MIDDLE EAST:While the West vilifies Hamas as a terrorist organisation, it has gained immense credibility with Palestinians, writes Nuala Haughey.
In a West Bank wedding hall bedecked with chandeliers and plastic flower sprays, members of the Fatah faithful gathered yesterday for a morale-boosting rally ahead of this month's Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Rousing revolutionary songs blasted from an ear-piercing public address system, and the 500-strong crowd in the village of Turmus Ayya north of Ramallah erupted in cheers when seven parliamentary hopefuls took to the stage, introduced as the "Knights of Fatah".
Speaker after speaker praised the "martyrs" who have died resisting Israeli occupation and pledged to continue the national struggle for Palestinian statehood. "These elections are like a referendum for our movement to see if it's going to continue leading our people," local candidate Muhammed Lutfi told the mostly male audience.
"I'm telling you, Fatah is qualified to do this and we must unite so that Fatah can succeed. We need to create the right atmosphere."
With polling for the 132-seat Palestinian Legislative Council due in less than two weeks, the secular nationalist movement needs all the help it can get if it is to see off formidable opposition from the radical Islamist organisation Hamas.
Hamas is competing for the first time in the second-ever Palestinian national elections, after boycotting the poll 10 years ago due to its opposition to the 1993 Oslo Accords which created the Palestinian Authority as a quasi-government with incomplete powers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Campaigning under the slogan "Change and Reform", Hamas is expected to emerge as the second-largest party after Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah, with polls giving it more than a third of the popular vote.
While Israel, the US and Europe vilify Hamas as a terrorist organisation, it has gained immense credibility with Palestinians for its clean image, efficiency, impressive charitable works and armed resistance.
Fatah, which has dominated Palestinian politics and institutions for decades, faces the public badly weakened by its reputation for corruption and mismanagement, endemic internal divisions and failure to contain growing criminality and anarchy which could yet derail the ballot scheduled for January 25th.
"In normal times Hamas wouldn't have more than 15 per cent of the vote, but now it has a historic opportunity to win, mainly because of the corruption of Fatah," says Eyad Sarraj, a Gaza psychiatrist and independent parliamentary candidate.
Hamas's transition, from a military organisation sending suicide bombers to blow up Israeli citizens to a key player in the Palestinian political order, began with its decision last year to contest municipal elections, where it made sweeping gains in major West Bank cities like Nablus and Jenin, as well as in its Gaza base.
The fundamentalist movement has even dropped its notorious call for the destruction of Israel from its election manifesto published this week.
This was seen by analysts as a bid to both broaden its appeal to voters and ease international pressure for it to recognise Israel and end violence if it wants to be accepted as a legitimate political player.
Analysts say it is conceivable that the deeply pragmatic organisation would one day even be prepared to take the radical step of holding negotiations with Israel, which is described in its 1988 charter as the "Zionist enemy".
However, the Jewish state has made it clear that as long as Hamas remains armed and does not renounce violence, it will find no talks partner.
Hamas members stress that the organisation has not given up the bomb for the ballot box, but is merely currently focusing on creating much-needed internal stability within Palestinian society.
"Hamas's philosophy has not changed at all. We have our constants that we will not relinquish even if our popularity retreats," insists Mohammed Abu Teir (40), a prominent Hamas parliamentary candidate and former Jerusalem imam.
"We are not entering the parliament with arms," adds Ahmed Atoun (38) who is running for the party in occupied East Jerusalem, where Israel has banned it from campaigning.
"We are entering for reform and change and what concerns us the most is the benefit of the people . . . For us, being part of political life is part of the resistance, so we are going to work in the interests of the people, which is going to be decided at the ballot box."
Some commentators argue that an elected Hamas will change Palestinian politics, as well as being changed by them.
"If there is a stronger opposition in parliament we will have a more powerful parliament which will be able to exercise its mandate and authority," says Dr Ziad Abu Amr, an independent member in Gaza and a long-time advocate of reform and democratisation in the Palestinian Authority."