Egypt's ‘Zionist’ ban on Hamas

An Egyptian court on Saturday banned the Izz Ad-Din Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas – Palestine’s Islamic resistance movement.

The decision meant that Egypt now lists Al-Qassam as a “terrorist” organisation for the first time. The court accused Hamas of involvement in attacks on Egyptian military personnel in the Sinai Peninsula.

Political and military Hamas sources have strongly denied involvement in such attacks, which have escalated since the July 2013 coup that brought Egypt’s military dictator Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi to power.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters: “We reject the Egyptian court’s decision against the Al-Qassam Brigades. It is a political, dangerous decision that only serves the Zionist occupation.”

Civilian supporters of Hamas in Gaza City on Tuesday held protests against the Egyptian court’s decision, chanting “Hamas is not a terrorist”. Hamas official Mushir Al-Masri told the crowd that the ruling was meant to “conceal failure and the lack of security in Egypt at this time,” the Ma’an news agency reported.

Neglected by the central government in Cairo, the restive Sinai region has long been troubled by militant groups. Extremists with links to the “Islamic State” and Al-Qaeda have launched attacks against Egyptian forces. These have increased since the 2011 uprising that booted former dictator Hosni Mubarak from power.

But these attacks – often deadly – have mostly been claimed by a group called Ansar Beit Al-Maqdis. One faction of this group has reportedly declared allegiance to the Islamic State (calling itself the “Sinai Province” of the Islamic State) while others reportedly remain loyal to Al-Qaeda.

Reality is very different from the Israeli propaganda that aims to portray Hamas, ISIS and Al-Qaeda as one and the same ideology.

While it is true that Hamas has historic links to Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, it also has differences with that movement, which it is independent of in any case. The first elected president of Egypt, Mohamed Morsi, came from the Muslim Brotherhood, which won several elections that were the legacy of the 2011 uprising.

Since then, the military counter-revolution has decided to ban the Muslim Brotherhood, making it a scapegoat for violence in the country. But in fact Brotherhood supporters have been the victims of the regime’s violence, with 183 of them being sentenced to death in a mass ruling by one of Egypt’s farcical kangaroo courts on Monday.

The reality of Gaza is that Hamas (elected to rule the Palestinian Authority in 2006) is a liberation and resistance movement of a Palestinian nationalist character. It is far removed in both ideology and practice from the horrific movements Islamic State and Al-Qaeda (both of which are in fact the chimeric fruits of violent Western imperialism in the region).

Hamas can be described as “Islamist” in the broadest political sense of a politics informed by Islam – but this is so broad a description that it is not very useful.

More to the point, Hamas has at times been engaged in open warfare with the kind of takfiri groups that are closer to ISIS and Al-Qaeda. That they have not more often been so is only because these kinds of groups have extremely limited influence in Gaza.

A small, but armed, religious cult proclaimed a short-lived “emirate” in 2009, until Hamas stamped it out. In March 2007, the BBC journalist Alan Johnston was kidnapped by a group calling itself “The Army of Islam”. Hamas later defeated the gang and freed Johnston.

Hamas has consistently denied Egyptian accusations against it and there is reason to believe it. On Tuesday, Egyptian troops on the border even opened fire on Palestinian security forces in Gaza. Speaking to Ma’an, a commander with Gaza’s security forces played down the incident, claiming it was an accident.

It is not in Hamas’ interest to pick a fight with the powerful Egyptian military, when its fight is ultimately with the Israeli occupier. Even in the Mubarak era, Hamas accepted the role of Egypt as a mediator between it and Israel in negotiations for prisoner exchanges. Now Al-Sisi seems to be ending even that role.

The reality is that Egypt’s military regime is run in the interests of American imperialism and Israeli regional hegemony – Israeli officials of course welcomed the Egyptian ban on Al-Qassam. And, despite mealy-mouthed pronouncements about the rule of law and human rights after the July 2013 coup, the American government has continued to send military assistance to the regime.

An associate editor with The Electronic Intifada, Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist who lives in London.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.