Hassan Yousef, Hamas Leader, Disowns Son Who Spied For Israel

JERUSALEM — A senior Hamas leader publicly disowned his son Monday, days after the young man announced he had secretly spied for Israel and helped authorities hunt down members of the Islamic militant group.

Hamas Web sites published a letter late Monday by Sheik Hassan Yousef that the militant group said was smuggled out of the Israeli prison where he is serving a six-year sentence.

In the letter, he said his family announced its "complete renunciation of the one who was once our eldest son, who is called Mosab." The father said he was sorry to take such a step but said he had no choice after his son "disbelieved in God...and collaborated with our enemies," he said.

The elder Yousef, who helped found the militant Islamic group two decades ago, was humiliated last year when his eldest son announced he had converted to Christianity. Then the son told an Israeli newspaper last week that he had helped Israeli intelligence foil militant attacks and hunt down Hamas leaders – including his father.

Mosab Yousef told the Haaretz daily said he spied for Israel for a decade before fleeing to California in 2007. Mosab Yousef is publishing a memoir, "Son of Hamas."

Monday's announcement means the family now considers their son to have never existed. He loses his inheritance and the family will never speak to him, or about him, again.

Mosab Yousef did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on his family's decision.

Palestinians, much like Arab communities across the region, are typically deeply private and try to conceal damaging family fissures. Only in very rare cases do families publicly renounce their children – usually when a son or daughter has done something in public that the family considers deeply humiliating.

In his book, Mosab Yousef claims he was considered one of the Shin Bet security agency's most valuable assets and was dubbed "The Green Prince," a reference to his Hamas pedigree and the Islamists' signature green color.

The claims have exposed a new side of the Islamic militant's vulnerability, coming in the wake of the assassination of a top Hamas operative in Dubai in January.

Israel has not commented on Yousef's claims, or on widespread speculation that it carried out the Dubai assassination.

Comments

[disintaGreatNation]

07:14 PM on 03/02/2010

Regarding senior American public officials who have dual citizenship with Israel, what steps should be in place to ensure that their U.S. citizenship has priority?

[Inoku]

07:59 PM on 03/02/2010

I know: we should find every US government official with Israeli citizenship and just fire them!

That'd be fair, right? I mean, Israel is only our closest ally and it's not like Jewish Americans would see this in any way like purging the government of Jews, right?

[califlefty]

12:18 AM on 03/03/2010

And you would hold dual nationals of other countries to the same standard, or are you just making a "selection"?

[SpoonieLuv]

11:09 PM on 03/02/2010

I'm not sure that there is any way to be completely certain of their loyalties. Even White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel served with the IDF militant group. One would think that there would be a law against former militants serving in the upper echelons of government.

[Yank in France]

03:15 PM on 03/02/2010

As I have stated on numerous occasions, there is a real problem with Hamas, since its policies have led the people of Gaza into a dead end. While I sympathize with their desire to fight the Israelis, they are not going to win a military fight with them, and terrorism only isolates them in the world and the region.

Consider the lack of support from radical Islamists in Egypt, including the Muslim Brotherhood.

The truth is that demographics work against Israel, which is surely one of the main reasons the Israeli right has always highlighted Hamas's terrorist actions as an excuse to torpedo peace efforts!!

If Hamas were to work with the PA, even if they don't trust or like Mahmoud Abbas and Fatah, to create a united front in an effort to promote a peaceful settlement, they could gain support from across the globe, including among Israeli Jews.

There is NO reason they have to launch their ineffective rocket attacks on civilian targets when there is a more effective way to promote a better life for Palestinians in the context of a real state!

If I were the Hamas leader's son, I would not have worked with Mossad, which is repugnant, but I am sure many Palestinians are at the wits ends, thanks to Hamas's losing strategy.

If peace efforts do not work, they can always go back to armed struggle, with their credibility enhanced for giving peace a chance!

[StCuthbert]

03:55 PM on 03/02/2010

Agreed.

