Let’s agree on one thing: there is no Palestinian consensus on any future “state”. Hamas desires all of British Mandate Palestine, while the PLO may be content with the 1967 borders agreed on in the Arab initiative of 2002.
This raises a question: Does Hamas truly seek British Mandate Palestine as a state or does it aspire to something larger?
Those unfamiliar with how jihadi organisations operate might think a nation state is justified for any struggling group. While this can be true in many instances, it does not apply to Hamas, al-Qaeda, or Islamic State. These groups do not recognise nation states. They view the borders between Arab and Muslim states as “fake borders” created by the Sykes-Picot Agreement to weaken the Muslim world and enable the West to seize the wealth of Muslim countries. Consequently, militant Islamic movements such as Hamas are not genuinely fighting for a nation state. What, then, is the value of a Palestinian state to Hamas?
The answer, which many in the Arab world may not want to hear, is that Hamas views a Palestinian state as a stepping stone to an Islamic Caliphate. Hamas and other radical Islamists believe this Caliphate, dismantled in 1923, will soon be revived, as foretold by several Hadiths of Prophet Mohammed. They regard a Palestinian state as merely a segment of this expansive Caliphate, which they envision stretching from Indonesia to Morocco. The nation state has never been the concern of militant Islamists. It is merely the pathway to the vast Caliphate they aim to establish. This Caliphate was briefly revived in 2014 when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared its resurgence. But it was soon dismantled by the international alliance fighting Isis. At its core, Hamas believes this Caliphate will inevitably arise. Describing Hamas as a “national liberation movement” is thus utterly misleading. It is more accurately described as a vicious militant Islamist movement aiming to dismantle the only Jewish state to establish a part of the Islamic Caliphate intended to dominate Europe and even conquer Rome, as Islamists openly proclaim.
What is particularly alarming is the tendency of many in the West to overlook this reality, insisting that the Palestinians deserve a state – without recognising that one of its major factions, supported by a significant portion of the population, rejects the concept of a nation state. Instead, it aims to undermine the very countries that support its cause. Europe must awaken and learn from the experiences of immigrants who exploit freedoms to achieve their ultimate goal: to discard these freedoms and impose Islamic Sharia, transforming Europe into the very place these immigrants fled.
Europe should heed the voices of those from the region who understand how these Islamist jihadi groups think and operate. While Palestinians indeed deserve to live in dignity, a Palestinian state that serves as a proxy to Iran and rejects nationalism in favour of being part of a Caliphate is undoubtedly a disaster.
