An overflow crowd lined up to listen to a
former-Palestinian-terrorist-turned-Israel-advocate speak on campus
Tuesday afternoon in an event that was a confirmation of belief for
some and upsetting for others.
Wallid Shoebat, who said he was once so involved with a
terrorist network that he nearly detonated a bomb in an Israeli
bank, discussed his personal upbringing in a Palestinian culture
that taught him to hate Jews and strive for the destruction of
Israel.
“Think about Nazi Germany: You can understand the same
kind of evil going through the Middle East when I was growing
up,” he said.
The event publicized by Bruins for Israel drew a large crowd.
The 235-seat auditorium in Young Hall filled quickly, and people
had to wait in line for seats to open.
Security at the event was tight because Shoebat has received
threats against his life. Audience members had their backpacks and
purses searched, and two university police officers monitored the
crowd.
Shoebat, a controversial figure in the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict, also drew protesters and counterprotesters who argued
whether his message was valid.
Roz Rothstein, the executive director of the Israel advocacy
group Stand With Us and one of the event’s sponsors, called
Shoebat “heroic” and said his message “needs to
be heard.”
Ten to 20 members of the groups Students for Justice in
Palestine and al-Awda also gathered outside the event and held
signs denouncing Shoebat as racist.
Alia Hasan, a spokeswoman for the protesters, pointed to remarks
Shoebat had made in past speeches and on his Web site as evidence
of his bias.
“We fully support freedom of speech, but in this
particular case “¦ this is someone whose viewpoint is radical
and racist and dangerous,” she said.
People with signs were not allowed inside the building, but
Shoebat seemed to be aware of the allegations of racism anyway.
“When I used to hate Jews I was called a freedom fighter.
But when I say I love Jews I am called racist,” he said with
a shake of his head.
Shoebat prefaced his speech by declaring he had nothing against
Islam, saying, “There are righteous Muslims, there are
unrighteous Muslims. “¦ There are good Jews, there are bad
Jews.”
But he also said radical forms of Islam are rapidly overtaking
secular forms, comparing radical Islam to “Nazism with a
religious twist.”
Shoebat frequently told the audience personal stories about his
upbringing in Bethlehem and Jericho. The son of a Jordanian man and
an American woman, he said he once saw his father hit his mother
with a hammer. He said his childhood was spent learning to hate
Jews, something Israel advocates have long said happens under the
Palestinian Authority.
Shoebat said his childhood naturally led him down the path of
terrorism. He participated in the near lynching of an Israeli
soldier, and he was supposed to detonate a bomb strapped to his
body in an Israeli bank but backed out of the mission at the last
moment.
Shoebat said he became an Israel supporter when he researched
the claims about Judaism he was taught as a child and found them to
be false. Now, as a resolute supporter of Israel, Shoebat had a lot
to say.
“I could talk for weeks,” he joked.
The audience interrupted Shoebat numerous times with applause
and gave him a standing ovation at the end.
David Hakimfar, a member of Bruins for Israel and the principle
coordinator of the talk, called the event an “overwhelming
success.”
“We really got the fence-sitters. I’m really proud
of what happened,” he said.
But not everyone was happy by the end. Sanaa Babaa, a
fourth-year business economics student whose father is Palestinian,
was so upset by Shoebat’s speech that she was near tears.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said.
“Though the speaker says he is not trying to propagate
hate, he’s giving people hearsay evidence to propagate
hate,” she said.
Babaa also said Shoebat’s stories about being raised in an
aggressive Palestinian culture were “completely
foreign” to her and that her parents raised her to respect
others.
Shoebat laid out a challenge for anyone who didn’t believe
him.
“If you’re in doubt over what I’m saying, put
a kippah on your head and go to Gaza and tell me how long you will
live,” he said, referring to the yarmulke (or skullcap) worn
by observant Jews.
Though event supporters found the speech to be worthwhile, it
will likely do little to ease tensions between the campus
supporters of Israel and Palestinians.
“If anything, he made it worse,” Babaa said.