[juicyju]

03:22 PM on 03/03/2010

I don't know it was deplorable what the Hamas leader's son did, I was reading a bit about it and he picked a side, the one who he thought more moral. He did stipulate that any information he gave Israeli's could never lead to a murder, so he aided Israel, but refused to let his help turn into a homicide.

But overall, very well put!

[batguano]

03:02 PM on 03/02/2010

In light of all the usual pro-Israel gibberish and jingoist claptrap here, I hope you all read the Jerome Slater piece that lays out a morality that cannot be refuted, although we will no doubt see more red-herrings, propaganda and false history from the usual brainwashed suspects. (in most cases a light rinse would have been sufficient)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-slater/the-goldstone-report-and_b_479945.html

[Johnny2Bad]

01:00 PM on 03/02/2010

If this guy was an Israeli who became a Muslim and spied for Palestine and then relocated to Canada Israel would be currently forging Canadian passports and sending a group of terrorists to enter Canada illegally for the sole purpose of assassinating him. Give me a break with all this posturing about Muslims and how intolerant they are. Israelis can't even agree on who qualifies as a Jew.

[batguano]

04:13 PM on 03/02/2010

My thoughts exactly Johnny, on the mossad capping this guy in a hotel room in CA, either that or AIPAC/Israel forces the Obama administration to return him to Israel to be hung for treason. And what's with the photo of him with his finger in the air, is he pointing to god or saying "we're number one"?

[TheLonelyGod]

04:16 PM on 03/02/2010

1) You don't think that if Hamas could go after this guy and kill him, they would?

2) Israel has only assassinated people who are actively aiding their enemies. If this guy is retired, they probably wouldn't consider it worth the effort.

3) This article has nothing to do with intolerance, Muslim or otherwise.

[FairuzGhowar]

01:21 PM on 03/03/2010

you don't think Hamas could go after him if they wanted to? Wow naive.....

[NANANACHMAN]

11:08 AM on 03/02/2010

His brothers were real happy..............................no double portion for him

[hibeam]

09:00 AM on 03/02/2010

This is very disconcerting. How was this man able to think for himself? Maybe we need to pray six times a day and stay away from the internet cell phones and TV?

[Texanvoter]

07:56 AM on 03/02/2010

Joel Rosenberg, noted author, wrote about this on his blog. He tells the story of this son and how he eventually helps Israel. You can read about it at:

http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/

[Texanvoter]

07:53 AM on 03/02/2010

He was disowned by his father because he became a Christian. Nothing more or nothing less. That is the way it works in Muslim countries.

[hommie]

08:14 AM on 03/02/2010

Always pushing the religious angle, so you think being a spy is less grievous than switching religions? Small mind small world

[ForeverXL]

09:00 AM on 03/02/2010

Apostacy is punishable by death under Islamic Sharia Law.

[hommie]

08:14 AM on 03/02/2010

Always pushing the religious angle, so you think being a s.py is less grievous than switching religions? Small mind ...small world

[ramman]

09:16 AM on 03/02/2010

If you know anything about extreme Islam the religious angle is indeed more grievous than spying. One can be Muslim and spy and still may not even believe in the act of spying and could just be using spying as a means to an end, but to them the extreme muslim changing your religion to Christianity goes even deeper than just spying.

[capitalismisevil]

09:25 AM on 03/02/2010

Why are you repeating your inane comment?

The comments are correct. Information about apostasy and the religion of peace:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostasy_in_Islam

In Islamic law (sharia), the consensus view is that a male apostate must be put to death unless he suffers from a mental disorder or converted under duress, for example, due to an imminent danger of being killed. A female apostate must be either executed, according to Shafi'i, Maliki, and Hanbali schools of Sunni Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), or imprisoned until she reverts to Islam as advocated by the Sunni Hanafi school and by Shi'a scholars.[15]

From the hadith:
Volume 4, Book 52, Number 260:

Narrated Ikrima:

Ali burnt some people and this news reached Ibn 'Abbas, who said, "Had I been in his place I would not have burnt them, as the Prophet said, 'Don't punish (anybody) with Allah's Punishment.' No doubt, I would have killed them, for the Prophet said, 'If somebody (a Muslim) discards his religion, kill him.' "

[pandorum]

07:13 AM on 03/02/2010

the son disowned the father first. Of course if the father had not disowned the sone he and his family would be dead right now.

