This event will be a launch for Understanding Hamas And Why That Matters co-edited by Helena Cobban and Rami G. Khouri, published by OR Books.

Across Western mainstream discourse, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas has been subjected to intense vilification. Branding it as “terrorist” or worse, this demonisation intensified after the events in Southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

This book does not advocate for or against Hamas. Rather, in a series of rich and probing conversations with leading experts, it aims to deepen understanding of a movement that is a key player in the current crisis. It looks at, among other things, Hamas’s critical shift from social and religious activism to national political engagement; the delicate balance between Hamas's political and military wings; and its transformation from early anti-Jewish tendencies to a stance that differentiates between Judaism and Zionism.

Meet our speakers and chair

Catherine Charrett is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Westminster. Catherine's research interests include anti-colonial and anti-imperial perspectives on sovereignty and diplomacy. Catherine's doctoral research, completed at Aberystwyth University (2010-2014) was on EU-Hamas diplomacy following the 2006 Palestinian legislative elections. Catherine has published this work with Routledge, Interventions Book Series and several leading journals. 

Helena Cobban is a writer and researcher on international affairs. In 1984, Cambridge U.P. published her seminal study The Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Three of her six other sole-authored books dealt with political and strategic developments in the Arab-Israeli theater, the rest with more global matters. For 17 years she contributed a regular column on global issues to The Christian Science Monitor and Al-Hayat (London). In 2010 she founded Just World Booksa and in 2016 she was a co-founder of Just World Educational, which she now serves as president.

Jeroen Gunning is Visiting Professor at the LSE Middle East Centre and Professor of Middle Eastern Politics and Conflict Studies in the Department of Political Economy and at the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King's College London. He is one of the founders of the field of critical terrorism studies and has taught and advised both policy-makers and civil society organisations. His publications include Hamas in Politics: Democracy, Religion, Violence (Hurst/CUP 2007/2008) and, with Ilan Baron, Why Occupy a Square? People, Protests and Movements in the Egyptian Revolution (Hurst/OUP 2013/14).

Mouin Rabbani is co-editor of Jadaliyya, is managing editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development and a former senior analyst on Israel-Palestine for the International Crisis Group.

Michael Mason is Director of the Middle East Centre. At LSE, he is also Professor of Environmental Geography in the Department of Geography and Environment and an Associate of the Grantham Research Institute for Climate Change and the Environment. He is interested in ecological politics and governance as applied to questions of accountability, security and sovereignty. This research addresses both global environmental politics and regional environmental change in Western Asia/the Middle East.