Aside from its use of political violence in pursuit of its goals, the Palestinian political and military organization Hamas has been widely criticised for a variety of reasons, including its use of hate speech by its representatives, use of human shields and child combatants as part of its military operations, restriction of political freedoms within the Gaza Strip, and human rights abuses.
Allegations of antisemitism
The 1988 Hamas charter proclaims that jihad against Jews is required until Judgement Day. Article 7 of the 1988 governing charter of Hamas "openly dedicate(s) Hamas to genocide against the Jewish people". Authors have characterized the violent language against all Jews in the original Hamas charter as genocidal,Patterson, David. Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins. Cambridge University Press, 2015. Page 184. incitement to genocide, or antisemitic.• "Hamas refuses to recognize Israel, claims the whole of Palestine as an Islamic endowment, has issued virulently antisemitic leaflets, ..." Laurence F. Bove, Laura Duhan Kaplan, From the Eye of the Storm: Regional Conflicts and the Philosophy of Peace, Rodopi Press, 1995, , p. 217.
• "Standard anti-Semitic themes have become commonplace in the propaganda of Arab Islamic movements like Hizballah and Hamas...." Bernard Lewis, 'Muslim Anti-Semitism', Middle East Quarterly (1998). The charter attributes collective responsibility to Jews, not just Israelis, for various global issues, including both World Wars.Freilich, C. D. (2018). Israeli National security: a new strategy for an Era of change. Oxford University Press. p. 34, 37 The American Interest magazine wrote that the charter "echoes" Nazi propaganda in claiming that Jews profited during World War II. Jeffrey Goldberg, editor-in-chief of The Atlantic magazine and others have compared statements in the 1988 charter with those that appear in The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Esther Webman of the Project for the Study of Anti-Semitism at Tel Aviv University wrote in 1998 that Hamas leaflets during the First Intifada "contained the most extreme anti-Semitic statements" of all Palestinian factions, but argued that "anti-Semitism is not the main tenet of Hamas ideology." The tone and casting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of an eternal struggle between Muslim and Jews by the Hamas Covenant had become an obstacle for the movement to be able to take part in diplomatic forums involving Western nations.Patterson, David. Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins. Cambridge University Press, 2015. Page 184.
In an op-ed in The Guardian in January 2006, Khaled Meshaal, the chief of Hamas's political bureau, denied antisemitism, on Hamas' part, and he said that the nature of Israeli–Palestinian conflict was not religious but political. He also said that Hamas has "no problem with Jews who have not attacked us".
In 2009 representatives of the small anti-Zionist Jewish group Neturei Karta met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza, who stated that he held nothing against Jews but only against the State of Israel.
Hamas' 2017 charter removed the antisemitic language of the original, stating that their struggle is against Zionism and not Jews, while rejecting persecution or denial of rights of any human being on nationalist, religious, or sectarian grounds. It also says that the Jewish question, antisemitism, and the persecution of Jews stem from European history rather than Arab or Muslim heritage, while advancing goals for a Palestinian state that many see as consistent with a two-state solution.
Statements by Hamas members Ahmed Yassin, the founder of Hamas, responded to accusations that "Hamas hate Jews" by stating in a 1988 interview: In 2008, Hamas imam Yousif al-Zahar said in his sermon at the Katib Wilayat mosque in Gaza that "Jews are a people who cannot be trusted. They have been traitors to all agreements. Go back to history. Their fate is their vanishing." Another Hamas legislator and imam, Sheik Yunus al-Astal, discussed a Quranic verse suggesting that "suffering by fire is the Jews' destiny in this world and the next." He concluded "Therefore we are sure that the Holocaust is still to come upon the Jews."
Following the rededication of the Hurva Synagogue in Jerusalem in March 2010, senior Hamas figure al-Zahar called on Palestinians everywhere to observe five minutes of silence "for Israel's disappearance and to identify with Jerusalem and the al-Aqsa mosque". He further stated that "Wherever you have been you've been sent to your destruction. You've killed and murdered your prophets and you have always dealt in loan-sharking and destruction. You've made a deal with the devil and with destruction itself—just like your synagogue."
In 2014 Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan defended a video of his repeating the blood libel myth in an interview. In an interview with CBS This Morning on 27 July 2014, then Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated:
On 8 January 2012, during a visit to Tunis, Gazan Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh told the Associated Press that he disagrees with the anti-Semitic slogans. "We are not against the Jews because they are Jews. Our problem is with those occupying the land of Palestine," he said. "There are Jews all over the world, but Hamas does not target them." In response to a statement by Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas preferred non-violent means and had agreed to adopt "peaceful resistance," Hamas contradicted Abbas. According to Hamas spokesman Sami Abu-Zuhri, "We had agreed to give popular resistance precedence in the West Bank, but this does not come at the expense of armed resistance."
