Difference between revisions of "Walid Shoebat"

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<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="CNN investigates Walid Shoebat 2">74Tzz51VYXg</youtube>
 
<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="CNN investigates Walid Shoebat 2">74Tzz51VYXg</youtube>
 
<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="CNN investigates Walid Shoebat 1">j399KFHtgUo</youtube>
 
<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="CNN investigates Walid Shoebat 1">j399KFHtgUo</youtube>
'''Walid Shoebat''' is a self-proclaimed "former Islamic terrorist" who now supports Israel. His biography on his website states that he was 'Born in Bethlehem of Judea, Walid's grandfather was the Muslim Mukhtar (chieftain) of Beit Sahour-Bethlehem (The Shepherd's Fields) and a friend of Haj-Ameen Al-Husseni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and notorious friend of Adolf Hitler.' <ref>[http://www.shoebat.com/bio.php Walid Shoebat]: Official Biography</ref> Shoebat immigrated to the US in the 1970s and converted to Christianity in 1993.<ref name="jp">Jorg Luyken, [http://www.jpost.com/Features/Article.aspx?id=96502 The Palestinian 'Terrorist' Turned Zionist], ''Jerusalem Post'', 30 March 2008</ref>  
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'''Walid Shoebat''' is a self-proclaimed "former Islamic terrorist" with a Palestinian father and an American mother who now supports Israel. The biography on his website states that he was 'Born in Bethlehem of Judea, Walid's grandfather was the Muslim Mukhtar (chieftain) of Beit Sahour-Bethlehem (The Shepherd's Fields) and a friend of Haj-Ameen Al-Husseni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and notorious friend of Adolf Hitler.' <ref>[http://www.shoebat.com/bio.php Walid Shoebat]: Official Biography</ref> At the age of 16, in the 1970s, Shoebat immigrated to the US and converted to Christianity in 1993.<ref name="jp">Jorg Luyken, [http://www.jpost.com/Features/Article.aspx?id=96502 The Palestinian 'Terrorist' Turned Zionist], ''Jerusalem Post'', 30 March 2008</ref>  
  
 
Shoebat claims that he has claimed that he engaged in a terrorist action, he was imprisoned, and upon his release he converted to Christianity and became an ardent zionist. However, according to the ''Jerusalem Post'' most of the these claims are unsubstantiated. <ref name="jp"/> For some time Shoebat produced a radio program broadcast from a settlement near Ramallah, but has since moved to the United States where he is a regular lecturer or speaker on 'jihad ideology' and the anti-semitism of those critical of Israel. Shoebat now even has a "publicist" and "agent", [[Keith Davies]] who also is the Executive Director of the [[Walid Shoebat Foundation]]. <ref>Neil MacFarquhar, 'Speakers At Academy Said to Make False Claims', ''New York Times'', 7 February 2008</ref>
 
Shoebat claims that he has claimed that he engaged in a terrorist action, he was imprisoned, and upon his release he converted to Christianity and became an ardent zionist. However, according to the ''Jerusalem Post'' most of the these claims are unsubstantiated. <ref name="jp"/> For some time Shoebat produced a radio program broadcast from a settlement near Ramallah, but has since moved to the United States where he is a regular lecturer or speaker on 'jihad ideology' and the anti-semitism of those critical of Israel. Shoebat now even has a "publicist" and "agent", [[Keith Davies]] who also is the Executive Director of the [[Walid Shoebat Foundation]]. <ref>Neil MacFarquhar, 'Speakers At Academy Said to Make False Claims', ''New York Times'', 7 February 2008</ref>
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==False Claims==
 
==False Claims==
 
===Nom de Guerre===
 
===Nom de Guerre===
One his website Shoebat claims that "Walid Shoebat" is an assumed name adopted to protect him from reprisals by his former terrorist allies, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head. However, as the Jerusalem Post reported, 'His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of "Walid Shoebat" being an assumed name.'<ref name="jp"/>
+
One his website Shoebat claims that "Walid Shoebat" is an assumed name adopted to protect him from reprisals by his former terrorist allies, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head. However, as the Jerusalem Post reported, 'His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of "Walid Shoebat" being an assumed name...Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.'<ref name="jp"/>
 
===Terrorist Past===
 
===Terrorist Past===
 
Shoebat has claimed that when he was 16, he was recruited by a PLO operative named Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem, an attack he aborted when he saw a group of Arab children playing nearby. Instead, he claims, he threw the bomb onto the roof of the bank where it exploded causing no fatalities. However, the Bank Leumi has no such record of this purported bombing in the relevant 1977-79 period.  
 
