Pro-Israel ex-terrorist denied entry into Canada

By David F. Dawes

Ardent Zionist Walid Shoebat

Walid Shoebat, who once planned to sacrifice his life for the PLO cause, had a change of heart more than a decade ago. In 1993, he renounced Islam, converted to Christianity, and embraced the pro-Zionist movement.

According to The Vancouver Sun, "Shoebat's manager, Keith Davies, said the Canadian Border Services Agency has blocked his visit on the grounds that Shoebat was involved in terrorism-related activities as a teenager in Palestine."

His Vancouver appearance, scheduled for the Italian Cultural Centre, was sponsored by Bridges for Peace, the Israel Action Committee (IAC) and the Jewish-Christian Friendship Circle (JCFC).

Sally Rogow, a member of the latter group, termed the agency's action "ridiculous." Shoebat, she told BCCN, "is an American citizen. He's an educated man. He's a very active Christian." She added that there had not been problems with his previous visits to Canada. "He's been to Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg."

Asked why Shoebat was barred from Canada, She said: "I would suspect that pro-Palestinian groups leaned very heavily" on the immigration authorities.

The event, which attracted some 600 people, went ahead as scheduled -- and with Shoebat's participation, despite the ban. Organizers showed a video of him speaking in Montreal. They also had a live computer hookup featuring Shoebat on a webcast. Audience members were able to have a question and answer session with him. Rogow said the activist spoke "about love, against hatred."

IAC spokesman Gabriel Patrich concurred, telling the Sun the event's purpose was to promote "peace and understanding." Shoebat, he insisted, "speaks against terrorism."

Vancouver-based pro-Palestinian activists were quite vocal in their opposition to the appearance.

Speaking for Vancouver's Palestine Community Centre, Eyad Alnuweiri told the Sun: "We are against any message of hate." The Sun also spoke to Gabor Mate of Jews for a Just Peace, who said that Shoebat's views "can only create more misunderstanding and resentment against Arabs. Everyone has a right to speak, but I believe where he's coming from is a place of hatred."

On the website of the Palestine Solidarity Group [www.palsolidaritygrp.org], an 'Open Letter to the Italian Cultural Centre' stated:

"We feel it is both painful and embarrassing to see the name of the Italian Community Centre attached to the event flyer, especially when the Muslim community in Vancouver has used your centre [a] few times to hold its Eid Holiday prayers -- a holy occasion similar to the Christmas mass."

The letter had a web link to a recent commentary entitled 'Pro-Israel students host racist Islamophobe to speak for Israel,' which called Shoebat "a certified kook and racist."

The open letter continued: "We do not think the Italian Community . . . should welcome such blatant phobia, racism and message of hate." It referred to two of the sponsors, IAC and JCFC, as "professional state-sponsored propagandists for the Israeli Occupation and the illegal Settlements projects," and expressed concerns that funds raised at the Vancouver event would be "going directly to buying bullets and bulldozers to be used against our defenceless people in Palestine."

The Italian Cultural Centre Society (ICCS) issued a statement May 31, saying: "The fact that tonight's event is being held at the Italian Cultural Centre is in no way and should not be perceived to be an endorsement of any person, group or political cause . . . The ICCS relies on rental of its facilities to sustain itself and this rental was simply a business transaction, nothing more, nothing less."

Rogow said the critics simply did not appreciate the transformation Shoebat had undergone over the years. As a young man, she said, he was subjected to indoctrination "very similar to what the Nazis did with the Hitler youth." As a PLO terrorist, she said, "he was ferociously determined to become a martyr."

However, things changed when Shoebat moved to the U.S. "He married a Catholic woman -- and read the Bible." This led to him convert from Islam to Christianity.

A lengthy interview with Shoebat, titled 'The Conversion of A Committed Palestinian Terrorist' -- was conducted by evangelical stalwart Pat Robinson on CBN.com. This excerpt confirms Rogow's contention about Shoebat's youth:

Shoebat: Well, Pat, at six years old, in kindergarten, I remember the first song we had was 'Arabs are beloved, and Jews are Dogs.' And we sang this every morning . . . Everything was the most Nazi form of education that you can think of, Pat. It was the extreme, from religion, from social studies, from arts, from songs. All the songs that we memorized were evil songs calling for the death of the Jews. Even in eschatology, Islamic eschatology in high school, we learned that the day of judgment shall not come to pass until the tribes of Islam defeat the tribes of Israel.

Robertson: What does defeat mean?

Shoebat: It means kill them. Even the stones will cry out, and the trees will cry out, "There is a Jew hiding behind me. Come, oh Muslim, come, oh slave of Allah. Come and kill him until not one Jew is left."

Robertson: At what point did you personally think that giving your life as a suicide bomber or in the cause of Islam was a good thing? When did that take place in your life?

Shoebat: Mostly right from kindergarten all the way to high school. Every single day in school we have been trained that. So right around high school, I decided to give my life to martyrdom, because in our education, religious education, that the way to salvation is by your own death -- killing the enemy. So you take your life to yourself, and you kill yourself as you kill your enemy. And that's the way of salvation that we learned. So suicide bombing, bombing buses, killing Jews in the streets. It is incredible, Pat.

Speaking to the Sun, Alnuweiri sharply disputed the claims that Palestinian youngsters are taught hatred of Jews or other non-Muslims.

å"It's part of the massive smear campaign against Muslims, and it's a lousy attempt to divert attention from the real issue, which is that Palestinian children are being killed in Rafah."

Shoebat's supporters, however, were unwavering in their admiration for the speaker. Davies pointed out that a fatwa (Islamic decree) calling for execution has been issued against Shoebat, and stated: "He's risking his life because of his religious faith, and because he feels this is a calling from God."

Shoebat, Rogow asserted, "is a bright, warm, caring kind of person. He talks about what hatred accomplishes. It has enslaved the Palestinians; they're the biggest victims of it."