In May 2009, senior Hamas MP Sayed Abu Musameh said, "in our culture, we respect every foreigner, especially Jews and Christians, but we are against Zionists, not as nationalists but as fascists and racists." In the same interview, he also said, "I hate all kinds of weapons. I dream of seeing every weapon from the atomic bomb to small guns banned everywhere." In January 2009, Gazan Hamas Health Minister Basim Naim published a letter in The Guardian, stating that Hamas has no quarrel with Jewish people, only with the actions of Israel. In October 1994, in a response to Israel's crackdown on Hamas militants following a suicide bombing on a Tel Aviv bus, Hamas promised retaliation: "Rabin must know that Hamas loves death more than Rabin and his soldiers love life."
Statements on the Holocaust Hamas has been accused of promoting Holocaust denial. It described Nazi Germany's genocide of European Jews as "so-called" and "an alleged and invented story with no basis" in a 2000 press release. In 2003, Hamas co-founder and deputy leader Abdel Aziz al-Rantisi claiming that "Zionists were behind the Nazis' murder of many Jews."Patterson, David. Anti-Semitism and Its Metaphysical Origins. Cambridge University Press, 2015. Page 184. In 2000, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy reported that Hamas officially denied the Holocaust for the first time in a press release responding to the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust, stating:
This conference bears a clear Zionist goal, aimed at forging history by hiding the truth about the so-called Holocaust, which is an alleged and invented story with no basis. (...) The invention of these grand illusions of an alleged crime that never occurred, ignoring the millions of dead European victims of Nazism during the war, clearly reveals the racist Zionist face, which believes in the superiority of the Jewish race over the rest of the nations. (...) By these methods, the Jews in the world flout scientific methods of research whenever that research contradicts their racist interests.
In August 2003, senior Hamas official Abd Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi wrote in the Hamas newspaper Al-Risala that the Zionists encouraged murder of Jews by the Nazis with the aim of forcing them to immigrate to Palestine.
In 2005, Khaled Mashal called Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's 14 December 2005, statements on the Holocaust that Europeans had "created a myth in the name of Holocaust"Iran leader's Holocaust remarks condemned NBC News, 14 December 2005) as "courageous"."Hamas springs to Iran's defense" Al Jazeera, 15 December 2005 Later in 2008, Basim Naim, the minister of health in the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government in Gaza countered holocaust denial, and said "it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality."
In 2008, Basem Naim, Minister of Health and Information in Gaza, stated that "it should be made clear that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian government in Gaza denies the Nazi Holocaust. The Holocaust was not only a crime against humanity but one of the most abhorrent crimes in modern history. We condemn it as we condemn every abuse of humanity and all forms of discrimination on the basis of religion, race, gender or nationality."
In 2009, it was involved in a dispute with the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) over the inclusion of Holocaust education in Gaza, with Hamas's Popular Committees for Refugees describing the Holocaust as "a lie invented by the Zionists". Hamas leader Yunis al-Astal stated that having the Holocaust included in the UNRWA curriculum for Gaza students amounted to "marketing a lie and spreading it", and "I do not exaggerate when I say this issue is a war crime, because of how it serves the Zionist colonizers and deals with their hypocrisy and lies.""Hamas rips U.N. for teaching the Holocaust". JTA. 31 August 2009. 31 August 2009.
In February 2011, Hamas again voiced opposition to UNRWA's teaching of the Holocaust in Gaza. According to Hamas, "Holocaust studies in refugee camps is a contemptible plot and serves the Zionist entity with a goal of creating a reality and telling stories in order to justify acts of slaughter against the Palestinian people." In July 2012, Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman, denounced a visit by Ziad al-Bandak, an adviser to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, to the Auschwitz death camp, saying it was "unjustified" and "unhelpful" and only served the "Zionist occupation" while coming "at the expense of a real Palestinian tragedy". He also called the Holocaust an "alleged tragedy" and "exaggerated".
Genocide allegations
Experts in international law and genocide studies have leveled the accusation of Hamas committing genocide against Israelis. Hamas is alleged to have carried out genocide during its surprise attack on Israel on 7 October 2023. The assault involved Hamas militants raiding communities in southern Israel, resulting in the killing, torturing, and mutilation of men, women, and children. The death toll, predominantly civilians, reached 1,200, while 240 individuals of various ages were reportedly kidnapped and taken to the Gaza Strip. Legal and genocide experts condemned the attack as a severe violation of international law, asserting that Hamas executed these acts with the intent to destroy the Israeli national group. Some commentators draw attention to Hamas' founding charter, which advocates for the destruction of Israel, contains anti-Semitic language, and, according to some researchers, implies a call for the genocide of Jews. This has led to suggestions that the attacks on 7 October were an endeavor to fulfill this agenda.
US criticism The FBI and United States Department of Justice in 2004 stated that Hamas threatened the United States through covert cells on US soil.United States v. Abu Marzook . No. 03 CR 978 12. IL District Ct. 2005.Lake, Eli. "Hamas Agents Lurking in U.S., FBI Warns". New York Sun. 29 April 2004. 10 December 2006.