The Green Prince

1

Rabin was murdered.

I was shocked

like everybody else.

I felt that I need

to do something for my country.

When I joined the Shin Bet,

my father told me, "Listen,

this is a dark organization.

Don't do it. Don't go there."

The goal was to kill Israelis.

We had the right

to make the other side

feel our pain.

I thought this is

my chance to be a hero,

a mujahid, fifight for

the sake of the nation.

But Allah had

other plans for me.

Recruiting is an art,

a very difficult art.

The main issue is to understand

who is the person that's

sitting in front of you.

You need to understand

his point of view,

you need to understand

his background.

Who is his family?

What happened with him?

You try to find their needs.

And then when you know that,

you know how to play with him.

When you handle a source,

you make him do things

that he would never do.

To your benefit, it's not yours,

it's the government's benefit.

And you do it

by finding his weak points,

and use them.

The first time I heard

about The Green Prince

was when I was in training.

It was big secret,

but we've been told that

there is a new recruit.

His nickname

was The Green Prince.

He was considered

highly, highly dangerous.

The first day, handling him,

was the first day

of the end of my career.

To collaborate with Israel

is the most shameful thing

you can doin my country.

If somebody raped his mother,

that's very shameful,

but if he collaborated

with Israel,

this is much more shameful.

My father dedicated

his entire life

for the cause of Islam,

thinking that the Islamic

philosophy and ideology

will solve

the problem of humanity.

I came tounderstand

the importance of my father

from day one.

People used to travel

from every part of the country

to hear his Friday speech

at Ramallah Mosque.

See this person,

with this status

that is serving people,

living a humble life.

Helping the poor.

Not taking advantage

of his position.

That taught me a lot.

I was always

very, very proud of him.

I saw him as my highest example.

If there was a god

that I could see at that time,

and a higher authority

in my life, it was my dad.

My father wanted

to take me with him

everywhere he goes.

He thought that this is

how he's going to build

a future version of him.

As the oldest of five brothers

and three sisters,

many times I changed

their diapers,

I cooked for them,

I took care of them,

babysit them

when my mom was gone

and my father was in prison.

I remember actually

at least twoof them,

the youngest

used to call me Papa.

And we established

a strong relationship

among us, which...

it was impossible,

impossible tobreak.

That kind of bond

is impossible tobreak.

Hamas was not

just a movement to us,

it was the family's business.

It was our identity.

It was everything.

You know, my father is

sacrificing and dedicating

his life for that cause.

He spent close to 16 years

in Israeli prisons, maybe more.

My father was among us.

He was having dinner.

Somebody knocked the door.

They came,

they took him from among us,

and they promised

tobring him back

five minutes later.

I went outside.

I waited for hours

and they did not bring him back.

He came back

a year and a half later.

He came home in the afternoon

and was arrested again

six hours later.

I hated the Israeli soldiers

and anybody who's

put in an Israeli uniform

because of that event.

My father did not

teach me how to hate,

but I was 17 and I didn't know

how not to feel that way.

My cousin Ibrahim

always mentioned

that he had access

to people with guns,

and when I decided tobuy guns,

I asked for his help.

In the middle of the mountain,

they had the guns

somewhere in a bag.

They spray black pepper on them

in case there was any dogs

on the checkpoint.

I put the guns

in the doors of the car.

On our way back,

there was a checkpoint,

and we were stopped.

And they checked our I Ds

and they searched

the trunk of the car.

It was a very scary

and dangerous moment for me,

as a teenager still.

Finally, we made it

all the way to Ramallah

through all the checkpoints.

I had one thing in mind,

that is revenge.

Because he was the son

of Hassan Yousef,

Mosab was under surveillance

of the Shin Bet.

He was a very important

target for us for two reasons.

One, to make sure that

he doesn't do anything wrong,

and second, because we wanted

torecruit people like him.

When I came to visit my mom,

she told me the Israeli forces

came to our house.

She said,

"Did you do anything wrong?"

I told her I did nothing.

Of course, I could not

share with her what I did.

After I left the house,

I see Special Forces

coming out of the bushes,

pointing the guns

right tomy face.

They pulled me out,

and when I resisted,

Is started

to receive hits from everybody.

The second minute

we start driving,

I receive this strong hit

with the back of a rifle...

...directly to my head.

I hear people screaming.

I hear people in pain.

I hear very, very loud music.

You just get panic attack

to walk there.

This is how scary it was.

Mosab was 17 years old

when he was arrested.

And this was his first arrest.

He'd never

been in an interrogation,

and not toknow what's going on

is worse than anything.

The fear must be tremendous.

Thinking, "What's going on?"

"What am I going to say?"

"Am I going to lie?"

"Are they going to beat me?"

"What is torture?"

An officer came inside.

He asked me, "Whogave you

the order tobuy the guns?

Whogave you the guns?"

I tried not to show

that I was afraid,

but deep in my heart

I was really terrified.

He had a "yellow smile"

on his face

that told me that "We know."

And he said,

"Your father was here,

and he was a tough guy.

Are you a tough guy?

Doyou wanna be tough

or doyou wanna talk?"

And I was like,

"I have nothing totalk about."

And he started tolaugh.

He told me, "Mosab..."

"Welcome

to the slaughterhouse."

At the beginning,

there was no sleeping,

not at night,

not during the day.

You're sitting 24 hours forever.

This is like the feeling,

that notion that you had,

that this is not gonna end.

Half of my body was numb,

and the other half was

in tremendous amount of pain,

night after night after night.

You start to lose

your sense of reality.

I start

toforget how I look like.

I could not think very well.

I am missing my mother a lot,

I'm thinkin' about her,

you know, how she's

handling the situation.

Usually, when

my father is arrested,

I am outside,

side by side with her,

helping her

with the responsibilities,

and everything,

sharing with her,

and now here I am,

for the first time,

in a place that I hoped

that she does not

even think that I was there.

I would look

at their psychological set

and try find their weak points,

their needs.

Maybe because I had

the degree in psychology,

it helped me a little bit.

Many times I felt,

when I tried torecruit someone,

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