ABSTRACT
The roots of Hamas–Fatah conflict lay in the fundamental ideological differences between the two Palestinian factions. While both are struggling for Palestinian statehood, they widely vary over the nature of the future Palestinian state. As part of the Islamic fundamentalism sweeping across the Muslim world in the 1980s, Hamas aims at creating an Islamic state in Palestine. As a product of the era of secular nationalism in the 1960s, Fatah stands for secular democratic state in Palestine. Its ideological position is predicated on the belief that the Palestinian people are part of the Arab Nation, and their struggle is part of its struggle though the Palestinian people have an independent identity. In contrast, Hamas considers nationalism as an element of religious belief and the land of Palestine as an “Islamic trust” for future Muslim generations till the day of Judgement. Because the problem of Palestine is a religious problem, it defies “political settlement” implicit in which is its rejection of the Fatah’s pursuit of a negotiated settlement with Israel. It is, instead, the “sacred duty” of all Muslims to fight in defense of the Palestinian land. In other words, ‘Islam is the solution; is the bedrock theme for Hamas, which justifies both its moral agenda of founding of ‘Islamic personality’ as well as its call for the spread of the spirit of Jihad for liberating Palestine. What have thus sustained the intra-Palestinian contest for political ascendancy are the apparently irreconcilable ideological positions and their divergent vision of future Palestinian state. Broadly, this chapter examines the basic ideological differences between the two rival Palestinian factions and then explains the extent to which they have contributed to the flare up of political hostility.
