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Hamas: Cruel Killers
Winning Arab Support

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LARRY DERFNER

ISRAEL CORRESPONDENT

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What began as
: a religious and
• charitable group
has become the
- most dangerous
and powerful
Palestinian
organization in
the territories.

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he Hamas (Islamic
Resistance Movement)
death squad that
murdered Border
Policeman Nissim Toledano
could have shot him to death
— they no doubt were armed
when they kidnapped him;
they took his revolver and
they bound him hand and
foot.
But the killers did not
shoot him: they strangled
him and stabbed him five
times in the neck.
Those are the details that
were released. The other
"signs of extreme violence"
found on his body were kept
secret. The border policemen
who saw his corpse spoke of
a "cruel, animalistic
murder."
Mr. Toledano's killing (the
sixth of an Israeli soldier by
Hamas in a week) immedi-
ately preceded the Dec. 17
expulsions. Since then, the
Hamas (and some Islamic
Jihad) deportees shivering
in their Lebanese tent camp
have been getting quite a
sympathetic international
press. Maybe the press
would be less sympathetic if
they saw the pictures of
some of the Hamas death
squads' other victims — Pa-
lestinians in the West Bank
and Gaza who were tortured,
mutilated and/or
dismembered for being
"heretics" or
"collaborators."
"When Hamas kills, they
kill cruelly," said Yizhar
Be'er, executive director of
B'tselem, the Israeli organ-
ization that reports on
Israeli human rights viola-
tions in the territories, and
is now preparing a report on
Palestinian violations
against their own people —
the over 800 "collaborator
killings" committed in the
five years of the intifada.
Hamas executions are no
more savage than those of
the other death squads —
the Black Panthers, Hawks,
Red Eagles and other groups
run by Yassir Arafat's Fatah
and more radical Palestin-
ian organizations. What sets
Hamas apart, said Mr. Be'er,
is that it concentrates less on
"security collaborators" —
such as informers and those
who disobey strike orders —
and focuses instead on

"moral collaborators" or
"heretics," meaning anyone
who violates Hamas's
fanatical Islamic creed.
They've butchered
alcoholics and drug users.
They've slaughtered women
who dress in slacks, and
many modern-minded wo-
men in Hamas-controlled
areas have begun wearing
traditional Islamic robes and
veils out of fear. Sometimes
the death squads conduct in-
quisitions of suspects,
extract confessions through
torture, and either finish
them off or let them go with
a warning, Mr. Be'er said.
"Nearly anyone can be
killed," he continued. "It
could be a teacher they dis-
agree with or a journalist
who writes articles against
them. It could be a Marxist,
an atheist, a Darwinist, a
Freudian, a member of the
Rotary or Lions Clubs (these
clubs are Jewish spy organ-
izations, according to the
Hamas Charter), someone
who supports pluralism, co-
existence with Israel, the
peace process — Hamas has
`open contracts' on them."
The killers number only
"several dozen, but that's
enough," said Anat Kurz, an
expert on Hamas at Tel Aviv
University's Jaffee Center
for Strategic Studies. Of
late, they've turned their at-
tention more on Israeli
targets, in line with the

"Every Jew or
settler is a target
and must be killed.
Their blood and
property are
forfeit."

Hamas leaflet 65

decision they and nine other
Palestinian "rejectionist"
groups made at a September
meeting in Damascus, where
they vowed to destroy the
Middle East peace talks by
stepping up terror on
Israelis.
But Hamas murders of
Israelis predate the
Damascus meeting. Since

March 1, they've killed 11. A
couple of years ago they
chopped up three workers at
a Jaffa factory. Before that,
in separate incidents, they
kidnapped and killed two
hitchhiking Israeli soldiers.
The murderers were clever:
Israeli soldiers are under
orders not to accept rides in
Palestinian-owned vehicles
(with blue license plates), so
the killers stole an Israeli-
owned car (with yellow
plates), put on yarmulkes,
and the soldiers, Avi Saspor-
tas and Ilan Sa'adon, got in
and that was the end of
them.
Estimates of Hamas'
following among Palestin-
ians vary, and average out to
about 30 percent. Its
greatest strength is in the
Gaza Strip. Killings of
Israelis bring more Palestin-
ians to the cause, and sup-
port for Hamas has been

soaring since the deporta-
tions.
But, as Professor Kurz
said, the actual killers are
few; thousands of other
Hamas activists work in the
mosques, religious schools,
charity groups, and social
and sports clubs the organ-
ization created. (The 415
deportees — the overwhelm-
ing majority of whom were
Hamas, and the others
Islamic Jihad — were de-
scribed by the Army and
government as inciters, or-
ganizers and paymasters,
not the murderers them-
selves.)
This is how Hamas started
out — as a religious and
charity foundation. It's
predecessor, named Mu-
jama, was founded in Gaza
in 1978 by Sheikh Ahmed
Yassin. (Sheikh Yassin, 56,
remains the spiritual leader
of Hamas, even now in