[leftorright]

05:20 AM on 03/02/2010

Now he knows how I feel :(

Mosab, lets go for a beer...

[Macready]

04:57 AM on 03/02/2010

I don't blame him for disowning his son . . . I would have too!

[joeinvt]

05:44 PM on 03/02/2010

If I was the son, I would have disowned the father, which is what he did I guess.

[Whinger]

03:15 AM on 03/02/2010

A man lacking principles, honor and integrity is absolutely capable of anything!

The time will come when he will bitterly regret betraying his family and people!

[pandorum]

07:15 AM on 03/02/2010

you must be talking about the Palestinian leadership. I'm afraid those thuggish terrorists will never regret betraying their families or people.

[ocschwar]

01:03 PM on 03/02/2010

He showed himself capable of risking his life to save the lives of countless others.

[help4mac]

01:48 AM on 03/02/2010

Claiming it's propaganda doesn't make it propaganda. If you want to see refugees (at that time) you'd have to go to an Arab country like Lebanon and Jordan. When I hitchhiked through the camps north of Jericho in 1981, there were only birds left in the camp.

I am afraid the propaganda machine has been claimed by the Arabs, unfortunately. Obviously this fellow and the Palestinians involved in Dubai don't buy into it anymore.

[SiberianRat]

01:56 AM on 03/02/2010

"If you want to see refugees (at that time) you'd have to go to an Arab country like Lebanon and Jordan." I've been to them in both countries--sad, poor, crowded places.

[help4mac]

02:31 AM on 03/02/2010

And that's the point! The Arabs have perpetuated the Palestinian problem in order to make it Israel's problem. But Israel isn't taking this garbage anymore. The Palestinians turned their back on a deal 10 years ago and returned to the path of violence. Now Abbas is sitting on his hands, fantasizing that Obama is going to impose a solution.

BTW all this gaza stuff - that's the perfect example of Palestinian self-determination.

[koodetat]

12:41 PM on 03/02/2010

"I am afraid the propaganda machine has been claimed by the Arabs, unfortunately."

No, it was claimed much longer ago by Israel. Anti-semitism is not a lie, but it is propagandized to the degree that Israel tosses the term around every time someone tries to criticize hem.

[juicyju]

02:48 PM on 03/02/2010

Good excuse, but untrue.

[help4mac]

12:55 AM on 03/02/2010

Between the Palestinian involvement in Dubai and this story, perhaps we are seeing a trend. Palestinians fed up with their own leadership leading them down the road to nowhere.

Before Arafat was allowed back, Palestinians were the wealthiest Arabs from non-oil producing countries. They enjoyed considerable freedom of movement, education, religion and social rights - perhaps the most in the Arab world.

I'm amazed that they threw all that away to follow Arafat and I am amazed that they revere their very disturbed leader so much.

[skialethia]

01:03 AM on 03/02/2010

Oh puhleeeeeeeeeeez! Millions of refugees does not wealth make! Propaganda incorporated.

[Aziat]

01:40 AM on 03/02/2010

So explain how did Arafat have all those millions and why his wife is living in luxury in Paris. Did Arafat have some sort of side job nobody knew about. Or are you wrestling with reality again?

[SiberianRat]

12:39 AM on 03/02/2010

I guess I'm wondering what the point of this story is.

[help4mac]

12:47 AM on 03/02/2010

It's probably what HuffPost thinks is evenhandedness.

[juicyju]

02:49 PM on 03/02/2010

pointless, unless Hamas is bragging about their ability to smuggle letters from prison.......