Son — Of Hamas

It was during that imprisonment that his ideological armor cracked. He was horrified by the brutality of Hamas operatives not just toward Israelis, but toward fellow Palestinians suspected of collaboration. He watched as the group’s leaders prioritized political power over the welfare of the people. Disillusioned, he made a fateful decision: he agreed to become an informant for the Shin Bet. Known by his Shin Bet code name, "The Green Prince" (a reference to the green flag of Hamas), Mosab became the most valuable asset the Israeli intelligence community ever recruited inside Hamas’s leadership. For nearly a decade (1997–2007), he systematically betrayed his own father’s organization.

Whether you view Mosab Yousef as a hero, a traitor, or a tragic figure, his story forces a chilling realization: In the bloody arithmetic of the Middle East, sometimes the son of the founder must become the enemy of his own people to become a friend of peace. Son Of Hamas

He was secretly baptized in a beachside ceremony in Tel Aviv. For his father and the Muslim world, this was the ultimate betrayal—far worse than spying for Israel. In Islam, apostasy is a capital offense. In the Palestinian national struggle, abandoning Islam for a Western faith is seen as siding with the Crusader-Zionist enemy. Mosab Yousef eventually fled to the United States, where he was granted political asylum. He remains a controversial and polarizing figure. It was during that imprisonment that his ideological

Son of Hamas remains a unique document. It is not a balanced history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it is a memoir of radical disillusionment. It challenges the simplistic binary of "resistance" vs. "occupation" by introducing a third path: absolute rejection of violence on both sides. Disillusioned, he made a fateful decision: he agreed

Son of Hamas is both a controversial autobiography and a geopolitical shockwave. Written by Mosab Hassan Yousef, the book offers a stunning, insider account of the Palestinian militant group Hamas—told by the man who was not only the son of its founder, but also a secret agent for Israel’s internal security service, the Shin Bet.

The title itself is a provocation. For Palestinians, Mosab Yousef is a musta’rib (an Arab who works for the enemy), a traitor of the highest order. For many Israelis, he is a hero. And for Christians, his story has become an unlikely testament to spiritual transformation. The book, published in 2010, forces readers to grapple with uncomfortable questions about loyalty, morality, and the nature of terrorism. Mosab Hassan Yousef was born in 1978 in Ramallah, in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. His father, Sheikh Hassan Yousef, was a founding leader of Hamas, the Islamist organization dedicated to Israel’s destruction. Growing up, Mosab was steeped in the militant ideology. He witnessed the brutal reality of the First Intifada (1987-1993), threw stones at Israeli soldiers, and was arrested by the Israeli military at age 18.