Political controversies in Palestinian land have never became outdated. Starting from the immediate aftermath of the First World War, the fate of the country is always unclear, the political atmosphere is foggy and any possible future authority is convenient to be determined by the interests of several parties. Undoubtedly the Israeli conflict is the core reason of the instability of the political authority in the Palestinian land. However, as it is always the case in politics, there are other independent variables which the political stability heavily depends on. To be more specific certain political tendencies in Palestine have always been effective in domestic and also international politics of the country. Both their relations and rivalries with each other and their influence on the conflict situation are worthwhile to be analyzed. So the main focus here is one of the most important of these factions in Palestine; Hamas; the Islamic Resistance Movement. It is more than necessary to give a historical background about the organization and move on with the question whether the organization is just a religious fundamentalist terrorist group making any kind of solution impossible for the occupied territories of the Palestine or it is working in line with possibilities of solutions.

Even before the establishment of the Israel in 1948, there were connections between the Muslim Brotherhood which was founded by Hasan al-Banna in 1928. 1935 was the year that al-Banna sent his brother to Palestine for the purpose of spreading the idea of Muslim Brotherhood. By 1945 there were many members of several branches of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jerusalem and in other Palestinian towns. The occupation of West Bank and Gaza in 1967 made the Brotherhood more concentrated on their core motivation which was creating an Islamic generation. This includes establishment of religious organizations, schools, charity clubs etc. However at the time the restructuring of the society in a religious manner seemed to be little interest of the people. The reason is clear. In an occupied land people's priority was not religion but they were ready to rally around nationalistic motivations which are more convenient for a future remedy of the land from Israeli occupation. PLO with its various factions was more attractive for people who see their survival in the ideology of PLO. On the other hand Hamas was working deeply to cultivate their reason and ideology into the society.

Just a few years later from the first occupation, in 1970, Hamas began to penetrate into the occupied lands by mobilizing thousands of young people into the resistance. Schools, universities, mosques were full of people from two opposing sides. These sides represented the nationalist movement prominently leaded by PLO and the islamist movement represented by Hamas. Truly the occupation of Israel was a great advantage for Hamas in terms of gaining support. PLO was losing its popularity. The Islamic Revolution in Iran gave boost to religious tendencies among the society. People started to hope for a rescue and the support for Muslim Brotherhood increased rapidly. Till the year of the first intifada which broke out from a traffic accident where a number of Palestinians were killed the movement of Hamas was known as the Muslim Brotherhood. The decision of joining intifada and the uprisings against the occupation became verbalized in meetings of Muslim Brotherhood, thus Hamas was formed in 1988. However for the reason that there might be problems about legalizing the activities, Hamas was pronounced as a wing of the Muslim Brotherhood. This was partly because of the reservations from Israeli pressure and partly because that the Muslim Brotherhood thought that it was not the actual time for Jihad.

The charter of Hamas states; "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine has been an Islamic Warf throughout the generations and until the Day of Resurrection, no one can renounce it or part of it, or abandon it or part of it." (Article 11) Also the charter talks about "Jihad" very precisely and sees it as the only solution. (Article 15) So the peace negotiations were waste of time and they do not reflect the true situation. In line with the aim of Jihad, Hamas was to transform the Palestinian society in a way which people do not have any doubts about the necessity of Jihad and accept the religious unity as a core principle of their survival in the occupied lands. Even if the charter defines PLO as brother and friend it also criticized the secular approach of PLO. Just like the factions of PLO, Hamas has got a political and a military wing. The difference mostly lies in the success of Hamas to build social networks in the society. These include schools, hospitals, charity organizations and various other establishments which made people committed to the motivations and the aims of the organization. By this approach Hamas made its place safe in the struggle starting from the first entrance of the Muslim Brotherhood to Palestinian land.

Two separate wings of Hamas, with no doubt, feed each other. The political wing and the armed wing support each other's claims. However there is more than this basic assumption. There is nearly no difference between armed activity and political activity for the organization considering the fact that religion and the concept of Jihad are the main motivations. Being aware of the fact that the organization is accepted as a terrorist organization which does not help the peace process at all, moreover threatens the future solutions' possibility it is still not easy to label and list Hamas as a terrorist one. This is the easiest way of dealing with the exact problem. Despite the fact that there is a big problem of definition about what it takes to be a terrorist organization, the basic and mostly accepted character of terrorist organizations is their will to attract the enemy to their grand purpose. The armed activity is not accepted as the main tool to reach the aim, but it is the most important tool to make the others be aware. As stated above Hamas' charter states the term Jihad very clearly and the meaning of the term is also very clear as it is one of the components of the Holy Quran. The very existence of the Muslim people is threatened in holy lands, so fighting back is the one and only solution for Hamas without accepting any other reconciliation. It also cannot be denied that Hamas gained popularity with the demise of PLO as the main representation of Palestinian people. Forty years of occupation is enough to make people hopeless and search for their survival everywhere that they can. Also Israel's "holy" legitimacy to occupy Palestinian land could be a motivator for people to start believing in their case "religiously". The success of Hamas in the previous elections, taking more than half of the seats in PA explains a lot about the situation. It is undeniable that the emergence, existence and persistence of Hamas did some harm for a possibility of peaceful settlement of the dispute both by causing ideological differences among the Palestinian people and making social unity harder than it was. Also the fundamentalist approach of the organization gave ammunition to Israeli authorities and the international actors who support Israel. Especially after 9/11 the fear among the international society about the global jihad made Hamas the black sheep. It is not of our faculty to decide whether Hamas is a terrorist organization or not, however even though the fundamentalist approach of Hamas is a reality, there is also much that they have done for the survival of people in the occupied lands. The situation in Palestine is not of a state legacy which one can label an action as a terrorist one easily. One might question the case by thinking a case where Hamas has not ever existed. Would the conflict be resolved smoothly or everything would be the same and even worse?