The Shin Bet considered Yousef to be Israel's most valuable source within the Hamas leadership: the information he supplied allowed Israel to successfully thwart dozens of Palestinian suicide attacks against civilians and prevent the assassinations of many Israeli civilians and soldiers; exposed numerous Hamas terrorist cells; and assisted Israeli authorities in hunting down Palestinian militants. His efforts also culminated in the incarceration of his father, who had served as a leading figure for Hamas terrorist operations from the West Bank.[4][5] In March 2010, Yousef published his autobiography, titled Son of Hamas.[6]
In 1999, Yousef converted to Christianity from Islam, being formally baptised in 2004, but did not disclose this fact to the public until 2008 due to fears that his family members in Ramallah would become targets for religious persecution by Islamist groups.[7][1] In 2007, he left the West Bank and moved to the United States where he applied for political asylum and had his request granted by American authorities in 2010 following Shin Bet handler Gonen Ben Itzhak testifying on his behalf.[8] Yousef has compared Islam to Nazism,[9] has said he has "zero respect for anyone who identifies as Muslim", and accused Muslims of using Palestine as “a device against Israel”.[10][11] Palestinian students and community leaders at university campuses have accused him of Islamophobia, and his speeches have attracted protests both in support of and opposition to his controversial views.[12][13][14]
Early life and family
Mosab Hassan Yousef was born in Ramallah, in the West Bank. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, is a Hamas co-founder who spent many years in Israeli prisons as a result of his terrorist activities.[1][15] His grandfather was an imam.[16] He is the oldest of five brothers and three sisters; in 2019, one of his brothers, Suheib Yousef, also left Hamas.[1][17][18]
He has described his upbringing as traditional, noting that he initially supported Hamas’s political stance before his later break with the group’s methods. Growing up, Yousef has said he wanted to be a ‘fighter’ because that was expected of Palestinian children in the West Bank.[19] Yousef was first arrested by the IDF when he was ten, during the First Intifada, for throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers and/or settlers.[19][clarification needed] As his father's eldest son, he was seen as his heir apparent.[1]
Defection to Israel
Yousef said he saw the light after a stint in an Israeli jail during the mid-1990s. At Megiddo Prison, he witnessed Hamas inmates leading a brutal year-long campaign to weed out supposed Israeli collaborators. "During that time, Hamas tortured and killed hundreds of prisoners," he said, recalling vivid memories of needles being inserted under fingernails and bodies charred with burning plastics. Many, if not all, had nothing to do with Israeli intelligence. "I will never forget their screams," he continued. "I started asking myself a question. What if Hamas succeeded in destroying Israel and building a state. Will they destroy our people in this way?"[20]
Yousef said that his doubts about Islam and Hamas began forming when he realized Hamas' brutality, and that he hated how Hamas used the lives of suffering civilians and children to achieve its goals.[1] Yousef was held by Shin Bet agents in 1996. While in prison, he decided to accept a Shin Bet offer to become an informant, on the basis that,
Mosab observed firsthand the craziness of the cycle of violence. Mosab began to question who his real enemies were: the Hamas leaders who tortured their fellow Palestinian prisoners, or the Shin Bet, who arrested and imprisoned him. Over the 16 months that Mosab was in prison, the answer became clear, and this persuaded Mosab to go undercover for the Shin Bet. Gonen, whose code name was "Captain Loai," became Mosab's handler. Mosab's reports led to the arrests of several high-ranking Palestinian figures. As we worked together to prevent the deaths of hundreds of Israelis and Palestinians, the two of us became friends.[21][22]
Espionage career
Beginning with his release from prison in 1997, Yousef was considered the Shin Bet's most reliable source in the Hamas leadership, earning himself the nickname "The Green Prince" – using the color of the Islamist group's flag, and "prince" because of his pedigree as the son of one of the movement's founders. The intelligence he supplied to Israel led to the exposure of many Hamas cells, as well as the prevention of dozens of suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Jews. He has said that he did not inform for money, but rather that his motivations were ideological and religious, and that he only wanted to save lives.[23]
Yousef says he supplied intelligence only on the condition that the "targets" would not be killed, but arrested. This led to the detention of several key Palestinian leaders, including Ibrahim Hamid, a Hamas commander in the West Bank, and Marwan Barghouti. Yousef also claims to have thwarted a 2001 plot to assassinate Shimon Peres, then foreign minister and later President of Israel. According to his former Shin Bet officer, "Many people owe him their lives and don't even know it."[23] Former Shin Bet Deputy Chief Gideon Ezra said "there are hundreds of collaborators like him. He is not unusual. He just decided to write a book about it", though many other Israeli officials have also praised his work.[24]
