Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, spoke out at the UN on Monday about the horrors perpetrated by Hamas.
Yousef spoke about Hamas terror attacks, such as suicide bombings carried out against Israeli civilians, and the indoctrination of the population in Gaza – especially children – by the genocidal terrorist group that he was once intimately connected with.
“Today I can speak on the authority of [myself, having once been] a Palestinian child, someone who grew up in that culture," Youssef said.
“We’re talking about a religious group that does not believe in political borders and wants to annihilate an entire race in order to build an Islamic state. I don't know what else can be said about this – and I don't know why it is not obvious to everybody.”
Yousef, who wrote a book titled Son of Hamas in 2010, has rallied against the terror group since defecting in the 1990s. Yousef worked with Israeli counter-intelligence and helped the Mossad in various operations – including incarcerating his own father, Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef.
"Hamas' first crime against children in the Palestinian societies is not arming them or encouraging them to carry suicide bombing attacks – it's the religious ideological indoctrination that I had to go through with one intention in mind: to annihilate the State of Israel. This is Hamas's primary goal," Yousef said.
As "a 10-year-old child when I disobeyed Hamas, I was tied up to a post and I was whipped by a Hamas top leader. My father was in prison at that time and this leader thought that he was my mentor. This is Hamas discipline. This is how they wanted me to be... to become a violent savage like them," the defecting son said.
"Son of Hamas"
Youssef has long spoken publicly about his experiences growing up in the West Bank city of Ramallah as the son of Hassan Yousef, a co-founder of Hamas, being imprisoned, and becoming an informant and later advocate for Israel.
He’s also spoken on behalf of media groups, such as his address at the 2019 Jerusalem Post Annual Conference, and for NGOs such as in his 2017 speech at a UN Human Rights Council debate for UN Watch.
Youssef was also the subject of the 2014 documentary The Green Prince.
"I am not a part of propaganda. I don't work for anybody. I only represent myself and on this authority I speak, so don't be mistaken and [instead] take my words very carefully,” Youssef said in his remarks.
“Hamas is committing a crime against this generation and the next generations to come, so blaming Israel is not going to solve the problem."
Sam Halpern contributed to this report.