Strategic Assessment

Immediately following its establishment in December 1987, and only a few days after the outbreak of the first intifada, Hamas adopted jihad – struggle – against Israel as its organizational basis. In its charter of August 1988, the movement declared that “jihad is the way, and death in the name of Allah is its most exalted aspiration.” Nor could there be any mincing of words: participation in jihad for the liberation of Palestine, the organization noted, “is a personal obligation incumbent on every Muslim when an enemy steals any of the lands of the Muslims. Given the Jews’ theft of Palestine, the flag of jihad must be unfurled.”