In Palestinian Power Struggle, Hamas Moderates Talk on Israel

Members of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, in the Gaza Strip last 
year. 

JERUSALEM — Hamas, the militant group built around violent resistance to Israel, sought on Monday to present a more moderate public face, taking its next shot in an intensifying struggle for leadership of the Palestinian cause and international recognition.

Released by Hamas just days before its chief rival, the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, was to meet President Trump, a new document of principles for the group calls for closer ties to Egypt, waters down the anti-Semitic language from its charter, and accepts at least a provisional Palestinian state — though it still does not formally recognize Israel.

With its statement, Hamas is trying to offer a more mainstream-friendly version of its vision for the Palestinian cause, and to gain ground against Mr. Abbas, whose influence is growing more tenuous.

Mr. Abbas is 82 years old, and his rivals within his own Fatah movement are increasingly open about the struggle to succeed him. Seeking to regain the initiative, he has recently waged a crackdown on Hamas, cutting salaries due to them from the Palestinian Authority and refusing to pay for electricity in the militant group’s power base in Gaza.

The split between the two groups — Fatah in the West Bank, Hamas in Gaza — has stood as one of the major obstacles in the peace process with Israel: Who, the Israelis ask, is their partner if the Palestinians are so deeply divided? That division has also been convenient for, and encouraged by, those on the Israeli right who do not want a peace deal.

But the Hamas document, which has been leaking for weeks, is less a change in Hamas’s fundamental beliefs than a challenge for the credibility of Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, as well as internationally.

“Whether it’s a coincidence or it’s connected, I have one thing to say: The Palestinian leadership is afraid of this Hamas moderation,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al-Azhar University-Gaza. “Because the P.A. and Fatah are afraid that by this moderation, Hamas presents itself as the true representation of the Palestinian people,” he said, referring to the Palestinian Authority.

The official release came at a telling time and place: Hamas officials, normally secretive, held several events on Monday in Doha, the capital of Qatar, an American ally that would play a crucial role in a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, which Mr. Trump is pushing.

Mr. Abbas was scheduled to meet with Mr. Trump in Washington on Wednesday as the sole representative of the Palestinian people.

Experts on all sides of the complex struggle here say the new document is unlikely to represent any profound change in Hamas’s true position toward Israel. The group recently chose a hard-liner, Yehya Sinwar, as its new leader in Gaza, and it has still in no way recognized Israel or renounced violence.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel quickly denounced the move. “Hamas’s document is a smoke screen,” he said in a statement. “We see Hamas continuing to invest all of its resources not just in preparing for war with Israel, but also in educating the children of Gaza to want to destroy Israel.”

Hamas is still considered a terrorist group by much of the West, including the United States, a status that has led to its exclusion from wider international talks about the Palestinians’ future.

Fawzi Barhoum, a Hamas spokesman in Gaza, said the group had to move beyond its original charter to achieve its goals. “The document gives us a chance to connect with the outside world,” he said. “To the world, our message is: Hamas is not radical. We are a pragmatic and civilized movement. We do not hate the Jews. We only fight who occupies our lands and kills our people.”

The document is a distillation of various public statements over the years signaling an attempt by Hamas to appear more pragmatic since it seized broad control of Gaza in 2007, after winning parliamentary elections a year earlier. Four years in the drafting, the document represents the consensus of Hamas’s top leadership.

The paper calls for Hamas to distance itself from the Muslim Brotherhood in an effort to build stronger ties with Egypt, which controls the Gaza Strip’s southern border. It reiterates the Hamas leadership’s view that it is open to a Palestinian state along the borders established after the 1967 war, though it does not renounce future claims to Palestinian rule over what is now Israel. And the group specifically weakened language from its 1988 charter proclaiming Jews as enemies and comparing their views to Nazism, though the new document does not replace the original charter.

“Hamas does not wage a struggle against the Jews because they are Jewish, but wages a struggle against the Zionists who occupy Palestine,” the new document states.

Mr. Abbas is increasingly unpopular at home, though he is the recognized conduit to the wider world, and the race for succession is clearly heating up. And while the well-trained Palestinian Authority security forces have kept a tight check on Hamas in the West Bank, Fatah always fears support or action waiting in the wings.

In Fatah, Marwan Barghouti, a popular figure among Palestinians who is serving five life sentences for murders in the second intifada, is leading a hunger strike in Israeli jails, now two weeks old, that some experts say is aimed at raising his credibility as a leader.

Mr. Trump has expressed a desire for a peace process that brings in Sunni Arab nations aligned against Shiite Iran, itself allied with Hamas, even as Hamas seeks to become closer to those same Sunni nations.

“The P.A. and Hamas compete to get embraced by Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Arab states, but it seems the Arab embrace is not enough for two women,” said Fayez Abu Shamala, a Palestinian writer and political analyst close to Hamas.

The new document, however, reveals a greater pragmatism and willingness to engage with the outside world, he said. “Hamas will be an influential political body in the next phase.”

In Israel, which has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008, the document was greeted with skepticism.

“Not even one mind” will be changed in Israel, said Yossi Kuperwasser, a retired Israeli brigadier general who led the army’s research arm. “Nobody will be affected by this.”

Mr. Kuperwasser called it a “sugarcoating” of old positions that did not renounce Hamas’s original charter and did not recognize Israel’s right to exist. He did say, however, that it could be problematic for Mr. Abbas because the Palestinian Authority and Hamas platforms appear to be growing closer.

In the document, Hamas reiterates that Palestinians who fled or were expelled during wars with Israelis have the right to return — largely a nonstarter in successive peace negotiations with Israel. And it does not renounce violence; “resistance” continues to be a main source of strength and credibility.

“Hamas rejects any attempt to undermine the resistance and its arms. It also affirms the right of our people to develop the means and mechanisms of resistance,” the document says. “Hamas confirms that the resistance leadership can decide the level of resistance and can utilize a variety of the different tools and ways to administrate the conflict, without compromising the resistance.”

In distancing itself from the Muslim Brotherhood, analysts said, Hamas was likely to improve its often-strained relationship with Egypt, even if it was unlikely to open the border between Egypt and Gaza for trade.

“It’s a huge step for Hamas, but I think they should temper their expectations about the reaction from the Egyptians,” said Abdelrahman Ayyash, a researcher on Islamist movements who is based in Istanbul.

Under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Egypt frequently accuses Hamas of aiding Islamist militants in attacks against Egyptian security forces in Sinai and Egypt’s main cities. Egyptian security officials and pro-government news outlets accuse Hamas, often without proof, of providing militants with training and guns.

At the same time, Egyptian intelligence has quietly renewed its relationship with Hamas in recent years, in an effort to secure Sinai and to bolster Egypt’s role as a mediator in the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Before Mr. Abbas’s visit to Washington, the Egyptians are keen to establish their role as potential peacemakers. After a meeting between Mr. Sisi and Mr. Abbas in Cairo on Saturday, the Egyptian president’s office issued a statement that noted Egypt’s “pivotal role” and urged Palestinian unity as “essential to put an end to the plight of the Palestinian people.”

Majd Al Waheidi contributed reporting from Gaza, and Declan Walsh from Cairo.