A note from the Intifada conference

Qods News Agency (Qodsna), Ali Reza Arab:

Islamic Revolution Leader, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei in his speech to the sixth international conference on the Palestinian intifada in Tehran at one occasion made mention of the Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, by praising the military branch of the movement.

“It is necessary to commemorate all groups involved in the Palestinian Resistance- including Sarayah al-Quds from Islamic Jihad, Kataeb al-Izz ad-Din al-Qassam from Hamas, Kataeb al-Shuhada al-Aqsa from Fath and Kataeb Abu Ali Mustafa from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- all of which played valuable roles in these wars,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The specific reference to the military branch of the movement is significant as it underlines the discursive differences between Hamas political bureau and its military branch.

The reference apparently has come in praise of the approach of the military branch towards the case of anti-Israeli resistance.

Hamas political bureau has suffered a crisis of identity amid the recent developments in the Arab world, prompting the group to steer a different course from Iran as the inspirational source of anti-Israeli resistance.

Some experts the military branch however has kept its line and focused on an all-out resistance against Israel.

The experts say Hamas’s relations with the states in the axis of compromise with Israel or those states which seek to abuse Hamas and deviate it from its track would in the long term decay the fabric of Hamas and ruin its anti-Israeli identity.