from: Jerusalem Post Thursday, June 12, 2025
Understanding Hamas requires looking beyond Gaza’s border according to Nesya Shemer, al leading expert on Isalmic Studies and poltical Islam movements from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and political Isalm movements from Departement of Middle Eastern Studies at Bar Ilan University.
In a recent interview, Shemer explained how Hamas operates as part of a much larger, globally coordinated information warfare campaign that extends far beyond the confines of the Gaza Strip.
„Hamas ist not just on organization of a few thousand fighters remaining in Gaza, “ Shemer emphazised.
„Hamas is part of a global Muslim Brotherhood movement, which has branches worldwide and is particularly well-organized in the West.“
Central to Hama’s global influence, Shemer arguedis the Al Jazeera network, owned by Qatar, one of the major patrons of the Muslim Brotherhood.
Shemer described the Qatari outlet as having become „a central factor in shaping Arab public opinion.“ She noted that Al Jazeera broadcoasts in multiple languages, including Arabic, Englisch, French, Spanisch, Chinese and Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian and maintains a comprehensive digital presence across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and Tik Tok, including a special youth-oriented channel, AJ+.
Shemer explained that Hamas also receives religious backing from international organiszations of Muslim scholars, most notably the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), founded by the renowned Sheikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, the same Qatari-based cleric who endorsed and espouses Hamas’s suicide bombings.
„Hundreds of thousands of Muslim religious figures from around the world are members of this organiszation,“ she said, adding that these religious leaders are also active on social media platforms with millions of followers.
The core narrative that Hamas proomotes, according to Shemer, centers on two demonizing claims: that Israel is committing ‚genocide‘ in Gaza and that it is forcing the survivors into exile.
She pointed out that this narrative-building endeavor has also harnesses statements from President Donald Trump regarding the establishment of a „Riviera“ in Gaza and haphazard, as well as declarations by Israeli officials about establishing settlements in Gaza or committing war crimes. „Many don’t understand that in democracies, declarations are more like rhetorical battles and have no real effect on the polices on the ground. “ Shemer explained.
„In practice, neither decision-makers nor the majority of the Israel public are fighting for these goals or are willing to use practices that violate international law – but are interested in defeating Hamas and removing it from any postion of power in the Gaza Strip and returning the hostages.“
„These two messages- destruction and displacement – are the worst possible messages from the perspective of Muslim and international ears, “ Shemers said.
She described how Al Jazeera floods the Muslim and international world with carefully chosen negative „buzzwords,“ as well as with difficult images of affected civilians in Gaza, particularly mothers and small children, creating a deeply emotional impact of Muslims worldwide.
Shemer Highlighted a critical information gap: “ Al Jazeera does not provide the broader context of the fight against Hamas -which uses civilians as human shields while hiding in underground tunnels – or the fact that Hamas itself attacked civilians on October 7 and still holds them as hostages.“
Shemer revealed the extent of ignorance about basic facts regarding Israel’s situation among global Muslim populations. „According to research, Muslims around the world barely know basic facts about the situation in Israel,“ she said. „Information reaches consciousness at the headline level, and sometimes not even that.“
To illustrate this point, she shared an example from her conversations wih Muslims worldwide: „I asked if they knew who the Bibas family was. The answer was no – and the Bibas family was the most famous event regarding israel in the world!“
She added that even regarding October 7 itself, there isn’t sufficient information, compounded by the fact that Hamas and Al Jazeera have vehemently denied harming civilians knowing such actions are perceived as illegitimate by Muslims and the international community.
Shemer emphasized that Hamas’s success in propagating this narrative stems from ists appeal to human and Muslim emotions.
She charactrerized this as manipulation, explaining that „Hamas’s political and religious leadership doesn’t focus on the human suffering in Gaza. This is suffering they caused, but they justify it with the religious ideology of jihad warfare for the ‚liberation of Palestine‘, which essentially means the elimination of Israel.“
The Israel scholar continued: „This is in full cotrast with reality that Hamas’s military leadership hides in underground tunnels while (its) political and religious leadership resides i five-star hotels around the world.“
These images Al Jazeerra shares she eyplained, are the tactic Hamas uses to create strong political pressure on Israel, an endeavor termed „Al Jihad Al-l’lami“ or „media jihad.“
Despite the dominance of Hamas and its backers in Qatar over the narrative , Shemer noted that voices from Gaza are emerging expressing digust with Hamas’s corrupt rule, which she said „uses islam as a tool while only caring about the controle.“
She referenced a fatwa issued several months ago by a Gaza religious figure named Salman al-Diya, who argued that Hamas that Hamas made a mistake in launsching th October 7 attack because it failed to foresee the consequences and not only failed to liberate a centimenter of Palestine but brought destruction upon Palestinians.
„It should be noted that the Hamas do not necessarily mean a decline in support for the armed struggle against Israel as a central tooll for archieving Palestinian goals,“ Shemer clarified. This view is still consensual.“
Shemer explained that when Israel took control of aid distribution from Hamas, it effetively removed Hamas’s control over the population, which the terror group had been using and exploiting as victims. She described how aid previously went to Hamas, who would take it from the population, store it in their warehouses, and sell it at exorbitant prices that poorer Gazans couldn’t afford – citing an example of a 25-kg. bag of flour costing NIS 3,000.
„We hear more and more voices of Gazans on social media whose fear barrier from Hamas has been broken and they are speaking out openly against it, “ she observed.