(Arabic for “zeal” and an acronym for “Harakat al-Muqawamah al-Islamiyya” or “Islamic Resistance Movement”) A Palestinian political party and Islamist national movement currently in control of Gaza; it also has party members in the West Bank. Ideologically and organizationally modeled after the Muslim Brotherhood of Egypt in 1987, Hamas is comprised of a militant wing responsible for armed operations, a political bureau and a social services branch. In 2006, Hamas’s victory in the Palestinian legislative elections resulted in the end of Fatah’s long-standing political dominance, but their victory was not widely embraced by members of the international community and Fatah. The events that followed resulted in the division between Fatah and Hamas (see Palestinian Civil War). Members of the international community, including Israel, the United States and the European Union, designated Hamas as a terrorist organization for using tactics such as suicide bombings, and do not recognize it as a legitimate government. Hamas signed a unity agreement with Fatah in April 2011, the results of which are yet to be seen. See Chehab, Zaki. Inside Hamas: The Untold Story of the Militant Islamic Movement. New York: Avalon, 2007; Hroub, Khaled. Hamas: A Beginner’s Guide. London: Pluto Press, 2006; and “Backgrounder: Hamas.” 27 August 2009. Council on Foreign Relations. 30 June 2011. http://www.cfr.org/publication/8968/#6. http://www.justvision.org/glossary/hamas