How Israel went from helping 'create' Hamas to bombing it
Hamas has roots watered by Israeli funding, former military governor of Gaza admits
Hamas would not exist in its current form without Israeli involvement, highlights a recent piece published by The Intercept.
The article by Mehdi Hasan, a British-American broadcaster and Dina Sayedahmed, a multimedia journalist based in New York suggests that Hamas, an acronym for the "Islamic Resistance Movement," creation was largely influenced by resources provided by Israel.
"This isn't a conspiracy theory," the Intercept article reads.
The article refers to comments from Israeli officials, such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, a former military governor in Gaza.
Segev reportedly stated his part in financially aiding the Palestinian Islamist movement, viewing it as a "counterweight" to the secularist Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as "a creature of Israel.")
"The Israeli government gave me a budget," Segev confessed to a New York Times reporter, "and the military government gives to the mosques."
In a startling revelation, Avner Cohen, a former Israeli official who worked in religious affairs in Gaza for over twenty years, told the Wall Street Journal, "Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel's creation."
According to The Intercept article, during the mid-1980s, Cohen even wrote an official report to his superiors warning them not to play divide-and-rule in the Occupied Territories, by backing Palestinian Islamists against Palestinian secularists.
"I … suggest focusing our efforts on finding ways to break up this monster before this reality jumps in our face," he wrote.
Over the past decade -during 2009, 2012, and 2014- Israel has engaged in military conflict with Hamas at least three times, resulting in about 2,500 Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza.
Hamas has been accused of killing more Israeli civilians than any secular Palestinian fighter group, mentions the article.
Reflecting on the chain of events, David Hacham, a former Arab affairs expert in the Israeli military based in Gaza, admitted, "When I look back, I think we made a mistake."
