It's true that I made a mistake when I said that Hamas was not in the West Bank.
So I spent some time going back through the books I've read, in order to figure out how I got it wrong.
Apparently Hamas was an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Movement, which had been active in Gaza since the 1950s. Though this movement had also played a role in creating the PLO's Fatah movement, the two groups disagreed about how they should react to the Israeli occupation of Gaza in 1967. They felt that Fatah was not aggressive enough in its resistance. So the Brotherhood's more nationalist and activist movement was known as Hamas.
In an effort to divide and conquer, and especially to weaken Fatah, the Israeli government discretely supported Hamas in the beginning, helping to fund it. In 2006 Hamas defeated Fatah in elections. Fatah didn't accept the results of the election and started a series of battles with Hamas. Hamas won in Gaza, and since then have been the official government over that region. (How much power they actually have over the rank and file is a matter of debate.) In the West Bank, however, Hamas was ousted from any government role.
(Note that the last elections in Gaza were 18 years ago; several thousand of the victims of the recent genocide weren't born yet.)
So my error was in thinking that because Hamas has an official elected role in Gaza, and not in the West Bank, it meant that they were not active in the West Bank. In fact since it is not simply a political party, and no doubt has active members in different regions and countries, I should have known that some Hamas people would be involved with the West Bank struggle as well.
But again, talk about exactly Palestinian group is where is a distraction from the point we should all be focussed on: there is an ongoing genocide, it is among the worst in our lifetimes, and the US government is making it possible. (This month saw more US arms shipments to Israel than in any month this year.) Kamala says she is working tirelessly to bring peace. She is in fact NOT working tirelessly to bring peace.
So I spent some time going back through the books I've read, in order to figure out how I got it wrong.
Apparently Hamas was an offshoot of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood Movement, which had been active in Gaza since the 1950s. Though this movement had also played a role in creating the PLO's Fatah movement, the two groups disagreed about how they should react to the Israeli occupation of Gaza in 1967. They felt that Fatah was not aggressive enough in its resistance. So the Brotherhood's more nationalist and activist movement was known as Hamas.
In an effort to divide and conquer, and especially to weaken Fatah, the Israeli government discretely supported Hamas in the beginning, helping to fund it. In 2006 Hamas defeated Fatah in elections. Fatah didn't accept the results of the election and started a series of battles with Hamas. Hamas won in Gaza, and since then have been the official government over that region. (How much power they actually have over the rank and file is a matter of debate.) In the West Bank, however, Hamas was ousted from any government role.
(Note that the last elections in Gaza were 18 years ago; several thousand of the victims of the recent genocide weren't born yet.)
So my error was in thinking that because Hamas has an official elected role in Gaza, and not in the West Bank, it meant that they were not active in the West Bank. In fact since it is not simply a political party, and no doubt has active members in different regions and countries, I should have known that some Hamas people would be involved with the West Bank struggle as well.
But again, talk about exactly Palestinian group is where is a distraction from the point we should all be focussed on: there is an ongoing genocide, it is among the worst in our lifetimes, and the US government is making it possible. (This month saw more US arms shipments to Israel than in any month this year.) Kamala says she is working tirelessly to bring peace. She is in fact NOT working tirelessly to bring peace.