Mosab Hassan Yousef: My Father Founded Hamas | Stories of Us

the fact that Hamas use their own children as human Shields should not give Hamas a ticket to more power and to more territory and to more money my name is musab Hassan Yousef and this is my [Music] story I was born in the West Bank of the Jordanian River I was brought up in a Islamic religious family um my father was a Muslim Brotherhood leader later he became a Hamas leader and uh the honest truth he was very uh very good dead he loved me within the best of his ability my parents told us that we were going to heaven and the non-muslims the Jews the Christians the rest of the world if they don't convert to Islam they are doomed to hell when I was a child I witnessed lots of killing and violence there was no government lots of chaos and disorder people were literally killing each other in the streets I'm talking about internal Palestinian conflict uh where a father would actually kill his daughter or a brother would kill his sister for Anna I was beaten up in the school on the hands of the principal I was beaten up in the street I was beaten up on the hands of the Imam at the mosque it was not easy for a child wherever you go you just uh have to survive I was always running for my life there was a Muslim Brotherhood and the summer camps which uh I would participate in those camps go with my father and the Muslim Brotherhood was actually preparing a generation of Warriors I did not understand that that was preparation for the birth of [Music] militia at the beginning of Hamas Hamas was a very secretive movement so my father did not talk about that or his involvement with Hamas uh even though uh he was one of the founders of Hamas Hamas invested lots of work in indoctrination when you recruit people by the name of the nation and by the name name of God you can grow uh like wildfire I became involved because um I was following the lead of my father my father is a revolutionary leader a religious leader and I want to be that I don't want to be the follower I wanted to be the leader without killing for the cause was totally justified we were taught that there were no Israeli civilians at all that everybody was a soldier they could twist any Scripture to serve their political agendas the PLO the Palestinian Liberation Organization they invested lots of money and lots of energy in turning the Palestinians or the Arabs in the West Bank and in Gaza Shri to disobey Israel to erupt violence to launch the intifada ethnic cleansing commed by Hamas they thought fighting Israel from within is a lot more effective than fighting Israel from abroad suicide bombing attack uh waves stabbing attacks and mass shooting start happening and this is when Israel had to do Extreme Measures and uh prevented many Arabs from the West Bank to cross into Israel because they didn't know who was a suicide M and who wasn't so uh we hear about all the stories of the Freedom Fighters you know having the guns and just shooting the occupiers colonizers so we wanted to follow that lead we wanted to be the tough guys and this is how I got in trouble I purchased guns even before I became 18 with actually intention to form uh a military cell Israel was on our tail the moment we got the guns all of us were arrested in no time my arrest was not easy unfortunately I got beaten up by the Israeli soldiers uh which basically against the Israeli law uh but in war there there are violations and I was a victim of that situation and Israel was so desperate to know the masterminds of suicide bombing attacks they had to put physical pressure on Hamas uh military Wing one of the Israeli intelligence recruiters he offered me that uh we work together to stop suicide bombing attacks for the sake of a humanity and uh I was thinking to myself this is my opportunity I will just say yes and the moment uh they trust me I'm going to destroy them my first intention was to be a double agent against Israel not to work for Israel and I thought I would just destroy them from within when I was transferred to uh the main prison were other Hamas members where I told Hamas my story I told him I need support I agreed to work with the Israeli intelligence and I wanted to just kill all of them everybody who laid hand on me this is my intention now Hamas said it was not convincing so instead of helping me actually they started inating me as a suspect so I told them you must be out of your mind I wouldn't betray my father but they did not believe and for about 16 months in Israel prison I struggled with this thing they did not torture me but it was during a time where they were torturing people for for suspicion of collaborating with Israel Hamas was torturing people in Israeli prison yes it was like a nightmare they were killing other people for being suspects but in my case they did not touch me because of my father's reputation Hamas leaders in prison weren't just any leaders they were the top Hamas leaders I met those people in person I saw them in action I saw their brutality and they had no mercy they had no mercy towards Israel they had no mercy towards Palestinians and they had no mercy without evidence I came to the realization the hard way that if Hamas succeeded in destroying Israel and building an Islamic State their state it would be an absolute waste of life for something that is going to be only ugly they tortured people they made people create stories that weren't true hence many people were killed and they were innocent people it made me ask big questions about Hamas there true nature and their possible future when I was released from prison I thought to myself on one hand I