According to the biography on his official website (http://www.shoebat.com/bio.php), Shoebat was born in Bethlehem, the grandson of the Mukhtar of Beit Sahour, whom Shoebat describes as an associate of Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Mohammad Amin al-Husayni. Shoebat's great grandfather, Abdullah Ali Awad-Allah, was also a fighter and close associate of both Abdul Qader and Haj Amin Al-Husseini. Shoebat joined the Palestine Liberation Organization in his youth, and was involved in attacks against Israel.Upon his release, Shoebat continued his anti-Israeli activism until he emigrated to the United States, where he became involved with the Arab Student Organization at Loop College in Chicago. Shortly afterwards Walid worked as a software engineer and became a US citizen. In 1993, Walid converted to Christianity after studying the Jewish Bible for 6 months in response to a challenge from his wife, initially trying to persuade her into converting to Islam.
Supposed bombing of Bank Leumi
Shoebat claimed that he threw a bomb at Bank Leumi, an Israeli bank, in Bethlehem. However, the bank has no record of the incident. Also, Israeli newspapers at that time did not report any such incident. The authenticity of Shoebat's account has been disputed by many sources.
The Jerusalem Post also disputed the authenticity of Shoebat's account of his terrorist history. The paper stated that Shoebat claimed bombing has been rejected both by Bank Leumi, which claims no such attack took place, and by Shoebat's own relatives. The Post said that Shoebat had contradicted himself on this matter. When, in 2008, the Jerusalem Post asked him if there were news reports about the bombing, he said,
I don't know. I didn't read the papers because I was in hiding for the next three days.
But, in 2004, he had told Britain's 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.
During a telephone interview with the Post, Shoebat was unable to recall the date, or the time of year, of the attack. While Shoebat says he was pressured by teachers to adopt an extreme Islamic philosophy. The Jerusalem Post article reported that his uncle, who still lives in Bethlehem said that religion did not play a major role in his education, and that he had actually left Bethlehem by age 16.
On April 9, 2008, Shoebat responded to the Jerusalem Post's skepticism on that paper's op-ed page. He wrote that the Jerusalem Post had been duped and that the sources they interviewed who disputed his own account of his upbringing, including his relatives, were themselves involved in terrorism, and want to see him discredited. He also claims that reporter did not interview reputable witnesses offered to him who would confirm the bombing operation of Bank Leumi. He also posted a response on his website.