Summary
Gaza is one of the most crowded places on earth. Most of its two million residents live in refugee camps and around half are unemployed. Gaza is governed by Hamas, an organisation that many governments regard as a terrorist group. Hamas extended its control over the whole of Gaza in 2007, after it ousted Fatah, which is now based in the West Bank. Since then Hamas has been involved in a number of conflicts with Israel.. Its military capability has grown over the years. Joining David Aaronovitch to explore who Hamas are and what they want are:
Jennifer Jefferis, Teaching Professor at Georgetown University's Security Studies program. She is also author of Hamas: Terrorism, Governance, and its Future in Middle East Politics. Dr Nina Musgrave from the Centre for Defence Studies, Kings College, London. She is the author of a forthcoming book, Hamas and the Arab Uprisings: resistance, allegiance, and the departure from Syria. Fabian Hinz, an independent open source intelligence analyst who specialises in Middle East missiles. Natan Sachs, Director of the Centre for Middle East Policy, Brookings Institution, Washington.
Producers: John Murphy, Sally Abrahams, Luke Radcliff Sound Engineer: James Beard Editor: Jasper Corbett
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts. |
| 0:05.0 | Welcome to the briefing room with me, David Aronovich. |
| 0:09.0 | We're in a room where you, me and the top experts come together to understand the great issues of the day inside 28 minutes. |
| 0:16.0 | In this edition, with another round of fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, |
| 0:21.6 | we're asking, who are Hamas? |
| 0:24.4 | And what do they want? |
| 0:29.3 | At first sight, it's been the same bloody, same old. |
| 0:36.9 | The tiny, populous enclave of Gaza, governed by the organisation called Hamas, |
| 0:43.1 | firing unsophisticated rockets indiscriminately into Israel, |
| 0:47.6 | and being bombed by the high-tech Israeli air force, |
| 0:50.7 | with many civilians killed, until eventually a ceasefire is agreed. |
| 0:55.0 | And that's as far as we often get in understanding what's going on. |
| 1:00.0 | But to comprehend why this cycle is repeated, and whether there's a chance of stopping it, |
| 1:05.0 | you need the answer to the questions who are Hamas and what do they want? |
| 1:10.0 | Step into the briefing room and together we'll find out. |
| 1:15.8 | History time. I'm joined by Jennifer Jeffries teaching professor at Georgetown University's |
| 1:21.2 | Security Studies Program in Washington, D.C. and the author of Hamas, terrorism, |
| 1:26.3 | governance and its future in Middle East Politics. |
| 1:29.6 | Jennifer Jeffreys, when and how did Hamas first emerge? |
| 1:34.0 | So we see Hamas emerge as an organization in 1987, five days after the first Intifada begins. |
| 1:41.0 | And you had the Palestinian Liberation Organization, which was the internationally |
| 1:46.5 | recognized sole legitimate voice of the Palestinian people at that point in time. And they were |
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