Students packed Shapiro Theater and weaved their way through tight security on Monday night to hear controversial speaker Walid Shoebat, who discussed his conversion from a Palestinian terrorist to an adamant supporter of Israel.Shoebat said the ultimate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is open dialogue between Arabs and Jews. Illustrating the wide gap between the two communities, Shoebat said that although he lived most of his life in Israel, he never spoke to a Jew.

He described the conflict as being "so simple that it's ridiculous."

Shoebat, born in Bethlehem, is now an evangelical Christian, and has expressed some disdain for Islam.

"Peaceful Muslims exist despite Islam, not because of it," he said.

The event was sponsored by Zionists for Historical Veracity, the Union Senate, Hillel, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Israel Campus Roundtable. According to the minutes of the Oct. 3, 2004 Union Senate meeting, Shoebat's agent quoted a cost of $2,650 for the ex-terrorist's visit.

Shoebat's speech elicited a wide range of reactions from audience members.

Walla Sbeit '08, who describes himself as an Israeli-Palestinian, stormed out in anger during the question and answer segment of the program, during which he spoke against what he termed Shoebat's "propaganda."

The majority of the audience, however, listened in agreement.

"I really agreed with what he said," Tina Pollack '07 said. "He really explained how one culture thrives off hate while the other just wants peace."

Before leaving the room, Sbeit said several words in Arabic to Shoebat. While many thought his words were a curse, they were actually a stanza from a nationalistic Palestinian song written by Mahmoud Darwish and sung by Marchil Khalifi.

"We are staying here near this great destruction and in our hands shines the horror and in the heart there is the branch of pure loyalty," Sbeit said, quoting the song.

Shoebat described the misinformation and prejudice plaguing Arabic educational and religious institutions. He said teachers consistently taught their students that the Jewish people were the "enemy" and that they migrated from Europe to usurp Islamic land and homes.

Heightened security at the event was the result of an assessment by Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan.

Shoebat was originally scheduled to speak here in November, but the event was cancelled due to the administration's security concerns.

He frequently visits college campuses to make similar presentations, and has recently visited Harvard Law School, Columbia, Princeton and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, according to the Columbia Spectator, Columbia University's student newspaper.

Callahan told the Justice in November that every event at Brandeis requires different security precautions, and that some events take longer to prepare for than others. Callahan said in November that all security concerns had not been addressed.

According to Shoebat, Arabs are not anti-Zionist because they think there's no place for a Jewish state, but because they feel the need to harmonize with the viewpoints of their peers and their government.

Later Shoebat described the way Islamic governments use the media to introduce children to their ideology. He mentioned a cartoon Dracula who uses the blood of Arab children to make matzo. Arabs are also instructed that the Holocaust was a "fabrication created by the Zionists," he said.

Shoebat recounted how his family used to eat popcorn while watching clips of videos from the Holocaust while laughing at the ludicrous fabrication.

Shoebat said that in reality, the Arabs have ruled Palestine for less than 100 years, while Jews are very "peaceful people" who remain constantly optimistic about achieving peace.

"Zionism is just the Jew telling the world to leave us alone," he said.

He said that the Arab stance against Jewish settlers leads to the intense violence that ravages the Middle East. Since their supposed assured path to salvation lies in martyrdom, many Arabs engage in activities that kill other individuals and expectantly lead to their own death, he said.

Adding a personal example, he recalled his aunt's celebration of her son's death after he was shot and killed during a suicide bombing attempt.

When an audience member suggested that Shoebat "preaches to the choir," he responded by saying that people don't have to exert "effort when you're talking to those who are receptive to your message."

Shoebat identified Saudi Arabia as the greatest obstacle to Israeli-Palestinian relations because of its tremendous influence in the Middle East, but added that the United States has too much at stake in the Saudi economy to interfere with Saudi policy.

He added that the United States should prohibit the influx of students from countries supporting terrorism, and that the American Jewish community should support their brethren in Israel.

"I'm sorry that I lost my mind, but I couldn't stand hearing someone saying whatever the audience wanted to hear," Sbeit said after the event.

"I am a proponent of the self-critique of my own people," he said. "But Shoebat only presented one side of the story. He attacked the Arab community rather than legitimately critiquing the situation as a whole.