Abbas Renews Policy To Humiliate Hamas

Expect a new demand for barbers on the West Bank - especially those with expertise in shaving long Hamas beards! HaHa.

Palestinian leader Abbas has renewed a policy first started by Arafat, that calls for the shaving off of beards of Hamas men who have posed security problems.

Apparently, a clean shaven Hamas face is abhorred by the terrorists!

My idea for humiliation of these thugs would differ a bit but hey, if it works....

Here's the story from Jerusalem Post.

Dec 2, 2007 0:20 Updated Dec 2, 2007 10:40
PA renews policy of shaving Hamas men's beards

Nearly a decade ago, former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat was so upset with Hamas that he ordered his security forces to arrest leaders of the Islamist movement and shave their beards

The move was intended to humiliate the Hamas leaders, who were embarrassed to appear in public beardless after they were freed. Many Hamas members then shaved their beards voluntarily to avoid being arrested by the PA security forces.
Now Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose forces are working hard to thwart any attempt by Hamas to seize the West Bank, has renewed the policy of shaving the beards of Hamas figures. A senior Hamas figure from the village of Skaka near Nablus is the latest victim of the beard-shaving policy.
Sheikh Husam Harb, 48, who has been wearing a beard ever since he was a teenager, was arrested by Abbas's security forces in mid-October on charges of membership in Hamas.
Last week villagers who went to congratulate him upon his release from prison were shocked to see him sitting at home without a beard.
The sheikh said the Palestinian security forces shaved his beard shortly before releasing him. "The security agents came to my cell in the evening and informed me of the decision to shave my beard, which I've had for 25 years," he recounted. "The whole act lasted only a few minutes. I was so shocked that I couldn't sleep all night."