A Palestinian converted to Judaism. An Israeli soldier saw him as a threat and opened fire

By JACK JEFFERY
Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — At first, it seemed like the kind of shooting that has become all too common in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. A Palestinian aroused suspicions and an Israeli soldier shot him dead. But then the deceased was identified as David Ben-Avraham, a Palestinian Muslim who had made the almost unheard-of decision to convert to Judaism years earlier. His unusual journey had taken him across some of the deepest fault lines in the Middle East. Most Palestinians saw him as an eccentric outcast, while many Israelis treated him as an unwelcome convert to a religion that doesn’t proselytize. In his final moments, he was once again seen as a Palestinian who was in the wrong place, at a time of widespread anger and suspicion.