Son of Hamas: 'There is no difference between Hamas and Palestinian people'

Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of infamous Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, said in an interview with Dr. Phil and two pro-Palestinian activists on Tuesday that after October 7, there is no difference between Hamas and the Palestinian people. 

Yousef began the interview by discussing the hatred of Jews within wider Muslim society after Dr. Phil initially asked him what he was taught as a child in Palestinian society. Yousef responded, “There's lots of hatred in that culture against the Jewish people. It's not a secret, in fact, the Muslim belief system has a fundamental problem with the Jewish people.” 

“They don't have a reason except for the ideological reason, and in some Islamic texts, they say that Muhammad had a problem with the Jews, and Muhammad is their Prophet, so they follow his footsteps. But in reality, Muhammad did not write a word that says anything against the Jewish people,” Yousef explained to Dr. Phil.

The Green Prince argued that October 7 was a religiously motivated attack and says, in the eyes of many Muslims, it is a “holy war.”

Dr. Phil then played a short film displaying UNRWA teachers indoctrinating Gazan children to hate Jews. The video also shows children, as young as eight years old, undergoing military training. Several children in the interview talk about a desire to kill Jews. When asked what is the right of return, one boy said, “It means throw stones at Jews, and also to slaughter the Jews.” Yousef said parents encourage their children to die in pursuit of this goal.

Dr. Phil then pans out to a video of pro-Palestinian protests and stated, “Americans Nationwide have been appalled and shocked the leadership of these supposedly highly sophisticated schools are so busy virtue signaling that words are violence but violence, horrific inhumane violence, is social justice that they have forgotten it is their job to teach their students to think and to test reality.”

Yousef commented on the protesters, calling them “idiots” because “they don’t know what they are supporting.” He said that he does not even fully understand the “black hole” of Hamas, even though he was born into it. He says that these activists are supporting a “monster” that is “pushing the entire Middle East towards a global war.” He claimed that none of the pro-Palestinian activities have condemned the atrocities of Hamas on October 7. He says that Hamas is the enemy of civilization. He says he is outraged, and that the pro-Palestinian activism is “insanity.” 

At this point in the show’s segment, Dr. Phil invites two pro-Palestinian activists to join the discussion, both from the University of Michigan.  

Pro-Palestinian activists defend their movement

Dr. Phil asked the university activists if they endorsed Hamas’s attack on October 7. Palestinian activist Zaynab responded that she rejects the premise of the question. “I don't believe that the person asking me that question has the moral authority to ask it until they first and foremost condemn the violent formation of Israel and the ensuing Palestinian deaths and, in fact, I find it unfair that advocates for Palestine are first forced to preemptively condemn acts of violence uh before their platform is considered legitimate. It plays into Islamophobic tropes,” she explained.

Dr. Phil responds that if she does not want to answer the question, that’s an answer in itself. After posing the question again, Salma, the second pro-Palestinian activist responded by highlighting violence she claims has been committed against Palestinians, and called questions asking to condemn the violence of Hamas hypocritical as she claims, Palestinian suffering is not recognized.

After she spoke, Dr. Phil said, “There are some things that are just fundamental human decency, and when I ask you if what happened on October 7 is something you condemn and you say well, you have to look at that by looking at hundreds of years of conflict –  no you don't – that's either right or it's wrong and it was wrong and I don't need a hundred years of conflict to know it was wrong…Let me tell you something. When somebody comes over a fence and goes into someone's house and burns their infant in its crib I don't give a damn why they did it – it's wrong.”

“Now we have the problem with the pro-Palestine who are actually given Hamas cover. They are participants in the crime. In fact since October 7 I personally don't differentiate between Hamas and so-called Palestinians because there are actually no so- called Palestinians, there are tribes,” Yousef states while Zaynab, mouth gapes open in shock at what he is saying. Yousef claims that if the different tribes did not have a common enemy of Israel, they would be fighting each other. 

Zaynab objected to what he was alleging, and called it “colonial rhetoric.” Yourself quickly rebuked her and said she does not know what she is talking about. 

He continued to say that she is just helping Hamas prove to the world that “Palestine depends on the destruction of the state of Israel.” 

Yousef concludes the interview by pointing and shouting at the pro-Palestinian activists, “You only speak on the authority of Hamas propaganda, because if you were a decent human being, you can say that the thousands that were killed on October 7 -- that it was a crime against humanity -- it was a genocide!”