cannot work for Israel because there is nothing in common between me and them and I cannot work for Hamas anymore but I was surprised when Hamas security Wing came knocking on my door to follow up on the case inside prison There Is No Escape from this people and I didn't know how to protect myself the cause is the most important in that culture uh Hamas choose their ideology over the uh well-being and the future of an entire generation so my father is no different and in fact my father was the first to betray me when he had to choose between the cause and his own flesh his own son he choose the cause Israel came to follow up for my promise to stop suicide bombing attacks and I I was afraid that they were actually going to punish me for having the original intention of being a double agan and the answer was son you don't have to worry about this many people start like this with us you know they hate us it's part of your culture you don't know who we are but now you need to understand that your life is in danger they said we can help you with this this is the least we can do their entire work was to protect me from Hamas so for me as a youngster I came from a society of savages into the most advanced uh intelligence service in the world so for about 4 to 6 years of a very serious work we were able to deconstruct the Hamas operation in the entire West Bank the payment for me it was the protection because I did not trust Hamas anymore I did not even trust my father anymore and I was able to trust the Israeli intelligence because they did practical steps immediately of uh giving me cover giving me the knowledge that I needed the operation was very dangerous and Hamas was already in suspicion of me so uh I decided to just leave uh the territory I could not go to any Arab country and the best most secure place uh was the United States so this is why I migrated to the US I thought something could happen to me and uh I did not want my experience uh in the Middle East to go in void uh so I felt the need to document it and this is why we start writing the book but I did not want my father to hear from the media or from uh the TV uh so um I called him it was a short window while he was in Israeli prison and I told him the truth it was the hardest conversation I ever had I have to say so when I told him the story uh he went silent I broke the sil and said told him listen Dad if you want to disown me you can go ahead and I know this is very hard on you and I know that you have to protect my brothers cuz in that culture if I wasn't there and my father did not disown me other tribes have the right to kill any of my siblings on my behalf this is how brutal that culture there is no mercy in this case so he told me this is not a choice this is not an option he said you will always be my son and I will always love and this was his final [Music] words two days later I heard from the media that he disowned me and this was the last conversation I had with [Music] him um it was very hard at the beginning the guilt that came with it to get my entire family stained by shame while they still live there this was the only part that was out of my control because I was here in the United States and I was protected by by a new country by a new system that validated actually what I did from moral point of view but for my for the rest of my family they were still there and they had to deal with this for the rest of their lives I understood the consequences of such uh a decision it was my moral responsibility to write the book and my entire life was sacrificed everything all I uh was trying to do to save human lives all I was trying to do is to see a higher truth than the conditioning of my Society revenge is a fundamental part of that culture it's all about honor and shame it's not about right and wrong violence against non-muslims is rooted in Islam whether we like it or not we don't want Hamas ideology and the Muslim Brotherhood ideology to spread uh we have to counter it that's part of our moral responsibility towards the world especially our allies you know Israel is a great Ally America as a superpower has responsibility uh towards uh Global Security we depend on the rest of the world we depend on the Middle East not only for energy but we depend on the security and the stability of the region because if that goes out of control our Commerce our way of life everything that we do will be uh jeopardized the fact that Hamas used their own children as human Shields should not give Hamas a ticket to more power and to more territory and to more money Hamas goal is beyond the river and the sea is beyond any political border is beyond Israel hamas's aspiration is global and if Israel fails to destroy Hamas in Gaza it will be the birth of a Empire of savages and we cannot allow this to happen because if Hamas succeed in bringing Israel to its knees many other islamists can do the same and there would be so many of them the Muslim Brotherhood is here in the United States we see islamists and Communists marching together in the same street having a common goal and their goal is the destruction and the fall of the American civilization how could any American not consider this as an immediate threat is this the time when the Allies abandon their friends just because we have some angry Pro Palestine thinking that this is a cool thing exploiting the American freedoms they anti- civilization they anti-america they're anti Freedom if Hamas laid down their weapons today there will be peace but if Israel laid down their weapons there would be destruction of the western civilization this is why I speak as loud as I can [Music]