MATTHEW HAWKINS applauds a psychotherapist’s disection of William Blake
Understanding Hamas
RON JACOBS welcomes the reissue of a rare history of Hamas that offers insights into the organisation’s structure and strength
25th anniversary of the founding of Hamas celebrated in Gaza, December 8, 2012
[Hadi Mohammad/CC] 
New releases from Christina Alden and Alex Patterson, Odette Michell, Clementine Lovell
JOHN GREEN is fascinated by a very readable account of Britain’s involvement in South America
Strip cartoons used to be the bread and butter of newspapers and they have been around for centuries. MICHAL BONCZA asks our own Paul Tanner about which bees are in his bonnet
GORDON PARSONS acknowledges the authority with which Sarah Kane’s theatrical justification for suicide has resonance today
RON JACOBS welcomes a timely homage to one of the IWW and CPUSA’s most effective orators
Hamas: From Resistance to Regime
Paolo Caridi, Seven Stories Press, £15.99
HAMAS has been the bogeyman in establishment circles of the global North for more than two decades. Hamas has also been one of the more successful manifestations of the movement against Israel’s occupation and siege of Palestine in the history of that resistance.
Each of these sentences explains the other. It doesn’t matter whether one supports Hamas or its actions; their truth lies in the history of Hamas and its ongoing importance in the history of the Palestinians and the world. Given the vitriolic hatred of Hamas (and, arguably, the Palestinian resistance) in many of the governments in the global North — and the repetition of that vitriol in the media that props up those governments — it has never been easy to get an honest picture of the organisation.
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