Mennonite
Central
Committee

MCC Focus in Middle East Unchanged by Hamas Victory

Carol Thiessen, freelance writer
February 6, 2006

The election of the Hamas militant group in Palestine is not expected to have any impact on the work of MCC in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Alain Epp Weaver, who heads up MCC's work in Palestine, Jordan and Iraq, says it is unlikely that MCC staff and their partner organizations will face greater restrictions under the new government. Nor will the focus of MCC's work change.

Hamas election victory

Hamas won 76 of 132 seats in the Palestinian government in the January 25 election, replacing the Fatah party, which had long dominated Palestinian politics. Since the election, North American media have focused on Hamas's links to violence, its refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the state of Israel, and its potential to introduce stricter Islamic laws to Palestine.

But in an email interview from Amman, Jordan, Epp Weaver points out that it is the long-standing policies of Israel that will continue to harm MCC partners, not the emergence of a new governing party in Palestine.

"For months prior to the election Israel had instituted a policy that basically prevented travel for most Palestinians between the north and the south of the West Bank," he writes, adding that Israel will simply continue ratcheting up the barriers to travel between isolated West Bank areas. "This was going ahead regardless of who won the election."

Epp Weaver is also skeptical about fears in some quarters that Hamas will introduce strict Islamic laws. "At present, MCC's Christian partners are not terribly concerned about increased restrictions," he writes.

While Hamas won a clear majority of seats in government, its percentage of the popular vote — at 46 percent — was not an emphatic endorsement. According to Epp Weaver, Hamas recognizes that the victory is primarily about "the public's disgust with Fatah corruption and disorder and with the fact that the years of the Oslo process have brought nothing but greater ghettoization." The election had little or nothing to do with any vision of an Islamicized public sphere.

International Isolation

And while Palestinians are concerned about international isolation, this is not a new worry. They have long been isolated. "Israel has been treating the Palestinian Authority as a 'non-partner' for many years now. Now Hamas will be the 'non-partner' instead of Fatah," Epp Weaver writes.

Pursuing Justice and Peace

MCC's work in Palestine will continue to focus on two main areas: supporting the witness of local Palestinian churches, and working with Palestinian and Israeli groups pursuing justice and peace. Even if international funding to the Palestinian Authority dried up, and relief supplies were needed, MCC would plan to purchase the needed items locally. For now, though, MCC partners carry on striving for a just peace in Palestine/Israel, despite all obstacles of occupation and violence.