Profile
Ismaël Haniyeh
Hamas's success at the January 2006 parliamentary elections brought its members, whose identity was until then unknown, to the fore of the international political scene. The identity of the Hamas leader had been kept secret since the 2004 Israeli raids that had killed Cheikh Ahmad Yassine, and later on his successor Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi. Ismail Haniyeh was born in 1962 in the al-Shati refugee camp and became a Hamas sympathiser as soon as it came to existence. That was in 1987, during the first Intifada, and Haniyeh paid the price for being a militant by spending three years in jail, from 1989 to 1992, and being deported to the infamous Marj al-Zuhur camp in southern Lebanon for one year – alongside Rantissi and Mahmoud al-Zahar, other Hamas members. Upon his return to the Palestinian territories he was appointed head of Gaza's Islamic university, where he had obtained a diploma in Arabic Letters. He became personal assistant to Cheikh Yassine, the founder of Hamas, who had been released from jail in 1997.
Haniyeh was head of the Hamas list at last January's elections, and he is often considered to be a moderate islamist and a potential Prime Minister. He used to represent Hamas at the Palestinian Authority and asked for the creation of a coalition government immediately after his group's victory. However, in view of the requests emanating from the Palestinian presidency as well as from the international community concerning the cessation of violent actions, and more importantly the recognition of the state of Israel, but also the following of the path shown by motions for peace, Hamas might see its identity differ from what its 1988 Chart states. Indeed in the text, compromise is not possible. Thus the fragmented Hamas leadership will be put to a tough test in its pursuit of a unitary goal. Their pragmatic talk and political actions will clash with their radical ideology and the pressing need to acknowledge the Palestinian population's daily needs, for it is they who support the movement.
Ismail Haniyeh's main challenge in setting up a new government will be not to let talks with Fatah, the Palestinian Authority's principal ally, and the "Quartet" (as Israel won't negotiate) go wrong if he doesn't want to end up in a dead-end. Moreover the democratic victory of Hamas confirms the radical nature of the movement. For this matter Haniyeh has firmly condemned what he calls western "economic blackmail". He has nevertheless stated that the emergency financial help will be exclusively used to help cover the people's needs.
--Hasni Abidi, Director of Cermam
Chiara Sulmoni, Research Assistant
Translated into English by Marguerite Cornu, Research Assistant Trainee
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- Origin CERMAM
- http://www.cermam.org/en/logs/portrait/ismaeel_haniyeh/
- Publié le 26 May 2006