Pro-Israel Speaker Dismisses Palestinian Ethnicity as ‘Narrative of Victimhood’

Mosab Hassan Yousef, a vehement supporter of Israel and a bestselling author, spoke at McCosh 10 Nov. 21, discussing conspiracy theories and radical views about Palestinians, including saying he does not consider them to be an ethnicity.

More than 300 people attended, about half of whom were community members, according to an organizer, and Yousef was warmly received by the audience, which gave him a standing ovation at the conclusion of the talk.

The event was hosted by Princeton University Chabad, along with Tigers for Israel and B’Artzeinu, two student-run pro-Israel organizations. Center for Jewish Life (CJL) executive director Rabbi Gil Steinlauf ’91 told PAW in an email that the CJL declined to sponsor the event, although Tigers for Israel and B’Artzeinu are CJL-affiliated groups.

The son of one of the co-founders of Hamas, Yousef was born in Ramallah in the West Bank and said he considers himself Arab, not Palestinian. He told the audience that the “Palestinian problem” is “psychological” and “a narrative of victimhood,” and rejected the concept of Palestinian ethnicity.

Yousef once served as a member of Hamas but was captured by the Israeli military and imprisoned for several years. It was during this time that Yousef said he changed his mind about Hamas and Islam and  began working as a double agent for Israel. He converted to Christianity in 1999.

In his talk, Yousef described throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers as a child and presented an often inaccurate history of the Middle East. He spent about 20 minutes of the talk describing his personal experiences, and continued to use inflammatory language, referencing his own controversial reputation several times.

“Enough of this game, enough,” Yousef said. “Call it Palestine, call it Wakanda, whatever you want to call it.” The line received scattered laughter from the audience. Wakanda is a fictional African country from the 2018 superhero movie Black Panther.

Rabbi Eitan Webb, co-director of the Scharf Family Chabad House, told PAW that he wanted Yousef to speak because of his unique perspective.

“On a college campus where students are deciding whether they align themselves with the Hamas positions, a first-person account is valuable,” said Webb.

Yousef is active on his X, formerly Twitter, and has made many derogatory posts about Muslims, including a video last year in which he said “if [he had] to choose between 1.6 billion Muslims and a cow, [he would] choose the cow.”

In March, he was invited to speak at Indiana University’s Hillel and subsequently disinvited because of “security concerns” — multiple student groups had planned to protest the talk, citing that Yousef is “an advocate of Islamophobia.”

Prior to his appearance at Princeton, a group of self-identified progressive Jewish students wrote a piece in The Daily Princetonian calling on the campus community to boycott the talk because Yousef “uses his platform to spread incendiary rhetoric about Muslim people.”

Steinlauf told PAW that the decision not to sponsor the event came after consulting with a panel of students, alumni, and faculty that represent “the full array of perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”

“The CJL’s sponsorship, or non-sponsorship, of a particular event does not impact our support of and affiliation with our pro-Israel groups,” he wrote, explaining that they maintain “a close and strong relationship” with groups that “uphold Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.”

Prior to the event, Webb said, the ticketing mechanism was spammed and that ultimately the event was attended by an equal mix of students and community members. There were no protests at the event.

During another segment of the talk, Yousef explained that Israel should control the West Bank, in part because its high ground over the Jordan River Valley makes it strategic for Israeli security. He rejected the idea that Palestinians have a legitimate claim to the land.

“So why are the Arabs entitled [to] that land? There is a reason, but I don’t want to discuss it tonight, because it might take us to a dangerous place, and after that, I may be labeled Islamophobic. Then I would be canceled again,” he quipped, to laughs from the audience. “Maybe I would be sentenced to death again and again and again.”

“He’s a rough and tumble person,” Webb told PAW. “He grew up in Hamas … . This is not a person who you would expect to be speaking the King’s English. He’s coming with a view, and his view comes from his lived experience.”

In answering a question about the psychology of Hamas members and how to negotiate with them, Yousef accused “waves of immigrants” of influencing “the Western mindset,” which echoes a larger conspiracy theory that immigrants are replacing white Americans.

“We should help them think like us,” he said. One audience member in the back of the auditorium clapped twice, and then the whole room was swept up in applause.

Webb said that he viewed the event as a success.

“He received a standing ovation. I’ve never, ever seen a standing ovation [for a talk] at Princeton.”