Killing of David Ben Avraham

On 21 March 2024, David Ben Avraham (Hebrew: דוד בן אברהם), a 63-year-old Palestinian Jewish convert, was shot and killed by an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) soldier near Elazar, an Israeli settlement in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The soldier had approached Ben Avraham and asked whether he was Jewish, to which he responded affirmatively. In the ensuing encounter, the soldier pointed his rifle at Ben Avraham and threatened to kill him if he reached for his bag, then ordered him to raise his hands and not move. Ben Avraham raised his hands for a few seconds, then lowered them before being fatally shot.

The IDF opened an investigation into what it termed a "grave" incident; the soldier, a reservist, was released a week later by an Israeli court. The Jerusalem Post stated that the killing joined a series of "wrongful mistaken killings" of Jewish Israelis and Palestinian Israelis since the October 7 attacks "in which, to date, the prosecution and courts have been extremely lenient on the killers."

Born Sameh Zaytoun, Ben Avraham was a resident of Hebron and had changed his name upon converting from Islam to Judaism. Following his conversion, he was jailed by the Palestinian Authority for 58 days in 2019. The Israeli government repeatedly denied his applications for Israeli citizenship, which The Times of Israel stated was "ostensibly due to his Palestinian heritage". On 29 March, Israeli Interior Minister Moshe Arbel posthumously approved Ben Avraham's residency status.