A review of Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef & Ron Brackin

I am not sure how to feel about this book. It is a really well-written insider account of what it is like to live in the Palestinian territories, surrounded by violence and uncertainty. As I write this, tensions are building again in that chaotic part of the world, as Israeli armed forces respond to protestors trying to break the Gaza blockade.

Certainly it is interesting to read what it is like to grow up with the lack of resources and opportunities Palestinian families have to contend with. I can't imagine what it is like to live in an occupied land, but Mosab Hassan Yousef's story provides some insight.

Yousef is the eldest son of one of the founders of Hamas, Sheikh Hassan Yousef. Hamas is now recognised as a very violent organisation, responsible for numerous suicide bombings in Israel. However, Yousef contends that it started more as a group trying to call the people back to faithful worship of Allah. The problem is, he writes, that faithfulness to Islam is like starting to climb a ladder, where violence increases the higher you go (p.12). Within a few years, Hamas had transformed into an organisation where the leaders turned a blind eye to those in the organisation seeing jihad as an excuse to engage in increasingly desperate acts of violence.

Yousef is also open about the tactics of Israel. He claims he became radicalised as a young child because of the culture of fear and violence instigated by the Israeli troops patrolling his homeland. In fact it was the abuse and brutal treatment in an Israeli jail that led him to seek an arrangement where he became a double agent, just to gain relief from the torture and foul conditions.

He started to spy for the Israeli organisation Shin Bet, and ended up betraying many Hamas operatives as the situation in Palestine spiralled into increasing destruction and mayhem at the turn of the century, particularly after Yasser Arafat's death and a struggle between the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hamas for control.

The problem is… how much can we believe from a man who was forced to lie and deceive to survive, and who betrayed those who loved him most?

Yousef explains all the actions in light of two determinants: firstly, he was trying to minimise the deaths of Palestinians and Israelis; and secondly, he had made contact with a British missionary, was given a Bible, and increasingly was trying to live his life by the tenets of non-violence of Jesus.

The Christian angle in some ways confuses things.

There is a section where he says that reading the Sermon on the Mount taught him that the enemy was no longer Israel, or Hamas, but the enemy was inside, his own battle with his sinful self (p.122).

Is it a genuine conversion? Or a further method of justifying the decisions he made? He has since fled to the United States, and his conversion provides him with protection, and even support from the fundamental wing of the US church who are thrilled with his denouncement of Hamas and his undercover work with Israel.

In his defence, Yousef explains that he is much poorer in his new life in the US. He did receive material benefit in Palestine from his role of a double agent, but now he is living the impoverished life of a refugee.
Also his Israeli handler travelled to the US and gave an interview to verify Yousef's account. However, Hamas and Yousef's family have publicly disowned him, and he has received death threats.

If this book succeeds in putting a human face on the Israeli-Palestinian dilemma, if it reveals that in a state of war both sides do very ugly things, if it encourages people to encounter the transforming person of Jesus, if it gives Yousef a platform to speak about his Christian faith, then perhaps it is a very important book.

Much credit must also go to Ron Brackin, the co-author, who ensures that this is a very readable account with plenty of facts and detail, some of which Yousef would not have been aware of at the time.