The son of a prominent Hamas leader shocked members of the U.N. Human Rights Council, including representatives of the Palestinian Authority, declaring in testimony that the PA is the “greatest enemy of the Palestinian people.”
“If Israel did not exist, you would have no one to blame; take responsibility for the outcome of your own actions,” said Mosab Hassan Yousef, directing his remarks to the PA.
Yousef, whose father was a founding member of Hamas, the de facto governing authority of the Gaza Strip, spoke Monday on behalf of UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights organization.
The session of the U.N. Human Rights Council focused on alleged Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights. UN Watch point out, in contrast, the council has no special agenda item on nations such as Syria, Sudan, Iran or North Korea.
Western democracies, including the United States, boycotted the debate, noted UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
“In the dystopian universe of George Orwell’s ‘1984,’ everyone was forced to undergo a daily ‘Two Minutes of Hate,'” he said. ‘In the dystopian universe of the U.N. Human Rights Council – where Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Cuba and Venezuela are members – the built-in schedule of every session includes one day dedicated solely to spewing hate against the Jewish state.”
Hamas, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., Israel and the European Union, considers itself the sole legitimate government of the Palestinian Authority, while the Fatah government in Ramallah claims that authority. The international community and Palestine Liberation Organization recognize the Ramallah administration.
Yousef, who was granted asylum in the U.S. in 2010 after the Department of Homeland Security tried to deport him, told WND in a 2010 interview Americans must understand that the ultimate goal of the Muslim Brotherhood, the movement that gave birth to Hamas, is not terrorism but to establish a global Islamic state.
Yousef’s remarkable story is told in “Son of Hamas,” available at the WND Superstore.
“If they can establish this in a peaceful manner, that’s fine,” he told WND. “But they are required by the Quran to establish this global Islamic state on the rubble of every civilization, every constitution, every government.”
As WND reported in interview stories, Yousef worked alongside his father, Sheik Hassan Yousef, in the West Bank city of al-Ghaniya near Ramallah while secretly embracing Christian faith and serving as a Shin Bet spy. Since publicly declaring his faith in August 2008, he has been condemned by an al-Qaida-affiliated group and disowned by his family.
WND reported in 2014 Yousef warned in an interview that no concession by Israel will stop the Palestinian Authority from its stated aim to destroy Israel.
Calling Hamas a “terrorist organization with a humanitarian face,” Yousef confirmed the Hamas charter calls for the obliteration of the Jews.
Even if Israel were to give the Palestinians all of the land inside the 1967 borders, Hamas wouldn’t abandon its aims, Yousef said at the time.
“They don’t have political boundaries to their ideology,” he told the Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity. “They want to destroy Israel; they want to destroy anyone who does not believe in their ideology.”
See UN Watch’s video on Yousef’s speech:
‘You fan the flames of conflict’
On Monday, Yousef, noting he “grew up in Ramallah as a member of Hamas,” addressed his remarks in the U.N. panel’s session to the Palestinian Authority, which “claims to be the ‘sole legitimate representative’ of the Palestinian people.”
“I ask: Where does your legitimacy come from? The Palestinian people did not elect you, and they did not appoint you to represent them,” he said. “You are self-appointed.”
Yousef charged the PA is unaccountable to its people, as “evidenced by your total violation of their human rights.”
“In fact, the Palestinian individual and their human development is the least of your concerns,” he said.
“You kidnap Palestinian students from campus and torture them in your jails. You torture your political rivals. The suffering of the Palestinian people is the outcome of your selfish political interests. You are the greatest enemy of the Palestinian people.”
“If Israel did not exist, you would have no one to blame. Take responsibility for the outcome of your own actions,” he said.
“You fan the flames of conflict to maintain your abusive power.
“Finally, you use this platform to mislead the international community, and to mislead Palestinian society, to believe that Israel is responsible for the problems you create.”
Yousef’s remarkable story is told in “Son of Hamas,” available at the WND Superstore.
