Interview with Mosab H. Yousef: 'Son of Hamas' condemns Palestinianism, calls on Kamala Harris to step aside

Mosab Yousef, the son of one of the founders of Hamas, now fights for freedom. He has written two books telling his story and explaining how he realized that his enemy was not Israel, but Islamic terrorism.

Pablo Kleinman, co-founder and chief of content and operations of VOZ, interviewed Yousef, known as the "Son of Hamas." In the conversation, they also talk about the threat that terrorists pose to the West.

Yousef was born in Ramallah in 1978 and is the son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, the founding leader of Hamas. Yousef was also a member of the terrorist organization and was imprisoned several times in Israel. His time in prison helped him discover that Hamas was torturing its own people. It was at that moment that he identified that his real enemy was not Israel, but Islamic terrorism.

While in an Israeli prison, he was recruited by the Israeli secret service, for whom Yousef worked as a spy inside Hamas for 10 years. After converting to Christianity and being on the run from terrorists for years, he was granted political asylum in the United States.

However, it was not an easy road. Yousef said he suffered a lot before coming to the decision to fight against the terrorists.

"I personally, since childhood, did not like violence. And to be brought up in a culture that praises violence – by the name of religion, by the name of nationalism – always was a question, even though it was my family's business," Yousef said.

In that sense, he explained that one of the most important things in his story was the inner journey he had to take from a enduring very violent Middle Eastern culture conditioned by ideology, then arriving in a land of opportunity: The United States.

Yousef recounted how he experienced Islamists not only murdering Jews but also killing foreigners, Arabs, Muslims, children, women and the elderly. He insisted that the suicide bombings cannot be forgotten.

"During the First and Second Palestinian Intifada, many people were killed. Suicide bombing attacks carried out by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists targeted people indiscriminately," he stressed.

He also spoke about Yasser Arafat, who was chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) from 1969 to 2004 and chairman of the Palestinian National Authority from 1994 to 2004. He stressed that, since its founding, the PLO's goal has been the destruction of Israel.

"After 40 years of Yasser Arafat, the PLO and the various Palestinian movements, regardless of their orientation – some of them are communists, some of them are Islamists, Muslim Brotherhood nationalists ... have been conflicted, but they found in Israel a common enemy. So, 'Palestinian' is not an ethnic group,”  he argued.

When it comes to U.S. politics, he said he hopes there will be changes in the country. He claimed that Kamala Harris did not keep her promises to Americans. “You had the opportunity. Now it's time to step aside (...) I think, I'm done with the Democratic Party for a while and I would like to see some change.”

Mosab Yousef also warned that the West is falling for a "lie" regarding Palestine stemming from a desperate desire for a cause and an identity.

"I think many people in the West, many individuals in the West, are looking for something new. And the rise of the Palestinian movement: it gives you a very clear idea that many people are living in victimhood. They are lost, and they are taking civilization for granted. So they're looking now for foreign ideologies, whether it's communism, Islamism, other religions, and this is why many people have been falling [for] the lie of Palestine," he stressed.