Suheib Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Hassan Yousef, turned his back on the organisation and gave an interview to an Israeli TV-journalist calling the Hamas a “racist terror organisation that is dangerous for the Palestinian people.”
Suheib Yousef was working for a “political branch” of the organisation in Turkey when he eventually decided to flee to Southeast Asia. Ohad Hemo, the Palestinian affairs correspondent of the Israeli Channel 12, flew to Suheib to hear his story.
In the interview, Suheib states that “Hamas operates security and military operations on Turkish soil under the cover of civil society …they have security centres from which they operate advanced listening equipment, to listen to people and (Palestinian) leaders in Ramallah”.
He further explained that Hamas is also surveilling phone calls in Turkey from Israel and different Arabic countries.
The surveillance operations of Hamas were not the only reason why he became disillusioned about the organisation intentions.
“They were working for a foreign agenda. This isn’t for the Palestinian cause. Instead, they sell the information to Iran in return for financial assistance.”
Furthermore, he claimed that “The point of the attacks in the West Bank is to kill civilians, not for the aim of resistance, nor Jerusalem; not for liberating Palestinian land, and not even because they hate Jews.” He further stated that “They send out these innocents because they want to export the crisis [from Gaza] to the West Bank.”
Suheib Yousef is not the first son of Hassan Yousef, who has cut all ties with his father and the Hamas. His older brother, Mosab Hassan Yousef, started cooperating with the internal Israeli security service, Shin Bet, in 1996 and continued his cooperation for ten years.
His following collaboration led to the detention of prominent political figures such as Ibrahim Hamid, a Hamas commander in the West Bank and Marwan Barghouti, a leader of Tanzim, the paramilitary wing of Fatah.
Mosab Yousef converted to Christianity in 2005 and published a book about his experiences and life in the Hamas, named “Son of Hamas”. As his brother Suheib, Mosab claimed in numerous speeches and interviews that the PA and the Hamas are not working for the sake of the Palestinian people.
Regardless of their common critique towards Hamas, Suheib Yousef does not want to cooperate with Israeli authorities like his brother Mosab Yousef. He stated that “Unlike my brother, I never worked for Israel,” he said. “I never betrayed [Hamas], I was loyal to them.”.
Nevertheless, he says that he intends to help the Palestinian people by making corruption and the real nature of Hamas public. In the interview, he explained that Hamas functionaries live luxury lives in fancy hotels, sending their kids to private schools and dining in the most expensive restaurants, while the struggle of the Palestinian population in Gaza is deteriorating.
According to the UN, Gaza will be “uninhabitable” by 2020, due to inhumane living conditions caused by Israel‘s unrelenting military assaults and crippling Israeli-imposed blockade since Hamas took power over the enclave in 2007.
In response to the interview supporter of Hassan Yousef, who has been released from prison in January 2018, started a social media campaign with the hashtag, “We are all your sons”.