ALEX HALL is disgusted by the misuse of ‘emotional narratives’ to justify uninformed geo-political prejudice
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The story of Hamas
ALEX HALL recommends a considered and unemotional evaluation of the history and strategic choices made by Hamas
OF THE PEOPLE: A Hamas election rally in Ramallah in 2007
SUE TURNER welcomes a thoughtful, engaging book that lays bare the economic realities of global waste management
JOHN GREEN welcomes an insider account of the achievements and failures of the transition to democracy in Portugal
SIMON PARSONS applauds an imaginative and absorbing updating of Strindberg’s classic
PETER MASON is enthralled by an assembly of objects, ancient and modern, that have lain in the mud of London’s river
MICK McSHANE rubs shoulders with Mod legend Steve Craddock and joins in with the joyous Glasgow choir
DENNIS BROE sifts out the ideological bias of the newest TV series offerings, and picks out what to see, and what to avoid
Hamas: The Quest for Power
Beverly Milton-Edwards and Stephen Farrell, Polity Press, £17.99
THIS updated edition of the authors’ original 2010 work on Hamas explores the first elected Islamist organisation which has since transformed the Middle East. A chronology at the end goes to January 20 2024, and history remains in motion. It’s a curious sensation to be turning the pages of recent history when one of the main characters, Ismail Haniyeh, is assassinated in real time.
The book is valuable for several reasons. Firstly, it relies on the authors’ interviews with key Hamas and Israeli figures and a broad documentary record. Secondly, it is considered and unemotional, which casts an almost unnerving calmness over a situation that is strewn with exploded bodies on endless social media streams.
Most importantly, it provides a detailed account of Hamas’s development, reasoning and methods, offering a perspective that is completely overshadowed by its mainstream representation as the bogeyman du jour.
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ALEX HALL recommends a meticulous and fascinating academic account of the development of Lebanon’s ‘Party of God’
