Three in One: Hamas as an Islamist, Social, and Hyper-Nationalist Movement

Three theoretical approaches have dominated research on Hamas. These approaches focus heavily on the cultural dimension but vary in their central emphasis on ideology, society, and identity, respectively. The first views Hamas as an Islamic movement and relies heavily on discourse analysis. The second analyzes it as a social movement organization (SMO), emphasizing collective agency, while the third approach sees Hamas as a hyper-national movement, stressing the identitarian transformations within the Palestinian imagined community. I show that over-emphasizing each approach can lead to either oversimplification or exaggeration. While overstressing the first approach lends too much importance to macro dynamics at the expense of collective social action, overreliance on Social Movement Theory (SMT) can result in an exaggerated view of the social actors’ agency. Overemploying the identitarian approach, in contrast, can foster a linear view of history that is difficult to reconcile with the vibrancy of the diverse and complex Palestinian society. I, therefore, propose locating Hamas at the intersection of these three approaches.