Shoebat has claimed that when he was 16, he was recruited by a PLO operative named Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem, an attack he aborted when he saw a group of Arab children playing nearby. Instead, he claims, he threw the bomb onto the roof of the bank where it exploded causing no fatalities. However, the Bank Leumi has no such record of this purported bombing in the relevant 1977-79 period.  
 
:Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage...Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.<ref name="jp"/>
 
:Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage...Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.<ref name="jp"/>
The Jerusalem Post noted further contradictions in Shoebat's account. When asked if the bombing made news at the time, he replied that "I don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days." However, in 2004 he had told the Sunday Telegraph: "I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb."<ref name="jp"/>
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The Jerusalem Post noted further contradictions in Shoebat's account. When asked if the bombing made news at the time, he replied that "I don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days." However, in 2004 he had told the Sunday Telegraph: "I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb."
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The claim is also denied by Shoebat's family who still live in Beit Sahour, Bethlehem. <ref name="jp"/>
  
 
==Affiliations==
 
==Affiliations==

Revision as of 13:06, 14 September 2011

<youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="CNN investigates Walid Shoebat 2">74Tzz51VYXg</youtube> <youtube size="tiny" align="right" caption="CNN investigates Walid Shoebat 1">j399KFHtgUo</youtube> Walid Shoebat is a self-proclaimed "former Islamic terrorist" with a Palestinian father and an American mother who now supports Israel. The biography on his website states that he was 'Born in Bethlehem of Judea, Walid's grandfather was the Muslim Mukhtar (chieftain) of Beit Sahour-Bethlehem (The Shepherd's Fields) and a friend of Haj-Ameen Al-Husseni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and notorious friend of Adolf Hitler.' [1] At the age of 16, in the 1970s, Shoebat immigrated to the US and converted to Christianity in 1993.[2]

Shoebat claims that he has claimed that he engaged in a terrorist action, he was imprisoned, and upon his release he converted to Christianity and became an ardent zionist. However, according to the Jerusalem Post most of the these claims are unsubstantiated. [2] For some time Shoebat produced a radio program broadcast from a settlement near Ramallah, but has since moved to the United States where he is a regular lecturer or speaker on 'jihad ideology' and the anti-semitism of those critical of Israel. Shoebat now even has a "publicist" and "agent", Keith Davies who also is the Executive Director of the Walid Shoebat Foundation. [3]

Zionist Activist

Walid Shoebat and Pamela Geller 11 October 2006

Beginning in 2003, Zionist groups have taken Shoebat on well-publicized speaking tours at universities and synagogues, and on radio and television shows; Shoebat is presented as a "former PLO terrorist", someone who has forsaken Islam for Christianity, and who is now also a zionist. In an appearance hosted by the Berkeley's Bridges to Israel group, "Shoebat donned a kippah and proudly proclaimed Ani Tzioni - I am a Zionist - in Hebrew".

On several occasions the scheduling of Shoebat's lectures coincided close to the date of major events hosted by pro-Palestinian solidarity groups (e.g., Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights brought Norman Finkelstein to Concordia in March 2004; Shoebat's lecture took place a week later. NB: this was after a protracted campaign by local zionists to bar Finkelstein's talk and the removal of event advertisements from the campus walls.) On one occasion the title of the lecture presented by Shoebat was very close to that of an alternative event Palestinian solidarity event, and very helpfully, posters for the latter talk had been removed. By following the trajectory of Shoebat's lectures, it is clear that these are not determined by proximity to various venues, the trajectory seems to be determined by local events.

