Hamas paradox on treaties with Israel: Allowed for Qatar and Turkey, forbidden for UAE

Aya Ezz

The Brotherhood’s Hamas movement has announced its rejection of the Emirati agreement with Israel, describing it as a “free reward for the occupation.” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum claimed that the UAE’s normalization of relations with Israel constitutes a treacherous stab in the back for the Palestinian people’s struggles, although Hamas is well aware that this is nothing more than a pretentious slogan that does not enrich and insatiate, for the Palestinian cause was never Hamas’s primary concern.

But the question remains as to why Hamas rejected what the UAE did, while at the same time it threw itself into the arms of Turkey and Qatar, which have better relations with Israel.

Hamas and Turkey under Mossad’s purview

The history of relations between Hamas and Turkey dates back to 2012, when the movement moved its main office from Damascus to Turkey after the Syrian authorities closed it, which affected tensions between Hamas’s leadership and the Syrian government at the time.

Hamas’s choice of Turkey was not random, but was based on its knowledge of the strength of Turkish-Israeli relations, which Hamas saw as a security for itself and its leadership, as it would not be easy for the occupiers to penetrate Turkish sovereignty to arrest the movement’s leadership due to the normalization between Turkey and Israel.

Meanwhile, the Turkish side agreeing to open the Hamas office on its territory was not for the sake of the Palestinian cause, but rather for Hamas to be used as a pressure card that Ankara could use against Israel to gain more investments and benefits. It was also the beginning of Turkey’s interference in the affairs of the Middle East and Arab regional issues.

Since then, the movement’s presence in Turkey has come under the purview of Israeli intelligence, and Ankara has been agreeing to Israel’s conditions for the movement’s office to remain on its territory within an official agreement that guarantees that Hamas will not carry out any military activity from Turkish territory.

This was evident within the framework of the negotiations to normalize relations between Turkey and Israel that took place from 2013-2016. Israel stipulated that Turkey should remove some Hamas leaders from its territory, including Saleh al-Arouri, in order to ensure the continuation of the peaceful activity of the movement’s office in Istanbul. Accordingly, Turkey ordered Arouri to leave the country in 2015.

Despite all these events and others, Hamas has not come out with any single statement condemning the normalization of relations between Turkey and Israel, instead preferring silence in exchange for the continuation of its office and its use of Turkish investments and funds.

While Hamas has repeatedly condemned the Emirati position, it did not announce either its satisfaction or opposition to the Turkish-Israeli agreement to restore relations again in 2016, which weakens its position and reveals its true face to the world. Despite all Palestinian factions’ opposition to the Turkish-Israeli rapprochement and the great damage caused to the movement due to the Israeli conditions that Ankara agreed to limit Hamas’ role, the movement remained silent.

Hamas-Qatari relations protect Israel

“The Qatari money flowing into the Gaza Strip contributed to keeping Gaza separate from Judea and Samaria,” Netanyahu said during the Knesset election campaign in 2019, acknowledging Qatar’s merit in limiting Gaza’s role with money, in contrast to Qatar always saying that it works in the interest of the Palestinian cause.

During Israel’s Knesset elections in March, Israeli media revealed that Netanyahu had sent the head of the Mossad and the head of the IDF Southern Command to Doha in February to discuss continuing Qatari support for Hamas.