Mosab Hassan Yousef

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA. - Mosab Hassan Yousef - the famed author of “Son of Hamas” who was disowned and denounced by his family and has repeatedly put his life in danger by exposing the ways of Hamas--will be sharing his story of danger, discovery and honesty on Monday, February 21 at the Hyatt Westlake Plaza Hotel (880 South Westlake Boulevard, Westlake Village).

Born in Ramallah, in the West Bank, to Sheikh Hassan Youssef, one of the prominent founding leaders of Hamas, young Mosab was groomed from an early age to assume the leadership of the movement’s political wing. He become an integral part of the organization and was imprisoned several times by Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence service. After initially towing the Palestinian line of defying his captors, he began seeing things in a different light when he realized how Hamas was torturing its own people in a relentless search for collaborators and in its quest to advance its single-minded agenda of hatred and bloodshed.

The more Yousef discovered, the more he realized he could not go on living and supporting Hamas. He embarked on a six-year quest of discovery and exposure that endangered his family and threatened his life. During this time, he worked covertly to assist the Jewish state. It is said that the information Yousef supplied prevented dozens of suicide attacks and the assassinations of many Israelis. This led to his becoming a wanted man by his own people and his father issuing the following declaration: “I, Sheikh Hassan Yussef... my wife, sons and daughters announce that we have completely disowned the man who was our oldest son and who is called Mosab.”

After escaping the Middle East, Yousef converted to Christianity and went on to speak out in prominent forums and media outlets around the world, making the case that the most notorious enemies and persecutors of Palestinians were not Israel or America, but its very own leadership and the radical Islamic belief system. He posits that this system in its current form, by definition, cannot, and will not, coexist in peace with Israel in its midst.

In his talks and interviews, Yousef pulls no punches. He speaks forcefully and passionately about his experiences in a manner unlike anything heard before from someone as high up in the upper echelons of an Arab terror organization as Yousef once was.

His book, "Son of Hamas," published in March 2010, reveals information about the world’s most dangerous terrorist organization and unveils the truth about his own role. So entrenched was Yousef in the Hamas system that when he recently sought political asylum in the United States, there were those who were skeptical as to whether his turnabout was truly genuine. Perhaps he was still secretly working for Hamas? There was talk of deporting him back to the West Bank, which his advocates warned, would most surely lead to his execution by the Palestinian Authority. On June 24, 2010, Gonen Ben-Itzhak, a member of Israeli's security agency Shin Bet and who had worked with Yousef for 10 years, revealed his own identity in order to testify on behalf of Yousef at an immigration hearing. Ben-Itzhak described Yousef as a “true friend” who “risked his life every day in order to prevent violence.”

“For most of us, the realities of terrorism’s path and agenda usually come to us via second-, third- or fourth-hand sources," says Rabbi Moshe Bryski, dean of Chabad's Conejo Jewish Academy. "With Mousab Hassan Yousef,, it is about as firsthand as you can get. To hear his story is to come face to face with facts that are as shocking as they are repugnant. He is courageously speaking out because he recognizes that if he won’t, nobody else will. I think we owe it to him to hear his story; moreover, we owe it to ourselves to not ignore his compelling and alarming message.”

The evening begins at 8:00 p.m. Arrive 15 to 30 minutes prior to the lecture to give ample time to pass through security. Ticket prices are $16 in advance and $20 at the door. For tickets and information for “Son of Hamas: An Evening with Mosab Hassan Yousef," visit www.jewishacademy.com or call (818) 991-0991.