A young Palestinian boy holds a Koran and toy gun during a rally marking the 23rd anniversary of the group's founding in Gaza City, Tuesday, Dec. 14, 2010. Tens of thousands of Hamas supporters flocked to Gaza City Tuesday for a mass rally to boost support for the militant group on its anniversary. The rally seeks to boost support for Hamas, often torn between its roots as a militant group seeking to destroy Israel and a local government responsible for providing services to 1.5 million Gazans.Heidi Levine
An Israeli fighter jet drew vapour-trail circles in the sky over the centre of Gaza City Tuesday, mocking Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh as he told a crowd of more than 200,000 supporters that the militant Islamic movement remained committed to the destruction of Israel.
"We said it five years ago and we say it now … we will never, we will never, we will never recognize Israel," Mr. Haniyeh shouted as he and the party faithful celebrated the 23rd anniversary of the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.
Two weeks ago, however, it appeared to be a somewhat different story. Then, Mr. Haniyeh told a group of reporters that Hamas would actually respect any peace deal reached between Israel and the Western-backed Palestinian Authority of Mahmoud Abbas, provided it is approved in a global Palestinian referendum.
He explained that his Hamas government remains committed to the referendum idea that was part of a short-lived Palestinian unity deal reached in 2007, a few months before the violent Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip.
Mr. Haniyeh also said on Dec. 1 that "we don't have a problem with establishing a viable Palestinian state with full sovereignty on the land that was occupied in 1967."
Mr. Haniyeh's remarks had infuriated several leading figures in Hamas, including Mahmoud Zahar, one of the most powerful leaders in the organization, who announced that no referendum would be permitted if it were held in regard to "the holy places, faith, money, land or personal worth."
The openly serious rift within the movement almost certainly compelled Mr. Haniyeh to toughen his remarks to the crowd Tuesday.
Whereas some had speculated earlier this month that Hamas might finally revise its 1988 covenant that calls for Israel's "obliteration," Mr. Haniyeh put that notion to rest.
"We remain committed to the covenant," he stated throughout his remarks, the whole covenant. Indeed, Tuesday's anniversary celebrations were under the slogan: "Remaining committed to the covenant."
And while most Hamas leaders now say they do support the idea of establishing a viable Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, along with a 10- or 20-year truce with Israel, they make it clear that such an arrangement would entail "no recognition of Israel and no concessions over any part of the land of Palestine."
Mr. Haniyeh's view of Palestine is that it extends "from the [Mediterranean]Sea to the [Jordan]River," he reassured his followers Tuesday.
While Mr. Haniyeh and his fellow Hamas leaders can take some comfort in the large and supportive rally, all the green flags and posters of Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin can't conceal the fact that Gazans have lost some of their enthusiasm for the militant movement.
Whereas Hamas received more than 60 per cent of the vote in Gaza in the January, 2006, Palestinian elections, most political analysts and observers here say they would be surprised if Hamas were to receive more than 30 per cent of any vote today.
Why the big drop?
People here say the biggest reason is the fact that life for most Gazans has not improved much, if at all. "A big disappointment," is how one man summed up his and many others' view of Hamas.
A large number of the people who have turned away from Hamas cite as a second reason the fact that the militant movement didn't put up much of a fight in Israel's 22-day war on Gaza in December, 2008, and January, 2009. That war saw 1,300 Gazans killed, many of them civilians, including women and children, while only 13 Israeli troops perished, and several of them were killed by their own forces' "friendly fire."
There also has built up a small backlash against Hamas's sometimes heavy-handed imposition of morality laws. In recent days, these have included a prohibition on women smoking water pipes in public, a separation of male and female swimmers on the beach and the removal of lingerie from storefront windows.
It also is the case that, in 2006, people were voting against a government they no longer liked, the PLO, which was believed to be highly corrupt.
This time around, Hamas is the ruling party and, while not seen as corrupt, the people are taking out their frustrations on the party of the day.
The flip side of that, however, is that while Hamas may be bleeding popular support in Gaza, it is reportedly gaining it in the West Bank, still governed by Mr. Abbas's PLO-led Palestinian Authority.