Mosab Hassan Yousef spoke on Thursday, Nov. 13 at Johnson Chapel about his experience of defecting from Hamas and joining the Israeli internal security force Shin Bet. At the event, Yousef shared his thoughts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and his reasons for choosing to work as an Israeli informant. The Amherst College Republicans hosted the event, which was also sponsored in part by Association of Amherst Students, the Young America’s Foundation, the college’s Political Science Department and the Smith College Republicans.

Amherst College Republicans President Robert Lucido ’15 said he became interested in inviting Yousef to campus after hearing about his story over the summer. Lucido said that the decision was influenced in part by his belief that the reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was “too frequently one-sided.” More than 400 members of the Five College community attended the event. After the lecture, Yousef signed copies of his book “Son of Hamas.”

Yousef, whose father is a founder and leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, opened his talk by asking the audience members to think about what they would do if they were in his shoes.

“If you were the son of the founder of Hamas and were taught that it was your duty to fight Israel, what would you do?” he asked.

As he gave these opening remarks, three members of the audience walked to the center of Johnson Chapel and held up signs protesting the Israeli presence in Gaza. Two campus police officers promptly removed them.

Yousef said that for years he had followed his father’s orders and worked for Hamas, living as a “praised prince” in his homeland. However, in 1997, at the age of 17, he was arrested by the Israelis and asked by the Israeli intelligence force Shin Bet if he wanted to be an informant. Yousef said he initially agreed in order “to take revenge” on the Israeli people.
“I understand the suffering of our people, and this is why I was motivated to take revenge,” Yousef said.

However, after spending 16 months in an Israeli prison, Yousef said he witnessed firsthand the methods Hamas uses to “torture its own people” and the use of “suicide bombers [sent to] places with women and children.” After this realization, he decided that working for Israel was the more just choice for him.

“Is torture and terrorism their claim of emancipating and liberating our people? Is this their justice? I prefer the Israeli justice,” he said.

He further elaborated on his frustration with Hamas.

“The Palestinian people go through hell, but they cannot blame everyone in Israel. They need to look within and see the problems in their society and face it with courage,” Yousef said. “If the leadership in Hamas is taking a whole nation to destruction, someone has to stand and say enough is enough.”

He also explained the philosophical motivation behind his choice to turn against his homeland.

“For me, I knew there was no way to go wrong by saving Palestinians, by preventing suicide attacks,” Yousef said. “You cannot go wrong by saving a human life, and that is the fuel that keeps me going.”

Stakes were high working as an informant. Yousef told the audience that if Hamas “found out he had a relationship with Israel, I’d get killed on the spot and everybody on the street would participate in my killing, even though my father was a top leader.”

His talk was followed by a tense question and answer session, during which several people questioned whether Yousef fully appreciated the thousands of Palestinian deaths the operations of the Israeli Defense Force has caused in Gaza. One student pressed him on the imbalance between Palestinian and Israeli deaths throughout the conflict. Others questioned his support for the construction of settlements in the West Bank, to which Yousef replied, “Construction, wherever it is, is better than destruction.”

Controversy had also emerged before Yousef’s event on Thursday, as some AAS senators and other students opposed the AAS’s decision to fund Yousef’s speech.

Controversy arose within the AAS as to whether the funds allocated to the Amherst College Republicans last semester to bring “major speakers” to campus could justifiably be re-allocated this semester in order to host Yousef. Several senators questioned whether hosting Yousef was in the interest of the entire student body, especially after a student from Gaza said during an AAS meeting that she felt her personal safety would be at risk if Yousef were to speak.

To address this issue, Amherst College Republican leaders Alex Southmayd ’15 and Lucido asked the Amherst College Police to run a security threat analysis. College police contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and a preliminary analysis concluded that bringing the speaker to campus posed no greater threat than any other controversial speaker did.
The debate, though initially focused on funding, eventually developed into an issue of freedom of expression at the college and the extent to which AAS should co-sponsor a speaker who received such strong opposition from members of the college community.

“Having the AAS fund someone is saying the student body wants him to come, and if the majority of the student body is unhappy with the choice of speaker, I think it is justified to prevent the speaker from coming,” AAS senator Olivia Pinney ’17 said.

Lucido responded to arguments such as these by writing a letter to the senate questioning whether the AAS should make “value judgments on whom the Republican club brings to campus.”