Yousef's brother Ouwais denounced a Haaretz report about his brother's activities, saying: "It was full of lies; it's all lies." Ouwais also revealed that the last contact between his family and Mosab took place more than a year before the news of his spying.[25] The Haaretz report on Yousef was described by Hamas MP Mushir al-Masri as "psychological war being waged against the Palestinian people... [it] did not deserve a response".[25] Sheikh Hassan Yousef, Mosab's father, while in an Israeli prison, disowned his son for spying for Israel.[5]
In May 2016, talking to a Jerusalem Post conference in New York, Yousef said that at one point, he was simultaneously working for and being paid by Israel, the United States, the Palestinian Authority, and Hamas. He went on to say that Islam as a whole is comparable to Nazism, and must be defeated.[9]
Conversion to Christianity
Yousef met a British missionary in 1999 who introduced him to Christianity.[1] Between the years 1999 and 2000, Yousef gradually embraced Christianity. In 2005, he was secretly baptized in Tel Aviv by an unidentified Christian tourist. He left the West Bank for the United States in 2007, and lived some time in San Diego, California, where he joined the Barabbas Road Church.[1]
In August 2008, Yousef publicly revealed his Christianity, and renounced Hamas and the Arab leadership, thereby endangering himself and exposing his family in Ramallah to persecution by Hamas and other Islamist terrorist groups.[1] Yousef has also claimed that his aim was to bring peace to the Middle East; he hopes to return to his homeland when there is peace.[1]
Political asylum in the United States
For a time, Yousef was threatened with deportation from the U.S., after his request for political asylum was denied, since statements in his book about working for Hamas were interpreted as "providing material support to a U.S.-designated terrorist organization", despite Yousef's explanation that they were "intended to undermine the group". His case then proceeded to the deportation stage, despite Yousef's advocates' warning that he would likely be executed by the Palestinian Authority if deported to the West Bank.[26]
On 24 June 2010, Shin Bet handler Gonen Ben Itzhak, who for 10 years worked with Yousef under the cryptonym "Loai", revealed his own identity in order to testify on behalf of Yousef at an immigration hearing in San Diego. Ben Itzhak described Yousef as a "true friend", and said, "he risked his life every day in order to prevent violence".[27][28] Partially as a result of this, Immigration Court Judge Richard J. Bartolomei, Jr., ruled on 30 June 2010, that Yousef would be allowed to remain in the United States after being fingerprinted and passing a routine background check.[8] On 23 October 2023, Yousef stated that he holds United States citizenship while speaking to American journalist Jake Tapper in a televised interview.[29]
Views on Islam and Muslims
In 2016, Yousef said Islam as a whole is comparable to Nazism, and must be defeated.[9] At a 2012 event, Yousef said "Islam is not a religion of peace." Yousef tweeted "If I have to choose between 1.6 billion Muslims and a cow, I will choose the cow."[30] He has stated: "I have zero respect for any individual who identifies as a Muslim."[10] In 2021, the Council on American–Islamic Relations accused Yousef, depiste being an ex-Muslim, of being Islamophobic, citing several past statements.[10]
Amidst the Israel-Hamas war following the October 7 massacre of Israelis by Palestinians, Yousef said the cause of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict was not primarily driven by the occupation of the West Bank since 2000, or an argument over the distribution of land among peoples, but the "Islamic, religious identity" of Hamas, about which he said "you cannot weaponize your Islamic, religious identity against a religious minority and expect to get away with it. I have to call them out."[31]
In March 2024, Indiana UniversityHillel invited Yousef to speak, provoking a backlash from student groups who accused Yousef of Islamophobia.[10] The event was postponed.[10] In April 2024, Students Supporting Israel hosted Yousef at Columbia University, amid allegations by opposing student groups that Yousef "promoted Islamophobia".[32]
In May 2024, Yousef spoke at UCSD, where he said that Egypt should open up the Gaza-Egypt border so that the IDF could "burn" the city of Rafah.[33] At the event, Yousef said he never advocated for killing Muslims. The speech was protested by students who accused ex-Muslim Mosab Hassan Yousef of Islamophobia.[12]
The next day, Yousef tweeted a photo of a Muslim religious leader on campus with the sentence, "Can someone do me a favor and remove him from campus so the students can focus on their education?" An open letter signed by Christian and Muslim religious leaders claimed the tweet was a threat and incitement to violence, though no threats or violence occurred.[2][34]
Yousef admits that his views on Islam have caused him issues:[31]
Most people don't want to face the truth. When I touch the religious and ideological aspect of the conflict, which is fundamental — I cannot ignore it — when I say Islam is a problem, many Jewish organizations say: Wait a moment, he will be considered an Islamophobe, that's not how we want to represent ourselves.
