The Iran-Hamas Alliance for Public Executions in Palestine

Iran suggested to Hamas that it should announce that people suspected of collaborating with Israel would be pardoned if they handed themselves in, and then execute them in public, as a way of influencing public opinion and deterring people from collaborating with Israel.

The suggestion came up in early April in a meeting held in Syria between Iran and Hamas, which was attended by senior officials from Hamas's intelligence and foiling disposition.

Hamas was told that in Iran, public executions were the most effective way of quelling the opposition's activity, and that sometimes people threatened with public execution were willing to go a long way in order to save themselves from public disgrace, preferring to be executed in private and avoid public humiliation for themselves and their families. For this reason, the Iranians advised Hamas that the more public executions there were, the better, and that Hamas shouldn't be put off by the threat of international criticism, since this was being aimed at both Hamas and Iran in any case.

In answer to a question from senior Hamas politicians, the senior member of Iranian intelligence attending the meeting said that it would be discovered in due course that the offer was a trap, but that Hamas was under no obligation to treat anyone collaborating with Israel fairly, and that once a large number of these facilitators had handed themselves in, there would be a mass public execution that would have a dramatic effect on public opinion. The whole process would also help Hamas improve its status inside the Gaza Strip, where internal difficulties and the external siege were diminishing its control.

Another Hamas man claimed that serious mistakes had been made in the past, when innocent people were executed on false charges of collaborating with the enemy. He said that at the end of the day, the people being executed by Hamas were petty criminals rather than collaborators, which would make it even harder for Hamas to achieve legitimization inside the Gaza Strip. As an example, he mentioned Nasser Abu Farakh, a small-time car thief who had confessed under interrogation to being an agent working for Israel, but who had turned out to have been nothing of the sort. The organization was having a hard time admitting this, despite allegations from Farakh's family. He also brought up other cases in which there was evidence of citizens exploiting Hamas's call to settle personal accounts with other citizens by incriminating them as collaborators and having them executed.

A major in the Syrian air force intelligence, who was running the course together with the Iranians, answered that the execution of petty criminals who were a scourge to Palestinian society would be no bad thing, and added that there was a proverb that said that all was fair in love and war, so there was no need to be deterred by this insignificant price that had to be paid.

On 8 May 2010, the first part of the plan was put into action, with Hamas's interior ministry in the Gaza Strip issuing a formal announcement which stated that all those collaborating with the forces of occupation were being offered a chance to hand themselves in by July 2010 and be pardoned. Due to the lack of response, and following Hamas's consultation with the Iranians in Syria, the Iranians recommended that Hamas issue a public announcement stating that many people had already handed themselves in, and that due to the success of the scheme, the movement was extending the deadline.