Ismail Haniyeh has been elected as expected to head the Hamas political bureau and thus become the supreme leader of the movement. Haniyeh defeated Mousa Abu Marzouk, one of the founders of the political bureau in the US state of Virginia. He headed the bureau until his arrest in July 1995 by the US immigration authorities, following an Israeli request for his extradition. Abu Marzouk had hoped to return to the top of Hamas’ political leadership, but on May 6, Haniyeh received a majority of the votes from the members of the movement’s supreme body, the Shura Council.
Haniyeh’s election represents closure for Hamas on two levels. Outgoing leader Khaled Meshaal had lived in Syria and then Qatar. Now, with the Meshaal era over, the movement’s leadership is returning to the Gaza Strip. In addition, the site on which the movement was founded by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the Shati refugee camp, is where Haniyeh was born.
There were those in Israel’s security system who used to belittle Haniyeh and call him by the nickname “the caretaker.” This is because Haniyeh, as head of Yassin’s bureau, was also responsible for the medical needs of the disabled sheikh. Now, 13 years after Yassin was killed, Haniyeh has been elected to the movement’s highest position. One of Haniyeh’s strengths is his amazing rhetorical ability, allowing him to stand in front of a crowd and speak to it just like a man on the street. But mainly he is well respected as a pragmatic person with his feet firmly on the ground. This image, in contrast with that of other Hamas leaders (such as Dr. Mahmoud a-Zahar), captivated the residents of the Gaza Strip and West Bank. In the 2006 elections, the rank and file voted for the “Change and Reform” bloc headed by Haniyeh, the man who would know how to deal with the enormous gap between the uncompromising Hamas Charter and a changing reality.
“He understands exactly what is going on and what is expected of him,” one of the associates of the leader-elect told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. This contact has been in Haniyeh’s inner circles since 2006, when he was elected prime minister. According to the contact, Haniyeh knows that his life mission is to pry open the closure on Gaza. He intends to devote his life to saving the Strip's residents from hunger because “he himself was born in a refugee camp in Gaza."
AL-MONITOR All-Access gives you unlimited access to all our journalism, the full Daily Briefing, exclusive interviews, premium newsletters, and live events — for less than $2/week.
