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Gaza Under Hamas

From Islamic Democracy to Islamist Governance

By (author) Bjorn Brenner
Introduction by Magnus Ranstorp
Format: Hardback
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC, United Kingdom
Imprint: I.B. Tauris
Published: 22nd Dec 2016
Dimensions: w 137mm h 220mm d 19mm
Weight: 470g
ISBN-10: 1784537772
ISBN-13: 9781784537777
Barcode No: 9781784537777
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Synopsis
Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by Israel, the EU, the USA and the UN. It has made itself notorious for its violent radicalism and uncompromising rejection of the Jewish state. So after its victory in the 2006 elections the world was watching. How would Hamas govern? Could an Islamist group without any experience of power - and with an unwavering ideology - manage to deal with day-to-day realities on the ground? Bjorn Brenner investigates what happened after the elections and puts the spotlight on the people over whom Hamas rules, rather than on its ideas. Lodging with Palestinian families and experiencing their daily encounters with Hamas, he offers an intimate perspective of the group as seen through local eyes. The book is based on hard-to-secure interviews with a wide range of key political and security figures in the Hamas administration, as well as with military commanders and members of the feared Qassam Brigades. Brenner has also sought out those that Hamas identifies as local trouble makers: the extreme Salafi-Jihadis and members of the now more quiescent mainstream Fatah party led by Mahmoud Abbas. The book provides a new interpretation of one of the most powerful forces in the Israel-Palestine arena, arguing that the Gazan Islamists carry a potential to be much more flexible and pragmatic than anticipated - if they would think they stand to gain from it. Gaza under Hamas investigates the key challenges to Hamas's authority and reveals why and in what ways ideology comes second to power consolidation.

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Against heaps of reductionist literature and media portrayals that render Hamas as an extremist terrorist group, Bjorn Brenner provides in this book an authoritative and empirical study that debunks such Western, and mainly official, depictions of the movements. Disintersted in either vilifying or glorifying Hamas, this finely structured book is based on four years of direct field research, firsthand observations, and data collection. * Journal of Palestine Studies * What makes Brenner's account especially valuable is its focus on how Hamas has managed to create a functioning government in Gaza - a subject that is little known - as opposed to Hamas's behavior towards Israel, which the author explains is not discussed in this book as it has been extensively studied by others [...] This book is recommended for providing other insights into the nature of its [Hamas's] rule which, due to the author's access to Hamas leaders and operatives, will not be found in other studies. * Perspectives on Terrorism * A useful contribution to the study of Hamas's exercise of state power. * The Times Literary Supplement * For academic researchers, policy makers, NGOs and broader civil society members interested in Islamist experiences and practices of governance this is a must read. The book not only helps address many misconceived notions about the challenges which Hamas has faced since it was elected in 2006 but it also assists readers in nuancing the particular context in which such a case of Islamist governance actually operates. * Michelle Pace, Professor of Politics and International Studies, Department of Social Sciences and Business, Roskilde University; Honorary Professor, University of Birmingham * This is one of the rare books about Hamas that manages to be both balanced and insightful. Based on a broad range of primary sources, this in-depth study of Gaza under Hamas rule provides as full and comprehensive a picture as possible. A must-read for scholars, students, and diplomats alike! * Peter Neumann, Professor of Security Studies at the War Studies Department, King's College London; Director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation * Bjoern Brenner has contributed invaluable research through his book "Gaza under Hamas: from Islamist democracy to Islamist governance" (2017). Apart from establishing the centrality of Hamas rule to a political solution for Palestine, the book also expounds upon the spectrum of misconceptions, strengths and flaws associated with the movement. This approach provides a detailed assessment of Hamas in relation to Gaza and its unique circumstances, while dispelling mainstream manipulation, to which, as Brenner points out, academia has also contributed. * Israel Book Review * Constitutes a significant contribution to the Hamas-related literature. It departs from the conventional discussion about the group's role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and treats Hamas as an instance of Islamic governance. Moreover, the book is written in a way that renders it useful to both the specialized and the general readership. It contains information that helps one reconstruct the conditions leading to the status quo in the Gaza Strip and also provides the full picture, including the background and aftermath, of incidents that made headlines but soon fell into oblivion. * Middle East Policy *