GABRIELE NEHER draws attention to an astoundingly skilled Flemish painter who defied the notion that women cannot paint like men
Latest editorial
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
[Hoheit/CC]
The Bard pays homage to Hull’s finest promoter and venue, and awards Douze Points to Laibach
KEVIN DONNELLY outlines how the bourgeois institutions inhibit our ability to to view art in revolutionary ways, and suggests some tactics to overturn it
ANDY HEDGECOCK welcomes an accessible - and optimistic - take on our relationship to new technology
JOHN GREEN suggests that a new, biased, and highly readable re-hash of the story of the Cambridge Five be taken with a large pinch of salt
BRENT CUTLER welcomes a timely reminder of the long history of protests and the outdoor spaces in which they takes place
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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