Palestinian convert to Judaism freed from Hevron jail
David Ben Avraham was beaten and tortured by fellow inmates, who were told of his conversion.
By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDSDavid Ben Avraham is treated by a paramedic following his release from jail, while friend Haim Pereg sits by. (photo credit: COURTESY UNITED HATZALAH)
A Palestinian man who converted to Judaism has been released from jail where he was being held by the Palestinian authorities and beaten by fellow prisoners.Upon his release, David Ben Avraham, formerly Sameh Zeitoun, was taken to United Hatzalah of Israel’s headquarters in Jerusalem for a medical checkup before being transferred to Shaare Tzedek hospital in Jerusalem.Ben Avraham spent 58 days in jail before finally being released, apparently thanks to Israeli officials working quietly behind the scenes. He had been arrested in October by armed men, while visiting his son in the West Bank.“They handcuffed me and took me to jail. I took a lot of beatings there,” he told Ynet news on Friday. “The guards told everyone I had converted and I was Jewish. Prisoners would gang up on me, choke me and beat me badly.”The meagre food he was given “wouldn’t satisfy a mouse," he added. "I was denied water. I fainted three times and they took me to a hospital.”He was later held in solitary confinement, he said, where clerics tried to persuade him to return to Islam. “I refused outright,” he said. “I decided to become a part of the Jewish people and I have no intention of going back.”Haim Pereg, one of the leaders of the Jewish community in Hevron who worked to ensure Ben Avraham’s release and who accompanies him, said, "After severe torture that he underwent and in a well-orchestrated operation, we rescued David Samah Zaytun from prison and the hands of Abu Mazen and the evil clutches of the secret police, from prison, and from the house arrest to which he was thrown after he was kidnapped near the Karmei Tzur Junction on Erev Yom Kippur.”Ben Avraham converted to Judaism through the Bnei Brak Rabbinical Court of Rabbi Nissim Karelitz, who died in October. The authorities view rare cases of Palestinian conversion with caution; the government's Conversion Authority regularly rejects Palestinian applicants without review. Some of those, like Ben Avraham, turn to private institutions instead.
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