{"id":19031,"date":"2014-09-21T20:00:03","date_gmt":"2014-09-22T03:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=19031"},"modified":"2014-09-22T21:56:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-23T04:56:36","slug":"the-green-prince","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2014\/09\/the-green-prince\/","title":{"rendered":"The Green Prince"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film (2014)<\/p>\n

Directed by Nadav Schirman<\/p>\n

Based on the memoir Son of Hamas<\/em> (2010) by Mosab Hassan Yousef<\/p>\n

With Mosab Hassan Yousef, Gonen Ben Itzhak<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

A moving documentary about the relationship between an operative in the Israeli Secret Service (the Shin Bet), and the so-called Green Prince, the son of a Hamas leader in the West Bank.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

The new documentary, The Green Prince<\/em>, is a moving account of the relationship between an operative in the Israeli Secret Service (the Shin Bet) and Mosab Hassan Yousef, the so-called Green Prince<\/em>, the son of one of the seven original founders of Hamas.<\/p>\n

As a young Palestinian bent on revenge against the Israelis, Mosab was arrested and jailed by the Israelis. Unexpectedly, an agent of the Shin Bet approached him, asking him to become an Israeli informer. At first, Mosab thought that the agent, Gonen ben Yitzhak, then working under the name Captain Loai, was crazy.<\/p>\n

But, as Gonen put it in this suspenseful and stirring documentary, \u201crecruiting is an art.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, as Gonen ruefully adds, the day of his first encounter with Mosab was also the day that spelled the eventual end of his career with the Shin Bet.<\/p>\n

\"Gonen<\/a>
Gonen ben Itzhak
in “The Green Prince”
Photo: Courtesy of Music Box Films<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jailed in Megiddo Prison in Israel, Mosab recoiled at the horrible tortures Hamas\u2019s prisoner \u201ccourt\u201d inflicted internally on fellow Palestinian prisoners they suspected of complicity with the Israelis. His despair was compounded when he was brutally raped by a trusted friend of his family. A deep isolation and detachment set in, and Mosab agreed to work with the Shin Bet.<\/p>\n

He recounted how gently Gonen handled him at first, encouraging him to finish his education and then gradually immerse himself in his father\u2019s inner Hamas world.<\/p>\n

Eventually, Mosab became known as The Green Prince<\/em> because of his close association with Hamas\u2019s central leadership.<\/p>\n

Director Nadav Schirman used Mosab\u2019s and Gonen\u2019s testimonies to effectively interweave their parallel perspectives into a single, moving and coherent chronicle. The effect is powerful, cumulative and dramatic.<\/p>\n

\"Mosab<\/a>
Mosab Hassan Yousef
in “The Green Prince”
Photo: Courtesy of Music Box Films<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For years, Mosab delivered intelligence to Gonen, and, at times, Gonen was forced repeatedly, in collusion with Mosab, to stage attacks upon his home and to commit him to jail, in order to avoid suspicion by those in Hamas with whom he consorted.<\/p>\n

After Yasser Arafat\u2019s death in 2004 and Hamas\u2019s victory in the Palestinian elections of 2006, Mosab was burnt out. After years of lying under extreme pressure, he felt he needed a break. Gonen saw that and, against Shin Bet protocol, found a hotel where Mosab could rest. Shortly afterwards, Gonen was dismissed from Shin Bet. Mosab was given a new handler he didn\u2019t like. The relationship between the agency and its prized informer slowly crumbled.<\/p>\n

On its own, Mosab\u2019s account is astounding in its revelations, and heartbreaking in its portrayal of an earnestly independent man caught in the web of a tragic situation.<\/p>\n

When paired with Gonen\u2019s story, a dramatic account of an enduring relationship emerges. This moving and important film conveys how two daring, independent men from radically different backgrounds came together in an unexpected way.<\/p>\n

\"Mosab<\/a>
Mosab Hassan Yousef
Gonen ben Itzhak
in “The Green Prince”
Photo: Courtesy of Music Box Films<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Though an exciting thriller about espionage, the emotional focus of this riveting tale, somewhat surprisingly, is the bond transcending the intelligence itself that develops between these two men.<\/p>\n

This ingeniously edited and directed narrative could well have stood on its own; a haunting soundtrack seemed intrusive and unnecessary. Likewise, dramatized scenes of gun smuggling and arrests are less effective than actual documentary footage of such scenes as a suicide bombing in Jerusalem, within which give a truer sense of the tragic immediacies of the conflict within the lives of these two courageously independent men intersected.<\/p>\n

– Charles Munitz (aka BADMan)<\/p>\n

(Originally published as A Prince Among Men<\/em> in a slightly edited version in The Jewish Journal of the North Shore<\/em>, 9\/18\/2014)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film (2014)
\nDirected by Nadav Schirman
\nBased on the memoir
\nSon of Hamas<\/em> (2010)
\nby Mosab Hassan Yousef
\nWith Mosab Hassan Yousef,
\nGonen Ben Itzhak<\/strong>
\nA moving documentary about the relationship between an operative in the Israeli Secret Service (the Shin Bet), and the so-called Green Prince, the son of a Hamas leader in the West Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-19031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-movies","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19031"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19251,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19031\/revisions\/19251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}