Hamas’ charter is Not Genocidal — just Uncompromisingly Theocratic
But is that less scary?
I’ve read and heard several articles and podcasts that said that Hamas’ charter was genocidal, in that it had a stated goal to kill all Jews. And I assumed it probably was true.
But I eventually realized that I could read the charter for myself, and that I ought to do so if I wanted to form my own opinion.
But when I read it, I was surprised by what I found.
It’s first worth noting that there are actually two versions of the charter. The first one was written in 1988, and the second one was written in 2017.
The opening section of the 1988 version includes a quote from Imam Hassan al-Banna, “The Martyr”, that “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it”.
This, and similar language, are, I think why people read the charter as genocidal.
But towards the end of the document, it clarifies that “The Islamic Resistance Movement is a humanistic movement”, that it “is guided by Islamic tolerance when dealing with the followers of other religions”, and that, “Under the wing of Islam, it is possible for the followers of the three religions — Islam, Christianity and Judaism — to…