Autobiography and documentaries
Yousef's co-authored autobiography, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices, written with the assistance of Ron Brackin, was published in March 2010.[4][35]Son of Hamas was on The New York Times Best Seller list for two weeks in March 2010.[3]
Yousef collaborated with US-based actor and film producer Sam Feuer in the production of two films: a feature film adaptation of Yousef's book Son of Hamas and documentary The Green Prince, and a historical depiction of the life of the Muslim prophet Muhammad based on the accounts of eighth-century historian Ibn Ishaq.[36] A documentary adaptation of Son of Hamas titled The Green Prince, directed and written by Nadav Schirman, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival,[37] where it won the Audience Award for World Cinema: Documentary. The Green Prince will be re-made into a live-action feature film.[38]
Hassan Yousef, Mosab; Becket, James (2024). From Hamas to America: My Story of Defying Terror, Facing the Unimaginable, and Finding Redemption in the Land of Opportunity (Firsted.). Forefront Books. ISBN978-1637633182.
The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas, is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islamist political organisation with a military wing called the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades. It has governed the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip since 2007.
The Second Intifada, also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada, was a major uprising by Palestinians against Israel and its occupation from 2000. The period of heightened violence in the Palestinian territories and Israel continued until the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit of 2005, which ended hostilities.
The Israel Security Agency, better known by the acronyms Shabak or Shin Bet, is Israel's internal security service. Its motto is "Magen v'lo Yera'eh". The Shin Bet's headquarters are located in northwest Tel Aviv, north of Yarkon Park.
Yahya Abd-al-Latif Ayyash was the chief bombmaker of Hamas and the leader of the West Bank battalion of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. In that capacity, he earned the nickname "the Engineer". Ayyash is credited with advancing the technique of suicide bombings against Israel by Palestinian militant groups. The bombings he orchestrated killed approximately 90 Israelis, many of them civilians. He was assassinated by the Shin Bet on January 5, 1996, through a booby-trapped mobile phone.
As part of the Arab–Israeli conflict, especially during the Second Intifada from 2000 to 2005, Palestinian militant groups allegedly used children for suicide bombings. Minors were sometimes used as messengers and couriers, and according to Israeli sources as fighters. However, no evidence was found of systematic recruitment of children by Palestinian armed groups. The involvement of children in armed conflict was condemned by international human rights organizations.
Muhammad Hassan Abu Tir is a member of Hamas and a representative on the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) for his East Jerusalem constituency. He was elected to the position in the Palestinian legislative elections that were held on 25 January 2006. Abu Tir is known for his bright orange henna-dyed beard which separates him from most other politicians and members of his community. He tended to keep a low media profile before he was placed in Israeli prison for four years: On 29 June 2006, Abu Tir was arrested by Israeli military authorities in the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict. He was held until June 2010, after which Israel ordered him to leave the country because he refused to resign from the Hamas legislature. In June 2010, he was rearrested after he failed to leave East Jerusalem.
