The emergence of the Palestinian Resistance Movement (Hamas) in the course of the First Intifada, 38 years ago, must be understood within the historical context of an ongoing process of colonisation, military occupation and the systematic denial of rights to the Palestinian people.

It was not an isolated episode nor a gratuitous radicalisation of the liberation struggle, but rather a qualitative shift in the Palestinian national struggle, through which a people subjected to Zionist apartheid refuses to accept submission as its destiny, asserting instead its historic right to freedom, land and dignity.

Hamas embodies the collective refusal to accept the loss of its land, the desecration of its sacred sites and the destruction of its social and political life, affirming itself on a daily basis as an organic part of the Palestinian national liberation struggle, with its own political project and a vision that goes beyond military immediacy.

The struggle for the liberation of Palestine has never been confined to the rhetorical or symbolic plane. It has materialised as concrete political practice, forged in refugee camps, in besieged cities, under blockades, bombardments, arbitrary arrests and the ethnic cleansing imposed by the Zionist occupation.

The memory of the martyrs occupies a central place in this trajectory. Not as an abstract exaltation of death, but as an affirmation that the Israeli occupation is sustained by extreme violence and........

© Middle East Monitor