Islamist opposition and shari'a 'red lines'
The fact that the primary opposition to the Palestinian Authority and the Oslo Accords has come from the Islamist opposition, particularly Hamas (an acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement), is a crucial factor in the positioning of Islam within the discourse of the Palestinian Authority and in attitudes towards shari’a reform.
Hamas has combined military action against Israel, and Israeli civilians, with social action inside the West Bank and Gaza, conducting both suicide attacks inside Israel, particularly in 1996 and the second intifada, and developing a strong political and social infrastructure in the West Bank and Gaza.From the inception of the Palestinian Authority, Islamists employed on occasion a discourse of human rights against state interference in projects of legal reform. In an interview shortly after the establishment of the Authority, a leading spokesman of Hamas noted that reform of the shari'a is a ‘matter for the Palestinian 'ulama, and that state interference would be an ‘infringement on our human rights as Muslims. We are not against innovation (ijtiha(Γ) but we cannot compromise on rights that are guaranteed in the shari'a, (Jarrar in Usher 1997: 336). By all accounts, Islamists have communicated their position throughout the transitional period that state-led reform of shari'a is a ‘red line’ that the Authority would do well not to cross (Jad et al. 2000: 150).
This is not to say that Islamists did not have their own project to enter the arena of state politics. Although they boycotted the January 1996 elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council, as these elections were tied to the Oslo Accords that they so deeply opposed, they readied themselves for municipal elections, which were never held, and may well enter into the national arena if new elections are ever on the agenda. As Hilal noted in a background paper to this study (Hilal 2000), the National Islamic Salvation Party, which is widely seen as the public party of Hamas, affirms Islamist principles but in the context of modern political institutions.
Human rights are guaranteed ‘regardless of race or religion’ and the ‘activation of public institutions, including the legislature and the judiciary’ is an objective. While the affirmation of human rights is not unique among Islamist parties in the region, Hamas is also responding to a national liberation movement and struggle to which it is profoundly affiliated, if separate in organization, and which has asserted rights (individual and people’s human rights) as an enduring basis of legitimacy for its claims for justice. This context is critical to an understanding of how Islamist movements in the Palestinian context frame issues of shari'a and legal reform.In the Salvation Party’s programme, ‘empowering women to realize their full rights’ is situated within the context of the shari'a', indeed, the first articulated aim is ‘the resumption of Islamic life and the implementation of shari'a in the various aspects of life’. The connotation that the Israeli military occupation disrupted ‘Islamic life’ which must be restored has a particular resonance in a population whose ordinary lives have been torn asunder by conflict, foreign rule and repression and where Islam, for the majority Muslim population, is a constituent of Arab, Palestinian national and local community identity.