Media coverage
IPG-Journal (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung) · 2016-02-22
In this IPG-Journal interview conducted by Hannes Alpen, Omar Shaban says the so-called Islamic State has no verifiable presence in Gaza: radical groups such as Jaljalat invoke it and have claimed minor attacks, including one on a French cultural centre, but are not officially recognised by IS, which he describes as “a fashion” and an attractive label for those who find Hamas not radical enough. He explains that these groups accuse Hamas of seeking a truce with Israel and of pursuing a national rather than a pan-Islamic goal, and that Hamas both arrests their members and sends religious scholars to counter their interpretation; some Gazans who reached Syria and Iraq via the Sinai tunnels have been killed fighting for IS. He sees a general climate of fear and intolerance in Gaza but no future for IS there, arguing that the phenomenon is rooted less in ideology than in frustration, unemployment and lack of prospects, so that better economic conditions and freedom of movement would leave society calmer and less radicalised.
In this IPG-Journal interview conducted by Hannes Alpen, Omar Shaban says the so-called Islamic State has no verifiable presence in Gaza: radical groups such as Jaljalat invoke it and have claimed minor attacks, including one on a French cultural centre, but are not officially recognised by IS, whi…