‘Green Prince’ to visit Australia
AS the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding leader of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef took up a unique opportunity to do something nobody would have dreamed of – he spied for Israel.
AS the eldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a founding leader of Hamas, Mosab Hassan Yousef took up a unique opportunity to do something nobody would have dreamed of – he spied for Israel.
From 1997 to 2007, the man who could have been destined for leadership in the Gaza-based terrorist organisation used his proximity to the inner circle of Hamas to keep Israel’s intelligence agency Shin Bet up to speed on terror plots. In fact, the Israelis considered him their most valuable resource inside Hamas.
The intelligence that Ramallah-born Yousef, now 39, supplied to Israel led to the exposure of a number of Hamas cells and to the prevention of many suicide bombings and assassination attempts on Israeli figures.
For his efforts, Yousef now lives under political asylum in the United States with a fatwa decree on his head. He has written about his experiences in The Son of Hamas, which was made into a documentary, The Green Prince.
Yousef’s childhood years pointed in a very different direction. Like many young Palestinians, he threw rocks at Israeli settlers and was arrested and jailed by Israeli authorities numerous times.
Set to visit Australia for the United Israel Appeal (UIA) campaign in March, the plucky Palestinian’s life changed inside an Israeli prison where he realised Israel’s interrogation methods were far more humane than those of Hamas, and that stories of Israeli brutality had been fabricated by his father’s terrorist outfit.
Released from prison in 1997, Yousef began spying for Shin Bet.
Asked by The AJN what it was that actually drove him to divulge information, he was introspective.
“There is not one cause or event which I can recall. A chain of events led me there.
“I fought with Israel against terrorists but I wasn’t an Israeli soldier. I am what I am. My fate brought me to many places.
The Israeli intelligence was one of them, and my guide has been, and always will be, my moral compass,” he said.
Yousef converted to Christianity after an encounter with a British missionary in Jerusalem in 1999. A New Testament bible he was given changed his outlook about non-Muslims, and he also began to see the brutality of Hamas’s exploitation of Palestinians.
But the mantle of Shin Bet’s Green Prince sat heavily. “Losing security, comfort and blood relations wasn’t easy, but my freedom and individuality come first,” he asserted.
Yousef does not know how many terrorist attacks his “solid information” to Shin Bet has thwarted, but it is said to be in the dozens.
In the US, he is regarded as a highly articulate speaker to audiences fascinated with his courageous transition, as chronicled in the book and film, and he is also a commentator on news channels.
Was it cathartic to write about his journey? “Expressing myself at such a level solved some problems yet created others [but] I am happy with the outcome of my choices,” he noted.
Yousef’s exile in the US is overshadowed by the ever-present threat of death from the religious decree proclaimed against him. “Trying to live a normal and quiet life, my focus is on breathing and staying positive.”
In his eyes, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict “is not only political, it is fundamental [but] Arabs and Muslims will eventually realise that Israel isn’t their enemy”.
What is in store for Yousef’s Australian UIA audiences?
“I will be sharing my first-hand experience on both sides of the deadly conflict,” he said, “its dynamics and the true nature of Hamas and other terrorist organisations”.
Mosab Yousef will speak at the UIA Victoria Women’s Division Brunch on Wednesday, March 7, 9.45am. Tickets $50.
He will speak at the YoungUIA campaign launch on the same day, at 7.15pm. Tickets $20. To book, visit www.uiaaustralia.org.au/our-events/vic.
Yousef will also be speaking at the Women’s Division Dinner in Perth. Tickets $70. To book, visit www.uiaaustralia.org.au/our-events/wa
AJN STAFF
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