Hamas and al-Qaida: The Prospects for Radicalization in the Palestinian Occupied Territories
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The rise of the Islamic Resistance Movement — Hamas — in the Palestinian Occupied Territories of the West Bank and Gaza provided a challenge for Israel and the West. Israel, the United States and the European Union have responded to this challenge by failing to differentiate Hamas from other and more radical Islamist movements and networks. That policy, which includes economic and political sanctions, now threatens to radicalize Palestinian society, pushing supporters of Hamas into the arms of al-Qaida and other salafist organizations. What are the prospects that — should the Hamas political program fail as a result of these sanctions — the Palestinian population will turn to more radical Islamist groups?
The monograph’s author, Khalid Amayreh, is an American-educated freelance Palestinian journalist based in the West Bank. He writes regularly for the Cairo-based Al-Ahram Weekly and the Palestine Information Center. His articles also appear regularly on several news sites on the internet.
[…] Hamas and al-Qaida: The prospects for radicalization in the Palestinian Occupied Territories By Khalid Amayreh, Conflicts Forum, November 7, 2007 […]