The charter defines the struggle to be against the Jews and calls for the eventual creation of an Islamic Palestinian state in all of former Mandatory Palestine, and the obliteration or dissolution of Israel.
[13] In 2010, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal stated that the Charter is "a piece of history and no longer relevant, but cannot be changed for internal reasons".
[17] A popular uprising, the First Intifada was led by multiple groups including Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
[19] According to Hamas's Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Ahmed Yousef, the Charter "was ratified during the unique circumstances of the Uprising in 1988 as a necessary framework for dealing with a relentless occupation".
[20] However, where the Muslim Brotherhood's ideology proposed a universal Islamist vision, Hamas's charter sought to narrow its focus on Palestinian nationalism and a strategy of armed struggle, or violent jihad.
Like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas subscribed to a neo-Salafi jihadi theology that sought national liberation by violence as permitted by divine decree.
[22][18] While its language was far more religious, its political goals were identical to those of the PLO's charter and called for an armed struggle to retrieve the entire land of Palestine as an Islamic waqf.
[2] The updated charter published in 2017 walked back many of these assertions while adding questions regarding the ability of Fatah and its leader Mahmoud Abbas to act as the sole legitimate representative for the Palestinians.
[32] Similarly, in 2007, Mousa Abu Marzook, Deputy Chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau, stated that the 1988 charter could not be altered because it would look like a compromise not acceptable to the 'street' and risk fracturing the party's unity.
"[32] Yet, at the same time, Hamas offered to negotiate with Israel on the basis of the 1967 borders, indicating a willingness to set aside the refugees issue until some future undetermined date.
Professor Robert Pastor, Hamas leader Khaled Mashal voiced a different perspective: the Charter is "a piece of history and no longer relevant, but cannot be changed for internal reasons".
[14] Ahmed Yousef, former Political Adviser to Prime Minister Haniyeh, in January 2011 stated that the 1988 charter must not be read as "a constitution drafted as law" and not any longer be interpreted literally: the Hamas movement "has moved on" from the charter’s content, "accepting a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders and publicly declaring a readiness to explore political solutions", Yousef argued.
[1] It emphasizes the importance of jihad for the Palestinian question, adding that "initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.
[1] The 1988 Charter draws heavily on quotations from the hadith and Qur'an and builds an argument that Jews deserve God's/Allah's enmity and wrath because they received the Scriptures but violated its sacred texts, rejected the signs of Allah, and slew their own prophets.
Only the Gharkad tree would not do that, because it is one of the trees of the Jews.The second paragraph of Article Thirty-Two of the Charter is the following passage: The Islamic Resistance Movement calls on Arab and Islamic nations to take up the line of serious and persevering action to prevent the success of this horrendous plan, to warn the people of the danger eminating [sic] from leaving the circle of struggle against Zionism.
"[50] Jeffrey Goldberg, writing in The Atlantic magazine, criticized the founding charter of Hamas by labelling it as a "genocidal" document and compared it to The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
[10] (Note that the Charter does specifically state that the Jews have plans as described in the infamous early 20th-century antisemitic trope document, "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion".)
Referring to the charter in an article in The New Yorker magazine, American commentator Philip Gourevitch accused Hamas leadership of having "genocidal" intentions against Jews.
[citation needed] Statements by Hamas officials such as Fathi Hamad - who according to some sources publicly called for the killing of Jews - are also cited as continued antisemitism within the group.
[63] In the aftermath of the 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, former Ambassador and Wilson Center head Mark Andrew Green described the 2017 revision as having "dressed up [Hamas's] terrorist objectives in more ambiguous, less violent terms" while the 2023 attack showed their objective remained, as in the 1988 charter, "the destruction of the State of Israel and the murder of Jewish people.