Skip to main content

Secret Gaza ballot starts Hamas leadership vote


GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip—Hamas has secretly chosen new leaders for Gaza, starting movement-wide elections that could determine if the Islamic militants will moderate or maintain an alliance with longtime patron Iran instead, Hamas officials said Thursday.

The secretive Hamas did not announce the Gaza election results, but several members said that among those chosen were previously sidelined pragmatists, younger activists and a pair of prisoners recently released by Israel.

"Hamas (in Gaza) will be more realistic, more moderate after the election," said a senior Hamas member, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid censure from his colleagues. Others said the new faces don't necessarily mean a change in direction.

Hamas traditionally keeps much of its leadership structure secret to avoid exposing it to attacks by Israel, which killed several top Hamas officials in the past.

The Gaza elections are the first of a series of secret ballots the movement is holding in coming weeks to choose a supreme leader.

That position has been held since the 1990s by Khaled Mashaal, who in recent months has tried to steer Hamas away from Iran and closer to the movement's ideological roots in the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood, a Sunni Muslim movement, has risen to power in several parts of the region as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings of the past year. The Brotherhood has urged Hamas to moderate and turn away from Shiite Muslim Iran, which backed Hamas at the height of the movement's international isolation following its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007. more

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

'Coronavirus-free' Gaza prepares for the worst

Until now, the besieged Gaza Strip has stayed free of  the novel coronavirus  spreading across the world. As the Gaza Strip has been under a stringent Israeli-led blockade for nearly 13 years, the spread of the coronavirus - officially known as COVID-19 - has become the topic of discussion for many Palestinians, with  some joking  that the blockade was preventing them from being exposed.But as authorities in the coastal Palestinian enclave gear up to contain any potential outbreak, serious questions have arisen about the risks and implications of such a scenario.  But given its already difficult humanitarian situation and high population density, an outbreak in the Gaza Strip could prove to be catastrophic, health officials have warned.  "If the virus enters Gaza and spreads, it will get out of hand," Gaza Ministry of Health spokesperson Majdi Thuhair told Middle East Eye, as he explained that a severe shortage of resources and personnel would make it near impossible

Boycott of New York diamond dealer launched to protest settlement construction

Members of Adalah NY call for boycott of Leviev for its crimes against Palestinians and South Africans New York, NY, May 9 – On the day before Mother’s Day, 40 New York human rights advocates gathered at the Leviev jewelry store on Madison Avenue and called on throngs of weekend Madison Avenue shoppers to boycott Israeli diamond mogul Lev Leviev over his companies’ construction of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land in West Bank villages including Bil’in and Jayyous. Mother’s Day is one of the biggest jewelry shopping periods in the US annually. The New York protest came as controversy is growing in Norway over Norwegian government investments in Leviev’s company Africa-Israel . The New York protesters also commemorated Bassem Abu Rahma from Bil’in who was shot to death by Israeli soldiers last month during a peaceful protest against the construction on Bil’in’s land of Israel’s wall and of the Mattityahu East settlement by a Leviev company. Thanks to vivapalestina.us (not co

Support striking Palestinian quarry workers demanding their rights from Israeli employer

On 16 June, 35 Palestinian workers at Salit Quarries in Mishor Adumim (in area C, east of Jerusalem, in the Occupied West Bank) began a strike. The workers, organized with the independent union WAC-Ma'an, are demanding an end to exploitation and humiliation, and insist on signing a first collective agreement. Salit Quarries’ main customer is Readymix Industries (Israel). The total reliance of Salit Quarry on Readymix as their biggest and by far the most important customer puts responsibility on Readymix to make sure that their clients abides by labour laws and safeguards elementary rights for the workers of Salit. We call upon Readymix to urge the Salit management to terminate this unnecessary strike by signing the collective agreement with the workers and WAC-Ma’an. Click this protest link to send your message. The text of the message is as follows: I write to you to express my grave concern about the failure of Salit management to sign a collective agreement with the workers of