Son of Hamas

Time Line

1923 — End of the Ottoman Empire

1928 — Hassan al-Banna founds the Society of the Muslim Brothers

1935 — The Muslim Brotherhood is established in Palestine

1948 — The Muslim Brotherhood takes violent action against the Egyptian government; Israel declares its independence; Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq invade Israel

1949 — Hassan al-Banna is assassinated; Al-Amari refugee camp established in the West Bank

1964 — Palestine Liberation Organization founded

1967 — Six-Day War

1968 — Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine hijacks an El Al 707 and diverts it to Algiers; no fatalities

1970 — Black September, in which thousands of PLO fighters are killed by Jordanian troops, as Jordan expels the PLO

1972 — Eleven Israeli athletes killed by Black September at the Munich Olympics

1973 — Yom Kippur War

1977 — Hassan Yousef marries Sabha Abu Salem

1978 — Mosab Hassan Yousef is born; thirty-eight people are killed in a Fatah attack on Israel’s Coastal Highway north of Tel Aviv

1979 — Palestinian Islamic Jihad founded

1982 — Israel invades Lebanon and drives out the PLO

1985 — Hassan Yousef and his family move to Al-Bireh

1986 — Hamas founded in Hebron

1987 — Hassan Yousef takes a second job, teaching religion to Muslims at the Christian school in Ramallah; beginning of the First Intifada

1989 — Hassan Yousef’s first arrest and imprisonment; Amer Abu Sarhan of Hamas murders three Israelis

1990 — Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait

1992 — Mosab’s family moves to Betunia; Hassan Yousef is arrested; Hamas terrorists kidnap and murder Israeli police officer Nissim Toledano; Palestinian leaders are deported to Lebanon

1993 — Oslo Accords

1994 — Baruch Goldstein kills twenty-nine Palestinians in Hebron; first official suicide bombing; Yasser Arafat returns triumphantly to Gaza to set up Palestinian Authority headquarters

1995 — Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin assassinated; Hassan Yousef is arrested by the Palestinian Authority; Mosab buys illegal, inoperative guns

1996 — Hamas bomb maker Yahya Ayyash is assassinated; Mosab is arrested and imprisoned for the first time

1997 — Mosab released from prison; Mossad unsuccessfully attempts to assassinate Khalid Meshaal

1999 — Mosab attends a Christian Bible study

2000 — Camp David Summit; Second Intifada (also known as the Al-Aqsa Intifada) begins

2001 — French Hill suicide bombing; Dolphinarium and Sbarro pizza parlor suicide bombings; PFLP secretary-general Abu Ali Mustafa assassinated by Israel; Israeli minister of tourism Rehavam Ze’evi assassinated by PFLP gunmen

2002 — Israel launches Operation Defensive Shield; nine killed in Hebrew University attack; Mosab and his father are arrested and imprisoned

2003 — Western Coalition forces liberate Iraq; Hamas terrorists Saleh Talahme, Hasaneen Rummanah, and Sayyed al-Sheikh Qassem are killed by Israel

2004 — Death of Yasser Arafat; Hassan Yousef released from prison

2005 — Mosab is baptized; truce ends between Hamas and Israel; Mosab’s third arrest and imprisonment; Mosab released from prison

2006 — Ismail Haniyeh elected Palestinian prime minister

2007 — Mosab leaves the occupied territories for America