Son of Hamas founder who defected to the US slams pro-Palestine student activists as terror group's 'useful idiots'

The son of a Hamas co-founder has spoken out against pro-Palestine activists in the United States, branding them 'useful idiots.'

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, appeared on 'Dr. Phil Primetime' on April 2 to debate two student advocates from the University of Michigan.

Yousef hails from Ramallah and fought as a Palestinian militant before defecting to Israel in 1997 and working as a spy for the Shin Bet intelligence wing.

'It's very disappointing to see Americans supporting Hamas and thinking that Hamas is a cool thing...while those followers don't know that Hamas would torture them and massacre them with no mercy,' he said.

'They call them useful idiots. They don't know that Hamas is a dark black hole.'

Yousef further claimed those on the pro-Palestine side 'don't know what they're supporting,' deeming Hamas 'a monster that has been hijacking an entire society and endangering the entire Middle East, pushing the world towards a global war.'

The defector, who earned the moniker 'The Green Prince' and was the subject of a 2014 documentary by the same name, said he based his knowledge on time spent in prison with Hamas leaders.

Unlike the students on the show, he continued, 'I was born there, and part of that culture, part of that religion.

'Some people hear about Hamas, or they see an avatar of a Hamas fighter carrying a rifle, a freedom fighter, and they think it's a fancy idea to support such a monster.'

One student accused the former Hamas member of pushing 'colonial rhetoric.'

But Yousef hit back, asserting that the students spoke 'on the authority of Hamas propaganda.' 

He pointed to the fact that all three students were wearing the keffiyeh, a traditional black-and-white Palestinian scarf.

'You don't know what Palestine is, actually. In fact, the keffiyeh that you are wearing is just a statement to show that you really lack the authenticity to represent the case,' he professed.

'There is a tribe of Hamas, and there is the tribe of the Islamic Jihad … and each one has different interests, and all of them are conflicted. If they did not have Israel as the common enemy, they would kill each other. This is the reality.'

As for pro-Palestine activists in the United States, the former Israeli spy declared: 'Those pro-Palestine people need to go to a mental asylum.'

Yousef's comments came among mounting outrage sparked by Israel's killing of aid workers from World Central Kitchen on April 1.

Among the seven killed in the airstrike were 33-year-old Jacob Flickinger, who held dual U.S. and Canadian citizenship.

In the aftermath of the deadly airstrike, President Joe Biden organized a 30-minute phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

'President Biden emphasized that the strikes on humanitarian workers and the overall humanitarian situation are unacceptable,' reads a statement released by the White House on April 4.

'He made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers.'

During the call, Biden 'underscored that an immediate ceasefire is essential to stabilize and improve the humanitarian situation and protect innocent civilians, and he urged the Prime Minister to empower his negotiators to conclude a deal without delay to bring the hostages home,' according to the statement 

The president's stance marked an abrupt diversion from his administration’s steadfast support for Israel’s war efforts.

By Thursday night, the Israeli security cabinet had approved those three measures to increase humanitarian aid entering the besieged Gaza Strip.

Over 33,000 Palestinians had been killed and nearly 76,000 wounded in the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict as of Sunday.

Hamas' October 7 attack claimed the lives of 1,139 Israelis, with dozens still held captive.

In a series of interviews with American media outlets in October 2023, Yousef cautioned that his father and Hamas would not be satisfied with taking territorial Palestine alone.

'They are a religious movement, this is what everybody is afraid to say. If Hamas was a political movement, we could satisfy their political ambition,' he told Jake Tapper on CNN.

'But Hamas is a religious movement that does not believe in political borders - they want to establish an Islamic state on the rubble of the state of Israel.'