Who is the Green Prince and what is his background and credibility?

1. Background: family pedigree, arrest and recruitment

Mosab Hassan Yousef was raised in Ramallah as the son of a prominent Hamas leader, a fact the memoir and film emphasize to explain both his access and the gravity of his betrayal to Hamas ^{[1] [4]}. Arrested at 17 for smuggling guns, he was interrogated and then sent to prison where, he says, witnessing Hamas violence and torture convinced him to cooperate with Israeli security; this arc is laid out in his memoir and in interviews featured in the documentary ^{[2] [5]}.

2. The operational claim: ten years as a Shin Bet source

Multiple sources — the documentary, Human Rights Watch festival notes, and press coverage — state that Mosab was recruited by Shin Bet at about 17 and ran as an asset for roughly ten years, during which he provided information inside Hamas and adopted the code name “Green Prince” because of his pedigree and the group’s green emblem ^{[6] [1] [7]}. Filmmakers and his Shin Bet handler Gonen Ben Yitzhak appear on camera describing a relationship that combined operational tradecraft with deep personal trust ^{[2] [8]}.

3. Public outputs: memoir, film and public appearances

Yousef published Son of Hamas recounting his alleged intelligence work and moral conversion, and the book provided the basis for Nadav Schirman’s documentary The Green Prince, which won festival awards and brought his story to international audiences ^{[1] [2]}. He has since appeared in interviews and speaking circuits where outlets from Jordan Harbinger to APB list him as a commentator on Middle East security, further amplifying his narrative ^{[9] [10]}.

4. Credibility claims: prevented attacks and a prized source

Proponents and multiple festival and media descriptions present Mosab as Shin Bet’s most reliable source inside Hamas who allegedly helped prevent dozens of attacks and enabled key arrests, framing him as a singular intelligence success story ^{[6] [1] [11]}. The documentary and press frequently cite his purported operational significance and portray the Shin Bet handler’s willingness to risk his career as corroboration of Mosab’s value ^{[2] [6]}.

5. Scrutiny and limits: why skeptics urge caution

Critical reviewers and journalists caution that first‑person spy narratives are intrinsically difficult to verify and can reflect self‑justifying memory, selective omissions, or narrative shaping for books and films; The Guardian and New York Times reviews explicitly warn that aspects of Mosab’s account “cannot be taken entirely at face value” and that the film sacrifices dispassionate objectivity for drama ^{[11] [5] [12]}. The public record consists mainly of Mosab’s memoir, interviews, and a documentary that foregrounds his perspective, so independent archival or official Shin Bet confirmation of every operational claim is thin in the available reporting ^{[2] [11]}.

6. Assessment: a credible but contested source

Taken together, the reporting establishes Mosab Hassan Yousef as a real and consequential figure who claims a decade‑long intelligence relationship with Shin Bet and whose story is corroborated in interviews with his alleged handler and by consistent public accounts ^{[2] [8] [6]}. At the same time, reputable critics and reviewers stress that his narrative must be weighed against the limitations of memoir/film evidence and the innate incentives for a former asset to emphasize impact; therefore his credibility is strong as a firsthand witness and influential storyteller but remains contested on the granular verification of specific operational claims ^{[11] [5]}.