Neocon endorsements

In Shoebat's website one finds an endorsement by Frank Gaffney, Jr., President of the Center for Security Policy:

In the 25 years I have been in Washington I have never heard anything so extraordinary and the truth so eloquently told by someone like this [Walid Shoebat]. [4]

False Claims

Nom de Guerre

One his website Shoebat claims that "Walid Shoebat" is an assumed name adopted to protect him from reprisals by his former terrorist allies, whom he says have put a $10 million price on his head. However, as the Jerusalem Post reported, 'His relatives, members of the Shoebat family, are mystified by the notion of "Walid Shoebat" being an assumed name...Shoebat evinced no particular surprise that his family could be tracked down simply by asking Beit Sahur locals where they lived, even though his Internet site claims that his is an assumed name.'[2]

Terrorist Past

Shoebat has claimed that when he was 16, he was recruited by a PLO operative named Mahmoud al-Mughrabi to carry out an attack on a branch of Bank Leumi in Bethlehem, an attack he aborted when he saw a group of Arab children playing nearby. Instead, he claims, he threw the bomb onto the roof of the bank where it exploded causing no fatalities. However, the Bank Leumi has no such record of this purported bombing in the relevant 1977-79 period.

Shoebat told The Jerusalem Post that this could be because the bank building was robustly protected with steel and that the attack may have caused little damage...Shoebat could not immediately recall the year, or even the time of year, of the purported bombing when talking to the Post by phone from the US. After wavering, he finally settled for the summer of 1977.[2]

The Jerusalem Post noted further contradictions in Shoebat's account. When asked if the bombing made news at the time, he replied that "I don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days." However, in 2004 he had told the Sunday Telegraph: "I was terribly relieved when I heard on the news later that evening that no one had been hurt or killed by my bomb." The claim is also denied by Shoebat's family who still live in Beit Sahour, Bethlehem. [2]

Affiliations

References, Resources and Contact

Statements, publications and interviews by Shoebat

  • Some of Shoebat's statements about Islam can be found in the Answering-Islam website (viewed 29 Nov 2006; NB: much of it is quite offensive).
  • The Shoebat.com website home page contains a number of disturbing and offensive statements, and these are analyzed here.

2004

  • Dennis Prager interviews Walid Shoebat (MP3 audio), 23 May 2004 (available 29 Nov 2006). (remarkable interview in terms of its offensiveness; it harps on the theme that Palestinians and Islam are inherently anti-semitic; and if that weren't enough, Islamic anti-semitism has rubbed off on Palestinian Christians).

2005

  • Walid Shoebat, Why I Left Jihad: The Root of Terrorism and the Return of Radical Islam, Jan. 2005. (ISBN 0977102114) No Publisher specified.
Shoebat's book

2006

  • Walid Shoebat press release: Shoebat Fights for Muslim Dissident's Freedom, Journalist on Trial Today, 16 Nov 2006. (It is certainly curious that Shoebat has issued a statement about Shoaib Choudhury because the campaign for the release of Choudhury has been spearheaded by the American Jewish Committee. Choudhury's alleged offense is that "... his writings, which are critical of the rise of terrorism and call for peace and understanding between Muslims and Jews".)

External Resources

Media Appearances

Media Accounts about Shoebat

  • Raffi Berg, Palestinian militant turned peacemaker, BBC Online, 26 Jan 2004.
  • David Quinn, "Ex-PLO member warns against Islamic militants", Irish Independent, 16 Oct 2004.
  • Deaglán de Bréadún, "Palestinian bomber who changed sides in the conflict", The Irish Times, 26 Oct 2004.
  • Dany Horovitz, "Terrorist turned Zionist speaks at Concordia", The McGill Tribune, 18 Mar 2004.
  • Chip Berlet, Islam-Bashing Bigots Train Counterterrorism Agents, Huffington Post, 29 December 2010.

Uncritical uses

Contact

Website: www.shoebat.com
Alternative website: www.answering-islam.org/Walid/index.htm
email: : walid@shoebat.com

Notes

  1. Walid Shoebat: Official Biography
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Jorg Luyken, The Palestinian 'Terrorist' Turned Zionist, Jerusalem Post, 30 March 2008
  3. Neil MacFarquhar, 'Speakers At Academy Said to Make False Claims', New York Times, 7 February 2008
  4. shoebat.com - Arabs Speak (accessed 29 November 2006)