CLAIM: Abu Mohammed al-Jolani is the son of a Mossad agent who was embedded in the Palestinian community.
CONCLUSION: The claim originated from a post on an X/Twitter account that publishes false and conspiratorial content. The Israeli article accompanying the claim makes no reference to Abu Mohammed al-Jolani or to a person named Yonatan Zvi David.
In viral posts, we see a photo of Abu Mohammed al-Jolani accompanied by an article from the Israeli website Ynet. The earliest reference we could find regarding this claim dates back to 8/12/2024, on an account of a person that arbitrarily and without evidence claims that al-Jolani’s real name is Yonatan Zvi David and that he is a descendant of an Israeli agent. The account, under the name “Harun Kimani” self-identifies as someone persecuted for years by Mossad and maintains a blog where he present various conspiracy theories with an antisemitic tone and no evidence.
Abu Mohammed al-Jolani (real name: Ahmed Hussein al-Sharaa), born in 1982 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, is the leader of the Islamist organization Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which played a crucial role in the recent takeover of Damascus and the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The Ynet publication, dated August 27, 2013, was not accompanied by a photo of al-Jolani, who was unknown to the general public at the time. The article refers to a secret operation by Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, during the 1950s and 1960s, which recruited and trained men from Shin Bet. The operation, named the Ulysses Project, aimed to embed Israeli agents within Palestinian communities. These agents were to adopt Arabic names and be trained to operate as Palestinians. According to the publication, the operation would last many years, with agents integrating into the Arab community through marriages to Palestinian women, with whom they had children. Nine agents completed the training, and only two continued the mission after 1959. The publication notes that the longest-serving agent operated for 15 years.
Conclusion
The claim originated from a post on an X/Twitter account that publishes false and conspiratorial content. The Israeli article accompanying the claim makes no reference to Abu Mohammed al-Jolani or to a person named Yonatan Zvi David.