But Hasan called Hamas more moderate.

In the Channel 4 interview, Matt Frei asked Hasan why he framed Palestinian resistance through Hamas despite its unpopularity in Gaza, violent repression of dissent, and the October 7 attacks. Hasan answered: “I think Hamas’ current position, as far as I understand it, is far more moderate than its position was at its inception.” He added that Hamas had recognized it was “virtually impossible to advance this vengeance quest against Israel.”

Hasan was comparing Hamas’s stated political program in 2017 with its founding position in 1988. He was discussing changes in Hamas’s political documents and stated objectives.

Hamas’s 1988 founding charter and its 2017 Document of General Principles and Policies differ in important ways: the 2017 document described an independent Palestinian state along the 1967 lines as a “formula of national consensus” and framed the conflict as being with the Zionist project rather than with Jews as a religion. The document did not recognize Israel, preserved the claim to all of historic Palestine, and retained armed resistance. The change shows repositioning.

Hasan also put the statement inside his account of the occupation: he described Gaza as a hermetically sealed open-air prison before October 7 and argued that some of Hamas’s brutality in governance stems from those conditions. He said he does not support Hamas governing Gaza, acknowledged that war crimes occurred on October 7, and argued that Palestinians have a right to resist militarily.

The quote is real, and Hamas’s stated political program changed in some respects between 1988 and 2017. “More moderate” describes that relative change.