Hamas
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"Hamas" is also the former name of the Movement of Society for Peace, a political party in Algeria.
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The Hamas emblem shows two crossed swords, the Dome of the Rock, and a map of the land they claim as Palestine (roughly, present-day Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip).Hamas, acronym of Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyyah (Arabic: حركة المقاومة الاسلامية, literally "Islamic Resistance Movement" and Arabic for 'zeal'), is a Palestinian Islamist movement and political party closely related to the Muslim Brotherhood. Its stated goal is to "remove Israel from the map" [1], and to establish an Islamic theocracy in the area that is currently Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza strip. In pursuit of this, Hamas affirms a right to engage in military struggle. [2]. Hamas affirms a right to engage in military struggle to liberate the post-1967 Occupied Territores and has repeatedly affirmed that its claims over the pre-1967 area of Israel.
Hamas is listed as a terrorist group by the European Union, Canada, the United States, and Israel, and its attacks targeting Israeli civilians and other human rights abuses have been condemned by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. The organization is particularly popular among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, though it also has a following in the West Bank, and, to a lesser extent, in other Middle Eastern countries and throughout the Palestinian diaspora, including within Israel. The movement's popularity stems from its provision of welfare and social services to the Palestinian poor and its paramilitary activities, as well as from the perceived corruption of the Fatah party. Outside the Arab world, Hamas is primarily known for its suicide bombings against civilians in busy urban areas in Israel. It is notorious for its generous payments to the families of suicide bombers on one hand while in an attempt to change its image in the eyes of the west Hamas is also paying a media consultant $180,000 (£100,000) to persuade Europeans and Americans that it is not a group of religious fanatics who relish suicide bombings and hate Jews [3].