A reading list to remember Gaza: From politics to legitimacy

As Israel continues its genocide in Gaza under the pretext of eliminating Hamas, the divide between diplomacy and public opinion grows more evident.

Images coming out of Gaza, as well as testimonies from Israelis of the happenings on October 7, as well as the released hostages, paint a different picture of what is disseminated by Israel’s PR which is dedicated to its security narrative.

Several books on Gaza, Hamas, and international investigations into Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians in the enclave have been published in the last decade.

Keeping in mind that Gaza has been ignored unless Israel decides it is time to enter the next visible colonisation step, the following books shed light on the political and humanitarian realities in Gaza and serve as a reminder to make Gaza relevant on its own merit.

A population that largely consists of Palestinian refugees and which is experiencing a highly sophisticated version of the 1948 Nakba is representative of the Palestinian experience. Do not forget Gaza, not in the coming year, and not in the future.  

"Images coming out of Gaza, as well as testimonies from Israelis of the happenings on October 7, as well as the released hostages, paint a different picture of what is disseminated by Israel’s PR which is dedicated to the colonial state’s security narrative"

Sara Roy’s extensive fieldwork in Gaza’s civil society institutions run by Hamas is in stark contrast to the terror narrative endorsed by the US and the EU on behalf of Israel. Hamas and Civil Society in Gaza: Engaging the Islamist Sector (Princeton University Press, 2013) gives a comprehensive overview of how Hamas is structured, and how its legitimacy is derived from the social sphere in Gaza.

Noting that Hamas operates within several distinct and separate entities – one of which is the provision of social services in Gaza – Roy traces the history of the resistance movement and how it positioned itself as an alternative to the PLO particularly after the Oslo Accords.

As the international community blacklisted Hamas and its organisations, the movement gained popularity in Gaza through ideology and community activism. Roy’s research asserts that the separation between military, social and political structures empowered the Palestinian community and that work in the social sector in Gaza did not automatically translate to mobilised support for resistance among Palestinians.

Hamas and the Media: Politics and Strategy (Routledge, 2016) gives a chronological analysis of Hamas’s use of media in the political context of Zionist settler-colonisation and the Palestinian anti-colonial resistance.

Wael Abdelal’s research draws upon counter-hegemony to show the uses of alternative media and how these are used by resistance movements, in this study, Hamas, to counter decades of dissemination of information about Palestine which was historically largely dominated by the British Mandate and later by Israel.

Post Oslo, Hamas’s use of media stood in contrast with that of the PA which promoted state-building as dictated by the international community. Hamas’s use of media, on the other hand, needs to reach both Palestinians and the international community in terms of public opinion.

Israel’s targeting of Gaza’s infrastructure, particularly when Hamas entered politics after winning the 2006 elections, indicates how the use of media is a threat to the hegemonic narrative employed by Israel.

Based on research including interviews, Tristan Dunning’s Hamas, Jihad and Popular Legitimacy (Routledge, 2016) discusses the different facets of Hamas – notably how the movement prioritises education, societal and community welfare, and how the West’s refusal to recognise the legitimacy of Palestinian resistance has been instrumental in the movement being labelled a terror organisation.

Dunning notes that Hamas is not dependent on colonial power, as the Palestinian Authority is indebted to, and that the international narratives of Hamas as a violent entity are dissociated from the colonial context.

The book also discusses how the West refused to acknowledge Hamas’s electoral triumph despite the movement having applied diplomacy and not just resistance tactics. This fact is largely ignored due to the dominating Israeli and Western narratives on Gaza and Hamas.

"A population that largely consists of Palestinian refugees and which is experiencing a highly sophisticated version of the 1948 Nakba is representative of the Palestinian experience. Do not forget Gaza, not in the coming year, and not in the future"

Bjorn Brenner’s Gaza under Hamas: From Islamist Democracy to Islamic Government (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2021) discusses the aftermath of the 2006 elections and discusses the implications of governance on the movement, notably the absence of a transition period from resistance to diplomacy, how Hamas was shackled with impositions for recognition that ran contrary to its principles, as well as dissent from within, particularly the emergence of Salafist groups in Gaza, for which an approach against radicalisation was necessary.

Brenner concludes that while Islamic democracy gradually gave way to authoritarian trends, Hamas proved to be politically adaptable and considerate of democratic frameworks in the challenges it faced in its political leadership.

Another book dealing with the political aspect of Hamas is Catherine Charrett’s The EU, Hamas and the 2006 Palestinian Elections (Routledge, 2020).

Presenting an engaging discussion on how the EU reacted to the 2006 Palestinian elections and Hamas’s success, Charrett’s interview with EU diplomats and senior Hamas representatives illustrates how the EU followed Israeli and US interests in its strategy, which failed in terms of securing the electoral result it wanted for Palestinians.

Consequently, the EU’s conditions for Hamas were shaped by the prevailing terror narrative and forgone conclusions that satisfied that colonial narrative, rather than engaging in open dialogue with Hamas which, for example, was open to diplomatic engagement on the EU’s conditions.

While A History of False Hope: Investigative Commissions in Palestine (Stanford University Press, 2020) gives a historical overview of investigative commissions on Palestine, bringing the historical role of the international community into perspective, Lori Allen’s research commences with the Great Return March of 2018 in Gaza and how inquiries are divested of their political importance when it comes to Palestinians, to suit the humanitarian narrative.

Allen traces the humanitarian paradigm back to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. He shows how throughout the decades, Palestinians focused on international law while liberalism forced the humanitarian agenda upon the colonised Palestinian population. One important point Allen makes is the absence of politics from the Palestinian right of return, rendering it a humanitarian abstract.

Concluding with Norman Finkelstein’s Gaza: An Inquest into its Martyrdom (University of California Press, 2021), remembering the Israeli atrocities Gaza has faced is imperative.

Finkelstein’s introduction clarifies that “what has been done to Gaza” is the premise of his book, after which he traces how human rights organisations became subservient to Israel’s security narrative, thus misrepresenting Gaza even at the height of Israel’s military bombardment, such as the 2008-2009 Operation Cast Lead.

The Goldstone Report, Finkelstein notes, exposed Israel’s human rights violations to the world, while the retraction by Richard Goldstone set Israel’s impunity in fast motion.

Finkelstein employs many referenced details in his research, and the book’s strength lies in exposing each colonial and international lie, to reveal Gaza. A message that is so relevant at a time when Israel is ethnically cleansing Palestinians from Gaza and the international community’s only response to genocide was the cruel endorsement of humanitarian pauses to protect Israel’s genocidal actions.

Ramona Wadi is an independent researcher, freelance journalist, book reviewer and blogger specialising in the struggle for memory in Chile and Palestine, colonial violence and the manipulation of international law

Follow her on Twitter: @walzerscent