Deported Activist Awad Willing to Convert to Judaism

NEW YORK — Mubarak Awad, a Palestinian-American activist deported from Israel, said Tuesday that he will fight his deportation and is willing to become a Jew as a way to return.

“I’m here, but not by choice,” Awad, 44, said at a news conference sponsored by the National Council of Churches. “If everything fails, I’m willing to change my religion to become a Jew to go back to Jerusalem.”

Asked if he thinks that any rabbi would be willing to perform the conversion, he replied: “I would tell him frankly it’s my political statement. I would tell him clearly I am persecuted because I am a Christian.”

Under Israel’s Law of Return, Jews who go to Israel may automatically become citizens.

Awad was deported Monday by Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir over U.S. objections. Shamir said Awad was in Israel illegally and threatened national security by inciting violence by Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied territories.

Awad, founder of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem, has denied the charges, saying he condemns violence by anyone. He also claims the right to remain in Jerusalem, where he was born before the establishment of the state of Israel.

His news conference Tuesday was far more peaceful than his arrival Monday night at Kennedy Airport, where opposing groups screamed, “Death to the Palestine Liberation Organization!” and “Zionism is racism!”