2008 Woodie Awards
PLO Terrorist Turned Zionist Shoebat Addresses Packed Belfer Commons
Makes the Case for Israel
Moshe Goldfeder
Issue date: 12/27/04 Section: News
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Tuesday evening, December 7, the Israel Club presented former PLO terrorist turned Zionist, Walid Shoebat, who addressed a packed room of students from both undergraduate campuses at the Wilf Campus's Weissberg Commons.
Shoebat, a former member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and now an advocate of Israel's rights, addressed a variety of issues, specifically the horribly prejudiced educational system that young Palestinians go through and revisionist history.
"It is time for Arab nations to confess in order to begin the healing," Mr. Shoebat said. "I was taught myths about Jews that were presented as fact from a very early age, and I am here to tell the truth."
Long before he had ever seen a Jew, Mr. Shoebat said, he was taught songs that depicted Jews as dogs, monkeys, and descendants of sinners. His mother, a Christian woman held against her will for thirty-five years by her husband, secretly studied the Bible when his father, a radical Muslim from a prominent family, wasn't looking. Growing up, Mr. Shoebat began to wonder about the dogmatic truths he had been taught. After coming into contact with Israeli Jews, he realized that an unbiased look revealed Jews to be a lot less savage than he'd been led to believe. After a Jewish man saved his cousin from drowning, he began to question why both that man, and the Jewish doctor who had saved his father from a life-threatening illness, were not to be thanked at all.
Still, Mr. Shoebat believed what he had been told, and acted in accordance with his ideology. As a young man, he became a member of the PLO, and participated in acts of terror and violence against Israel. He was imprisoned in the Russian Compound, Jerusalem's central prison for incitement and violence against Israel, and some time after his release came to the U.S, where he worked as a counselor for the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago, and continued his anti-Israel activities.
In 1993, Mr. Shoebat began to study the Bible in a challenge to convert his wife to Islam. After six months of intensive research, he came to the firm realization that everything he had been taught about Jews was a lie. Convinced that he was on the side of evil, he became an advocate for his former enemy. Soon after his discovery, Mr. Shoebat began to radically change his life. He denounced hatred in the name of love, and has been working diligently to spread his ideals to anyone he can reach. In the past decade, he has spoken to thousands of people at churches, synagogues, universities, and civic groups in an effort to bring the his newfound feelings about Israel and the Jews to the world.
Shoebat, a former member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, and now an advocate of Israel's rights, addressed a variety of issues, specifically the horribly prejudiced educational system that young Palestinians go through and revisionist history.
"It is time for Arab nations to confess in order to begin the healing," Mr. Shoebat said. "I was taught myths about Jews that were presented as fact from a very early age, and I am here to tell the truth."
Long before he had ever seen a Jew, Mr. Shoebat said, he was taught songs that depicted Jews as dogs, monkeys, and descendants of sinners. His mother, a Christian woman held against her will for thirty-five years by her husband, secretly studied the Bible when his father, a radical Muslim from a prominent family, wasn't looking. Growing up, Mr. Shoebat began to wonder about the dogmatic truths he had been taught. After coming into contact with Israeli Jews, he realized that an unbiased look revealed Jews to be a lot less savage than he'd been led to believe. After a Jewish man saved his cousin from drowning, he began to question why both that man, and the Jewish doctor who had saved his father from a life-threatening illness, were not to be thanked at all.
Still, Mr. Shoebat believed what he had been told, and acted in accordance with his ideology. As a young man, he became a member of the PLO, and participated in acts of terror and violence against Israel. He was imprisoned in the Russian Compound, Jerusalem's central prison for incitement and violence against Israel, and some time after his release came to the U.S, where he worked as a counselor for the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago, and continued his anti-Israel activities.
In 1993, Mr. Shoebat began to study the Bible in a challenge to convert his wife to Islam. After six months of intensive research, he came to the firm realization that everything he had been taught about Jews was a lie. Convinced that he was on the side of evil, he became an advocate for his former enemy. Soon after his discovery, Mr. Shoebat began to radically change his life. He denounced hatred in the name of love, and has been working diligently to spread his ideals to anyone he can reach. In the past decade, he has spoken to thousands of people at churches, synagogues, universities, and civic groups in an effort to bring the his newfound feelings about Israel and the Jews to the world.