Hamas’s media strategy: the context of the pairing of governance and resistance ‘Hokoumat Moqawama’

Introduction This chapter will discuss Hamas’s media strategy in the context of the Hamas government combination of ‘governance and resistance’ after its victory in the Palestinian elections in January 2006. The chapter contextualises the Hamas victory, the formation of the tenth Palestinian government, and the taking over of the Gaza Strip. In this chapter, I will argue that this period of study witnessed a milestone in the evolution of Hamas’s media infrastructure, leading to what has been called a ‘media empire’. In this regard, this chapter seeks to examine the context of the creation of Alaqsa satellite TV, which, I argue, was the voice of Hamas, not only to the Palestinians, but also to the Arab and Islamic world. To this end, the chapter will examine the expansion in the circles of the target audiences, from local to regional, to reach the largest number of the Arab and Muslim audiences. As will be seen in this chapter, the Hamas government has used Alaqsa satellite TV as an alternative, as the new programming season after Hamas’s victory was designed in order to support the Hamas government’s platform. The term, ‘the government of resistance’ and the topics which are related to this idea will also be critically assessed within the discussion of the media objectives and the media message. This chapter discusses emerging aspects of Hamas’s media strategy after the war on Gaza, such as the psychological warfare that Hamas practised before, during and after this war. This will include discussion of the role of the ‘independent’ media that support the Hamas trends, and how this embodies the idea of integration and exchange of roles and responsibilities between the media institutions belonging to Hamas as among the most important elements of the Hamas media strategy. This chapter also investigates Hamas’s utilisation of the new media and telecommunication technologies as new tools of Hamas’s media. I argue that Hamas has systematically used new media telecommunications technology as an important supplement to the Hamas media empire.