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Mosab Hassan YousefSon of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Historical Background: Hamas From Taking Power to October 7 (2007-2023)
Son of Hamas ends in 2007, when Yousef left Palestine to take up residence in the United States. As he briefly describes, Hamas took part in a round of 2006 parliamentary elections across all of Palestine after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza opened up the possibility for autonomous governance in that part of Palestine and the West Bank. The George W. Bush administration championed these elections as a chance to democratize the region after years of violence and terrorism during the Second Intifada (see below). However, the Intifada had downgraded the already frail reputation of Fatah. Yasser Arafat alienated his Western supporters before his death in 2004 by failing to control terrorism; he largely spent the conflict in hiding in his Ramallah bunker surrounded by Israeli forces that he could do nothing to dislodge. Although Hamas had conducted many violent attacks against Israeli civilians, which often resulted in brutal reprisals in Palestinian neighborhoods, Hamas cultivated a reputation as being willing to stand up to Israel, and the elections presented them with an opportunity to challenge Fatah’s grip on the institutions of Palestinian governance. Hamas technically ran under the banner of “Change and Reform” since the organization itself was pledged to the destruction of Israel and formally regarded any Israeli-sanctioned elections as illegitimate.
Hamas stunned the international community by winning the greatest number of votes (although still under 50%), allowing them to form a government. Both Israel and the United States placed sanctions on the winning Hamas candidates, refusing to cooperate with them. Hamas was formally listed as a terrorist organization in both countries, a status that forbade any material support. Fatah joined in on this critique, which would render them the winner by default; before long, there was open conflict between the two factions, with Hamas largely prevailing in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. No elections have been held since, and Israel effectively placed Gaza under siege, controlling all ingress and egress and even maintaining control over its electric grid. Periodically, Hamas has sought to break out of its encirclement and rally the region to its support, often by firing rockets or kidnapping Israelis (usually soldiers), followed by reprisals and intense negotiations. On October 7, 2023, Hamas launched an attack resulting in the deaths of over 1,200 people, including civilians and armed forces, according to Israeli reports. Israeli citizens were taken hostage with the intention to use them in negotiations for Palestinian citizens imprisoned in Israel. This resulted in a full-scale invasion of Gaza, which then spread to areas in Palestine and Lebanon.
Authorial Context: Mosab Hassan Yousef
Yousef was born on May 5, 1978, in Ramallah in the West Bank of Palestine. His father, Hassan, was a religious leader, or sheikh, who later created the Islamic Resistance Movement, known as Hamas, with other members of the Palestinian resistance. During Yousef’s youth, he held similar perspectives, throwing rocks at settler vehicles and being arrested by Israeli soldiers. However, after being imprisoned in an Israeli facility at 18 years old, he claims to have found the prison guards and military forces to be kinder than he expected; meanwhile, the Hamas members in the prison struck him as extremely violent and self-serving. When he was offered the opportunity in 1997 to spy on Hamas leaders in service of the Israeli Security Agency, or Shin Bet, he agreed. After operating as a crucial member in the conflict, Yousef eventually left his espionage career and moved to the US in 2007. He later declared himself a Christian, which he had privately been for some years, an announcement that created a risk of discrimination against his family in Palestine. He was eventually granted legal residence in the US and has since remained there. Following the publication of his book, Yousef collaborated with filmmaker Sam Feuer to create both a feature-film adaptation of his story and a documentary of the Muslim prophet Muhammad’s life titled The Green Prince.
Yousef has a unique perspective on the conflict in the Middle East, which took on renewed significance following Hamas’s attack on October 7, bringing worldwide attention to the group. Since the publication of this book, which made Yousef a public figure, he has made stridently critical remarks not just about Hamas but also about Islam itself and has consistently justified actions that Israel has taken with the avowed goal of destroying Hamas. Having borne witness to Hamas and the Israeli government as a Shin Bet spy, Yousef claims to have a sense of authoritative insight on the conflict. However, his rhetoric has often created controversy, as he has been outspoken against Islam and compared it to Nazism (Ben Solomon, Ariel. “‘Son of Hamas’ Tells Jerusalem Post Conference: Islam Is the Problem.” The Jerusalem Post, 22 May 2016). In a post on X (formerly Twitter) in December 2023, he stated that if tasked with choosing between “1.6 billion Muslims and a cow, [he] would choose the cow” (Yousef, Mosab Hassan [@MosabHasanYOSEF]. “This is the only language the savages and their supporters can understand.” X, 14 Dec. 2023). He has expressed ardent support for Israel since the 2023 invasion of Gaza. This has added to the existing controversy surrounding his book, as some critics have speculated that he misrepresented wider Palestinian resistance against Israeli governance, while others feel that his account of Hamas was essential to an informed perspective on the conflict.
