Overview

• At a press conference held in Madrid on February 9, Russian president Vladimir Putin announced that Russia had contacted Hamas and that he was planning to invite its leaders to visit Moscow . He noted that Hamas had won democratic elections and that the decision of the Palestinian people had to be respected. He added that a solution had to be found that would satisfy both Hamas and the international community.

• Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader who heads the Hamas faction in the Palestinian Legislative Council, was quick to accept the invitation in principle , on condition a formal invitation is sent (Reuters, February 9).

• The motives behind Hamas’s quick acceptance of the invitation were completely pragmatic. The main one was the opportunity being given to break out of international isolation and reduce the pressure exerted on them to change their radical terrorist strategies. However, it should be noted that ideologically Hamas is completely hostile to the Russian régime in that it identifies with the Chechen separatists, regarding them as part of the global jihad, and supports them in their terrorist activities . Their position is in accordance with the spirit of the Hamas charter (1988) and the ideology of Dr. ‘Abdallah ‘Azzam, Osama bin Laden’s spiritual mentor.¹

• Hamas’s ideology has been manifested in posters, CDs and movies found in Hamas institutions in the Palestinian Authority (PA)-administered territories . Hamas uses such media to express its identification, admiration and support for both Chechen and international terrorism. Hamas has even allowed the Chechen terrorists to use its Internet site, www.palestine-info.net, to provide its suicide bombing attacks with religious Islamic sanction .²

• Hamas customarily distributes its anti-Russian incitement CDs (full of hate propaganda and incitement to acts of terrorism) in educational institutions in the PA-administered territories as part of the battle for the hearts and minds of the younger Palestinian generation . The CDs from which the material dealing with Chechnya was taken were distributed to the American University in Jenin in November 2003, the Islamic-oriented Hebron University in February 2004 and the Hebron Orphan Asylum , operated by the Hamas-affiliated Islamic Charitable Society in Hebron , in August 2004.

• Hamas uses radical Islamic terminology in its posters and videos (See below). Admiration is expressed for Chechen terrorist leaders, such as Shamil Besayev and Khattab,³ while the Red Army is blasted and its actions are referred to as “terrorist activities against the Islamic population in Chechnya .” One of the CDs on which clips of fighting in Chechnya were found ( the CD was entitled “The Russian Hell”) included a sermon promoting jihad and stating that those who fought and died in it would reach paradise as shaheeds .

• Below is information about posters, videos and Internet material dealing with Chechnya , all disseminated by Hamas through its charitable societies and other civilian institutions in the PA-administered territories and its Internet sites.