РЕЛІГІЙНИЙ ВИМІР ДІЯЛЬНОСТІ ХАМАС ТА ЙОГО ЗНАЧУЩІСТЬ У РОЗВИТКУ АРАБО-ІЗРАЇЛЬСЬКОГО КОНФЛІКТУ

Abstract

The article is devoted to a philosophical study of the religious dimension in HAMAS ideology and the influence of a religious factor on the development of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The article provides a valuable and functional analysis of the main programmatic ideological text of HAMAS: those abstracts from this text that directly relate to religious issues are highlighted, a broad involvement of religion in the ideological foundations of HAMAS is demonstrated. The article also analyzes the place of HAMAS in the events during the First Intifada and the role of the movement at the beginning of the Second Intifada. The purpose of the study is to broaden the involvement of the role of religion in the Arab-Israeli conflict in the consideration of Ukrainian philosophy, religious studies and humanities in general, with a view to further utilizing Middle Eastern experience in the study, prevention and resolution of religious conflicts in Ukraine. Iryna Zvyagelska particularly emphasizes the great role of social programs (such as fundraising for low-income Palestinians, organizing youth education, etc.), which she conducts among Hamas Palestinians in the context of expanding the organization's influence. This helped Hamas gain the support of the Palestinians and channel some of the conflict into a religious dimension. Irina Zvyagelska notes that if the settlement of the conflict was accompanied by an improvement in the welfare of Palestinians, the chances of Hamas influence would be significantly reduced. The question of whether the Hamas programming document and its postulate correlates with the real attitude of ordinary Hamas members or leaders to, for example, Jews living outside Israel is undoubtedly important. The question is whether the creation of Hamas influenced the Palestinians, making the religious factor more important and visible in protest circles, or vice versa - Hamas appeared because there was already a certain social demand for the emergence of such a movement. There is a version that, at the very beginning of Hamas's existence, Israeli intelligence services, while underestimating the newly-born structure, were interested in strengthening it to use Hamas in its fight against ORP, seeing it as a more serious threat. During the Second Hamad Intifada, a large number of Palestinian youth were mobilized under flags with radical religious slogans that called for an uncompromising struggle against Israel as occupier, with settlers in the Gaza Strip and with Israeli military, as well as with Israeli soldiers. A brief analysis of some of the HAMAS Charter abstracts and the movement's activities shows a very high level of involvement of the religious component in the Arab-Israeli conflict. HAMAS plays an extremely important role in the Gaza Strip and in the region as a whole. Investigating not only their political activism but also their ideological base is a crucial point for understanding the situation not only among Palestinians and Israelis, but throughout the Middle East. The HAMAS example also shows that the involvement of a religious factor in social conflict significantly increases the risk of exacerbation of the conflict and its transition to a protracted phase with uncertain prospects for peace negotiations. However, the activities of HAMAS show that it is focused on achieving not only purely religious but also specific political, economic, educational and other social and cultural goals. Therefore, in our opinion, it is also possible to rely on these other aspects of HAMAS's efforts to seek peace or at least start peace talks. This should be the subject of a separate future study. Keywords: religious conflict, HAMAS, Islam, Judaism, Arab-Israeli conflict, Palestinian-Israeli conflict.