Press Briefing: ‘Son of Hamas’

On Tuesday afternoon, theTrumpet.com attended a press conference at Media Central in Jerusalem for former Hamas supporter-turned Israeli informant Mosab Hassan Yousef. Mosab was born in 1978 in Ramallah, to a devoutly Islamic family.

As the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the seven founding fathers of Hamas, Mosab has firsthand experience of life inside the terrorist organization, which he expounds on in his autobiography: Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices.

In 1997, Mosab turned his back on the ideology of Hamas and began working undercover for Shin Bet, Israel’s security agency. His secret cooperation with Shin Bet over the next 10 years helped stop dozens of terrorist attacks and capture various Hamas militants. In 2007, Mosab moved to California, where he went public with his story, wrote his book and was later granted political asylum.

Now the “son of Hamas” is back in Israel for the first time, on a month-long lecture tour to spread his story and warn the youth of the next generation of the ideology behind Hamas.

Mosab told reporters:

As we see what’s happening in Egypt right now—they think it’s accidentally—that they had to witness the birth of Hamas, that was born in the womb of the Muslim Brotherhood. There is no difference—there is no difference between Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. When the Muslim Brotherhood won the elections yesterday in Egypt, this means that Hamas took over Egypt. The southern border of Israel right now is in danger.Now when we’re facing this type of problem, and we understand the ideological depth of it, if we keep insisting on ignoring that fact, we will have more terrorism, we will have more extremism, and this new generation will destroy itself and cause a huge damage to the body of humanity.

Retired Shin Bet agent Gonen Ben-Itzhak and American film producer Sam Feuer joined Mosab for the press conference, which drew dozens of Israeli and foreign journalists. Ben-Itzhak worked with Mosab during his stint working for Shin Bet and testified on his behalf when he was up for political asylum.

Mosab also used the press conference to announce his plans for a new film production, currently titled Mohammed, that he and Feuer will be producing in order to tell the little-known history of Islam’s most revered prophet.