second,Hamas took a bold step in remoulding its ideology while refused to recognize Israel and to give up armed resistance against the occupation.Also,Hamas would not like to sign a truce agreement with Israel.Based on above fundamental principles,Hamas reiterated its new positions and policies which were the results of its own ideological construction as well as other objective factors.Third,in the political practice level,Hamas firmly resisted the Oslo Accords Agreement framework at the beginning but gradually gave tacit consent to it and then integrated into the Palestinian politics,promoting the Palestinian political democratization and also constantly improving its the management level.Thus,it evolved from a "spoiler" to "governor".Fourth,in terms of its own organization construction,Hamas reformed its political bureau and the bureaucracy,improved the organization of different levels.Also,it reformed its military organization and security agencies with the lesson learned from their fight with Israel.In the sphere of social welfare institutions,Hamas inherited the organization of the Islamic religion associations before its official establishment and expanded its social services and its social welfare institutions became more institutionalized,which accumulated its experience of "governance".By balancing the power of the politburo,social welfare groups and military branched,Hamas has weakened the power of the military and promoted the moderation of Hamas.Fifth,in the aspect of foreign relations,Hamas learnt the experiences and lessons,actively expanded foreign communication channels,repaired relations with Syria,Egypt and took initiative in developing a relationship with Arab states,European countries and Russia and as well as other countries.In short,Hamas is moving towards moderation and pragmatism.This paper held the opinion that the transformation of Hamas in ideology,political practice and bureaucratic organization is neither isolated nor synchronous,but interrelated and mutually reinforcing.First of all,the transformation of Hamas movement process is not a linear process of development,the domestic and overseas situation will influence the strategy and decision and thus it in some specific affairs may take an extreme way.As a result,Hamas will not be able to disarm completely in the near future,and will play the role of a "governor" while not giving up violence.Secondly,Hamas seeks to survive in the narrow space and its transformation faces many difficulties,and the progress and scope of its transformation are subject to multiple constraints.From the perspective of future development,Hamas needs to face the gap between the realistic political interests and the goals.It needs to balance the distribution of power within the organization,narrow the differences between Hamas leaders internal and external Palestine,and coordinate the relationship between military organizations and political organizations and charitable service organizations.Also,it needs to deal with the more radical Islamist groups in the Gaza Strip,and even with the armed forces of Israel and Egypt to fight against terrorism.