De Fabel van de illegaal 64, May/June 2004
Authors: Eric Krebbers and Roel Nagel
IS and AEL organize remembrance of religious fascist Yassin
On March 27, 2004, the Internationale Socialisten (IS, colleagues of the British SWP) and the Arab-nationalist organization AEL together organized a remembrance manifestation for the Palestinian sheikh Ahmed Yassin on the Dam in Amsterdam. The founder and ideologue of the Muslim fundamentalist organization Hamas was liquidated 5 days before by the Israeli army.
"Just like sheikh Ahmed Yassin is a hero to us, all Hamas fighters are heroes to us", AEL chairman Nabil Marmouch said to the crowd of some 100 people attending. "And not only Hamas! There are more people and organizations struggling in that area, Al-Aqsa, Hamas, Jihad, Hizbollah and more, and also in Iraq. This resistance we also have to support!" And for those who consider the blowing up of random citizens a fascist strategy, Marmouch added: "Who really supports the resistance, supports all of the resistance and not just a part of it." According to him "our brothers and sisters in Palestine" will decide for themselves "how to resist", and "the Palestine people" is not interested in "paternalism from the Netherlands".
Mujama
Nationalists always deny the sharp conflicts which exist within all so called "peoples", and so did Marmouch when talking about "our brothers and sisters in Palestine". Since 1980 the Mujama al-Islami, Hamas' precursor and also lead by Yassin, has violently established itself in the Gaza strip. Restaurants, cafes, cinemas, alcohol shops and libraries were burned down or forced to close. Palestinian men and women were beaten and sometimes even killed when dressed "unislamic". Especially targeted were the Left and nationalists, who were then still at the core of the Palestinian liberation movement.
After the start of the Intifada in 1987 Yassin - "an example for many of us", according to the AEL - and his followers rebuilt Mujama into Hamas. Between 1987 and 1993 these religious fascists, according to moderate estimates, murdered 942 Palestinians, more than the Israeli occupation forces killed in the same period.(1) To left and feminist Palestinians the Hamas is an occupation force in its own right. Like all other "peoples" AEL's so called "Palestinian people" is not a unity, and can there for not choose as "a people" "how to resist", whatever Marmouch thinks. In reality, those who support "a people", only support the powerful and not the resistance from below by workers and women.
Coalition
"Resistance against the occupation is legitimate and deserves all possible support from the Netherlands", Miriyam Aouragh of the IS said. In her speech she pleaded for "a broad coalition of immigrants, autochthones, women, men, Muslims, Christians and socialists". Jews were not invited. The socialist did not mention the fascist ideology and methods of Hamas. The charter in which Yassin explained the ideology of Hamas can, however, easily be found on the internet.(2)
The central issue in the charter is "the struggle against the Jews", which will go on, according to Hamas, "until the Jews will hide behind rocks and trees, which will call: O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him!" Israel will only exist "until the Islam eliminates it", Yassin wrote. And according to him "the Jews" were behind the French, the communist and all other revolutions. Even more so, "no war ever started anywhere without their fingerprints on it", is says in the charter. The anti-Semite fantasy "The protocols of the elders of Zion" would prove the existence of a worldwide Jewish conspiracy. "The Jews" would even be behind feminism, which lures Muslim women away from their real duties: housekeeping and baring and raising Muslim children.
Anti-fascism
In some Leftwing circles people seem to have difficulties dealing with the Hamas charter. On the Indymedia.nl website, for instance, several AEL and IS texts on the remembrance were allowed, but because of still unclear reasons links to Yassins charter were removed. Maybe it was considered not done to confront activists with the reality of Yassins fascist ideology.
To Ed Hollants of the Amsterdam based action group Autonoom Centrum the anti-fascist struggle against Hamas is something of the past, and talks have to start with the religious fascists. In reaction to the liquidation he wrote: "In the last decade Hamas has developed into one of the most important political organizations of the Palestinians. Even if you are against their ideology and methods, you still cannot deny this fact. It is therefore unthinkable that there can be a solution in the Israeli Palestinian conflict without Hamas being a part of it."(3) But how can fascists be a part of any solution? How can there be peace when the Left, feminists and Jews are remain being attacked? Furthermore, Hollants called the murder of Yassin "an attack on Islam". Like many opinion makers from the Right he seems to think the whole of Islam is fundamentalist.
Land Day
The protest on the Dam was originally organized as part of the Land Day. That is a yearly protest against the outrageous Israeli politics of confiscation of Palestinian held lands. After the liquidation the AEL decided to make the protest into a Yassin remembrance. For that reason the Dutch Palestine Committee decided to quit and organize their own separate small manifestation behind the palace on the Dam. The speeches on the remembrance would not do their struggle for Palestine much good, they knew.
In some extreme Right circles the liquidation was also followed by furious reactions. "With this "Israel" has opened the gates of hell, and Hamas revenge will be sweet!", warned the "Werewolf Netherlands" website of neo-Nazi party NVU member Eite Homan. Werewolf enthusiastically mentioned a neo-Nazi protest demonstration in Germany against "the bloodthirsty Jews" who have murdered Yassin. Werewolf will probably be very happy with new Hamas leader Aziz al-Rantisi. For he talks about "the myth of the gas chambers" and calls upon revisionists like Garaudy and Irving. He also says that national socialism was a conspiracy of "Zionist banks".(4) According to Rantisi there are "no innocent Israelis" and they may therefore all be blown to pieces. Recently the government of war criminal Sharon has decided to eliminate the entire Hamas leadership. The 'ordinary' men and women in Israel, Palestine and the occupied territories do not have a great future to forward to.
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