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The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) praised Mosab Hassan Yousef (a/k/a “the Green Prince”), the son of a Hamas leader, for his courageous, important, and insightful speech at the Jerusalem Post conference in New York on May 22, 2016), urging the free world to unite against Islam itself as a belief system that has resulted in so many murders “in the name of Allah” and that threatens not only Israel, but also all of humanity. 

“I speak with the authority of experience, not from books or second-hand knowledge, and I don’t represent anyone but myself,” Yousef noted in his talk. 

Yousef’s experiences indeed give him the authority and knowledge to speak out. He grew up as the privileged oldest son of Hamas co-founder and leader Sheikh Hassan Yousef, being taught and believing that Jews were evil “enemies of humanity.” He observed Muslim women sending their children to be suicide bombers to obtain honor in their community, while the Hamas leaders enjoyed their privileged lives. Twenty years ago, Yousef participated in the first intifada and spent months in an Israeli prison, where he read The Jerusalem Post with the intention of learning English, and in the process, learned about Israel and the West. He then spent 10 years (1997-2007) undercover (with the code name “Green Prince”), helping Israel’s Shin Bet thwart multiple potential terror attacks against Israeli civilians and assassination plots against Israeli leaders, saving countless lives. He converted to Christianity; obtained asylum in the U.S., and wrote his autobiography “Son of Hamas,” published in 2010. 

In his speech Yousef stated, “At some point, I thought the Jewish people were the enemies of humanity. I thought they were the enemies of our people, the Palestinian people, until I came to experience what the Jewish nation really is, through intelligence service, through witnessing the true democratic model, in an ocean of darkness, the only light in the Middle East.”

“In the Muslim society, I witnessed a woman who sent five of her children to die in suicide bombing attacks. One after another. She would put the explosive belt on them and bless them and say: “Go, kill the Jews!” to gain respect in her society. This is hypocrisy.”

“My father disowned me, because he’s a hypocrite. On a personal level, he’s a loving father. But when he puts on the Hamas mask, that he cannot exist without, he’s a monster, he’s something else.”

“We cannot fool ourselves. There’s an Islamic problem: Al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, ISIS, Boko Haram—all of them are killing in the name of Allah. They’re not killing in the name of Jesus. They’re not killing in the name of Jehovah. They’re not killing in the name of Mahavira or the Buddha or Lao-Tsu. They’re killing in the name of Allah.”

“There is an Islamic problem. And I think humanity needs to stand against this danger, because this danger is not only against the State Israel. This danger is against the evolvement of mankind.” 

“The Muslim people have a problem. And their problem is in their belief system. They have to face it, and we need to encourage them to fight the good fight. As I did. If I was able...” 

“I had privileges as the son of a top Hamas leader. I had something to lose. But the average Muslim person [doesn’t] have lots of things to lose. They’re already living in darkness and misery. If they leave it, it’s better for them.”

“Humanity and the free world need to unify, as eventually, even though it was too late, the world unified against Nazism.”

“Today, free people need to unite against Islam, not against the Muslim people. Against Islam itself, as a belief system.”

“When the president of the free world stands and says that Islam is a religion of peace, he creates the climate, he provides the climate, the perfect climate, to create more terrorism.”

“A bunch of hypocrites called BDS compare Israel to the racist regime of South Africa. How can you compare? If it’s the capital of the Jewish people, and the Israeli government are not allowing the Jewish people to worship freely in their capital on their holiest site, for political correctness, not to offend the Muslims, and give them that kind of freedom, how can we compare this to that?”

“I love Israel. I love what aIsrael stands for. Its ethics. Its values. Its democracy. Its love. A nation that was able to overcome the Holocaust. And instead of playing the victim mentality and blaming everyone for their suffering, they were able to build a state, a democratic state. Make it from a newborn state to an advanced and completely developed state in less than 25 years. This is a great example.”

Editor’s note: Mosab Hassan Yousef spoke at the AIPAC Orlando Conference in February and shared the same message, however, the event was ‘closed to the press,’ so even though Heritage staff could attend, we couldn’t cover it.