OPINION:
As a fragile ceasefire takes hold in the Gaza Strip, Hamas is clinging to power and the hope of sustaining its dark vision for the territory. The terrorist group is trying to reorganize, biding its time until it is again able to threaten the lives of millions of Israelis.
One of Hamas’ latest maneuvers might be subtle, but it has underappreciated strategic importance. Under the guise of the Trump-brokered ceasefire, Hamas has reportedly authorized the appointment of Amjad Shawa — a veteran of Gaza’s nongovernmental organization establishment and, according to sources in Gaza, “pro-Hamas without being a Hamas man” — to head a “technocratic” committee to oversee the enclave’s rebuilding after two years of war.
This appointment risks condemning Gaza to another cycle of Hamas-driven violence and leaving the prospects of peace as remote as ever before.
Mr. Shawa’s resume should concern anyone earnestly dedicated to deradicalizing Gaza and isolating Hamas, according to investigations conducted by NGO Monitor, the independent research institute where I work. Mr. Shawa serves as the director general of the Palestinian NGO Network. This umbrella organization has repeatedly opposed U.S. and European Union anti-terrorism funding rules, including restrictions that prevent funding to individuals and entities sanctioned by the EU, most notably Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
In this campaign against anti-terrorism funding regulations, Mr. Shawa’s Palestinian NGO Network made the absurd claim that the “Palestinian political context differs from other comparative regional armed conflict contexts in which the term ‘terrorism’ applies,” and “therefore, the struggle of the Palestinian people … must not be regarded as terrorism.”
Likewise, in 2021, the Palestinian NGO Network condemned Britain’s designation of Hamas as a terrorist organization, and after the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre, issued a statement praising the “honorable image” of Palestinians who invaded Israel — a bloody endorsement of mass atrocities that challenges its image as a supposed humanitarian framework. Nevertheless, the Palestinian NGO Network has ironically been included for years in the United Nations Humanitarian Pooled Fund, helping to determine how emergency aid is allocated in Gaza and the West Bank, with Mr. Shawa serving in a “key coordination” role.
Mr. Shawa’s troubling activities are not restricted to the Palestinian NGO Network. Concurrently, he serves as deputy commissioner general of the Independent Commission for Human Rights, a pseudo nongovernmental organization founded by Yasser Arafat in 1993 that operates as a propaganda vehicle under the Palestinian Authority. Recently, several European countries, including Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, launched investigations over concerns that their funding to the commission may have been diverted to Hamas.
Furthermore, Independent Commission for Human Rights leaders met with senior Hamas officials, including Oct. 7 orchestrator Ismail Haniyeh, and were involved with training Gaza’s Hamas-run police force. All indications are that Mr. Shawa’s appointment would thus ensure that Gaza’s new “technocratic” government will not be inclined to sideline Hamas, the entity it supposedly exists to replace.
Instead, this new role would formalize and expand his powers, cementing his status as gatekeeper of Gaza’s reconstruction. Given the Independent Commission for Human Rights’ and Palestinian NGO Network’s glorification of Palestinian terrorism and campaigns against anti-terror regulations under his leadership and Hamas’ endorsement, Mr. Shawa’s appointment is consistent with Hamas’ strategy of returning Gaza to its Oct. 6, 2023, status as a sphere of Hamas influence.
For the U.S. and Israel, the lesson should be equally clear. Diplomacy that treats Hamas-sympathetic nongovernmental organizations and their leaders as partners guarantees repetition of past failures. Enabling and even funding enemies and their surrogates in exchange for quiet does not pay off in the long term. Peace can begin on paper, but it needs to end on the ground with a disarmed Hamas and a terrorist-free governing structure for Gaza.
It is imperative for the world to understand that support for Mr. Shawa’s appointment marks a new, quieter phase of Hamas’ strategy. The terrorist group knows it cannot return to full-scale war now, but it clearly seeks to maintain its grip over Gaza. There is an alarming danger that Hamas will again embed itself in the institutions of aid and human rights that oversee the “day after,” which would allow the organization to overcome its military losses and secure ongoing international support.
For Gaza’s people as well as Israelis, this would be a regressive tragedy. Anyone who truly wants the best for them must deny Hamas control of Gaza’s tomorrow.
• Vincent Chebat is senior researcher at NGO Monitor.
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