Bi-Co Friends of Israel at Haverford College, a CAMERA-supported group, recently hosted a screening of “The Green Prince,” which tells the story of Mosab Hassan Yousef. His story is one of bravery and daring; the son of one the founders of Hamas, he became an Israeli spy, and was critical in helping Israel deal with the Second Intifada (2000 – 2005) which claimed the lives of 1,137 Israelis. He provided Israel with intelligence on the Al Aqsa martyrs, a terrorist organisation who carried out numerous terrorist attacks (including the infamous terrorist attack at a Bat Mitzvah in 2002) – and the intelligence provided by Yousef prevented further attacks. He also claims to have thwarted assassination attempts against Shimon Peres, who at the time was the President of Israel. In 2010, Yousef wrote a book “Son of Hamas” describing his story, and in 2014 the movie about his life came out.
Beyond telling the unique story of Hassan Yousef, the movie touches on other important elements that helped students understand the conflict more fully. Hamas treatment of Palestinians in Gaza, how the Israel Defense Forces work, as well as the ideology of hatred that Hamas espouse, are all themes that the movie focuses on, and students at Haverford found they came out of the event with a deeper understanding of these important areas.
Bi-Co have also ran other events at Haverford in the past months. In November, Jonathan Elkhoury came to Haverford as part of his country-wide tour, and spoke about his experience as a Lebanese refugee in Israel. (See more about Jonathan`s tour here, here and here. The events also featured Israeli culture as well as the speakers – every enjoyed the hummus dinners!
Contributed by Aron White, CAMERA intern