Ahmed al-Jabari, also known as Abu Mohammad, was a senior leader and second-in-command of the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. He was widely credited as the leading figure in the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, and commanded the 2006 Hamas cross-border raid which resulted in the capture of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Under his command, along with chief logistics officer Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, Hamas developed its own military weapons capability significantly by acquiring longer-range guided missiles and rockets.
Ahmed Yousef was a senior adviser to Gaza's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and remains close to current Hamas leadership. Beginning in 1968, Ahmed Yousef was the pupil of the founder of Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Yousef previously served as the Executive Director of the United Association for Studies and Research, a U.S.-based non-profit organization that has been called a front operation for Hamas. He also served as editor of UASR’s quarterly journal The Middle East Affairs Journal. Yousef returned to Gaza in 2005 following the withdrawal of the Israeli army and the victory of Hamas in the legislative elections. In 2006 he was appointed as the political advisor to then-Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. He is now the head of the House of Wisdom Institution for Conflict Resolution and Governance in Gaza.
The Islamic Movement in Israel is an Islamist movement that advocates for Islam in Israel, particularly among Arabs and Circassians.
Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) is a Washington, DC-based think tank and policy center with a pro-Israel stance that works to promote their views in media coverage of the Arab–Israeli conflict in the Middle East
Ameer Makhoul is a Palestinian Christian citizen of Israel and the director of the Haifa-based Ittijah, the Union of Arab Community-Based Associations.
The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, popularly known as Mossad, is the national intelligence agency of the State of Israel. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman and Shin Bet.
The 2010 Palestinian militancy campaign was a coordinated effort by 13 Palestinian militant groups, led by Islamist group Hamas, to derail peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The campaign consisted of attacks against Israelis in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Israel in which, according to a Hamas declaration in early September, "all options are open". The participating groups also included Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and an unnamed splinter group of Fatah. Some Israeli and Palestinian officials and analysts familiar with Hamas believe that the true target of the campaign is the Palestinian Authority, which is led by Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah.
Hassan Yousef is a Palestinian militant and co-founder of Hamas who currently serves as organization's leader in the West Bank.
The Green Prince is a 2014 documentary film directed by Nadav Schirman. It is based on the autobiography of Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices.
Bezalel Yoel Smotrich is an Israeli far-right politician and lawyer who has served as the Minister of Finance since 2022. The leader of the National Religious Party–Religious Zionism, he previously served as a Knesset member for the Jewish Home and Yamina.
Saleh Muhammad Sulayman al-Arouri, also transliterated as Salah al-Arouri or Salih al-Aruri, was a Palestinian politician and senior leader of Hamas who served as deputy chairman of the Hamas Political Bureau from October 2017 until his assassination in January 2024. He was a founding commander of its military wing, the Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades and also served as the Hamas's military commander of the West Bank, although he lived in Lebanon at the time of his assassination.
An increase of violence occurred in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict starting in the autumn of 2015 and lasting into the first half of 2016. It was called the "Intifada of the Individuals" by Israeli sources, the Knife Intifada, Stabbing Intifada or Jerusalem Intifada by international sources because of the many stabbings in Jerusalem, or Habba by Palestinian sources. 38 Israelis and 235 Palestinians were killed in the violence. 558 Israelis and thousands of Palestinians were injured.
Gonen Ben Itzhak is an Israeli lawyer, former Shin Bet coordinator, and social activist. He is one of the former handlers of undercover informant Mosab Hassan Yousef. He is one of the leading figures in the protests against Benjamin Netanyahu, and is among the founders of the anti-Netanyahu protest movement "Crime Minister".
Megiddo Prison is an Israeli prison facility located near the Megiddo Junction.
References
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Elsworth, Catherine; Wheeler, Carolynne (25 August 2008) [2008-08-24]. "Mosab Hassan Yousef, Son of Hamas Leader, Becomes a Christian". The Daily Telegraph. London. Archived from the original on 27 February 2009. Retrieved 7 March 2010. Print edition: 25 August 2008 page 14. Originally published online 24 August 2008; timestamp of edition archived 25 August 2008 - 27 February 2009: "Last Updated: 2:21PM BST 24 Aug 2008". Timestamp of edition archived since 10 February 2010: "24 August 2008 • 2:19pm".{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
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