Haniya is the new boss of Hamas

Gaza City - Haniya, seen as a pragmatist within the movement, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007.

Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas elected ex-Gaza Strip chief Ismail Haniya as its new leader on Saturday, days after revising its founding charter to ease its stance on Israel.
Haniya, seen as a pragmatist within the movement, is expected to remain in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian enclave run by Hamas since 2007.
His predecessor Khaled Meshaal lives in exile in Doha and had completed the maximum two terms in office.
"The Hamas Shura Council on Saturday elected Ismail Haniya as head of the movement's political bureau," the group's official website announced.
He beat Mussa Abu Marzuk and Mohamed Nazzal in a videoconference vote of the ruling council's members in Gaza, the West Bank and outside the Palestinian territories.
The 54-year-old with a salt-and-pepper beard takes charge of Hamas as it seeks to ease its international isolation while not marginalising hardliners within the movement.
On Monday, it unveiled a new policy document easing its stance on Israel after having long called for its destruction.
The document notably accepts the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, the territories occupied by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967.
It also says its struggle is not against Jews because of their religion but against Israel as an occupier.
The original 1988 charter will not be dropped, just supplemented, in a move some analysts see as a way of maintaining the backing of hardliners.
"The new charter and Haniya's election are two of the biggest events in recent years," a European official based in Jerusalem told AFP Saturday, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The question is how is Hamas going to build on this momentum," he said, speaking in English.
Leila Seurat, a researcher at the Paris-based Centre for International Studies and Research, said that the election of a Gaza-based leader was a shift for the movement, which had been directed from Doha and from Damascus since Israel assassinated founding father Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in Gaza in 2004.
"His election is a sign that the Gaza leadership has regained the upper hand from those outside," she said. - AFP
Faction rejects Palestine state within 1967 borders
gaza City - The radical Palestinian group Islamic Jihad has rejected Hamas's new policy of easing its stand on Israel and accepting the establishment of a Palestinian state limited to the 1967 borders.
"As partners with our Hamas brothers in the struggle for liberation, we feel concern over the document" which the main Islamist movement that rules Gaza adopted on Monday, said Islamic Jihad's deputy leader, Ziad al-Nakhala.
"We are opposed to Hamas's acceptance of a state within the 1967 borders and we think this is a concession which damages our aims," he said.
Nakhala said the new Hamas policy formally accepting the idea of a state in the territories occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War would "lead to deadlock and can only produce half-solutions". Hamas has eased its stance on the Jewish state after having called for decades for its destruction, as the movement seeks to improve its international standing.  - AFP
A charismatic leader from Gaza's streets
gaza city - Ismail Haniya, named Saturday as head of Hamas, is a charismatic leader from the Gaza streets who represents the more pragmatic wing of the Islamist movement.
The 54-year-old with a salt-and-pepper beard takes charge as it seeks to ease its international isolation while not marginalising hardliners within the movement.
Labelled a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, Hamas on Monday revised its charter to reflect a slightly more moderate stance, without however recognising Israel.
Haniya replaces Khaled Meshaal, who lives in Doha in exile and has completed the maximum two terms in office.
Unlike Meshaal, Haniya will remain in the Gaza Strip, the small Palestinian enclave run by Hamas, hit by three wars with Israel since 2008 and under an Israeli blockade for 10 years.
His modest home in the narrow alleys of Gaza City's Shati refugee camp next to the Mediterranean Sea is under constant guard.
Also known as Abu Abed, he was born in the same camp in 1963 to parents who fled when Israel was created in 1948.
They had previously lived in Ashkelon (or Asqalan in Arabic), which is today part of Israel and just next to the border with the Gaza Strip.
Haniya, a father of 13, was educated at a UN-run refugee school, later earning an education degree from the Islamic University and becoming a university administrator.
Hamas has frequently highlighted his modest background as a counterpoint to officials within president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority who have been accused of being corrupt and too easily compliant with Israel or the United States.
Haniya was jailed several times by Israel during the first intifada, or uprising, which erupted in 1987, and was deported to southern Lebanon in December 1992 along with hundreds of Hamas and Islamic Jihad militants.
He first rose to prominence as bureau chief under Hamas's spiritual father Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the quadriplegic assassinated by Israel in 2004.
He escaped assassination in September 2003 when an Israeli aircraft bombed a house where he and Yassin were meeting, yet Haniya was instrumental in securing a halt to Hamas attacks inside Israel since early 2005.
The following year, he led Hamas to a shock legislative election victory over Abbas's Fatah and became prime minister.
The international community however refused to deal with any government in which Hamas participated until it renounced violence and recognised Israel and past peace agreements.
The resulting deadlock led to mounting friction between Hamas and Fatah which culminated in Hamas's seizure of Gaza.
In July 2006, Israel bombed Haniya's office during a massive but unsuccessful operation to free a soldier held by gunmen including Hamas militants.
Always dressed impeccably in Western-style suits and a sharp orator, Haniya has exemplified Hamas's internal struggle between the traditional and the modern, between resistance against Israeli occupation and mainstream politics. - AFP
 
 

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