Brian Avery (born 1979) is an American who, while volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the West Bank town of Jenin, was shot in the face by Israel Defense Forces on April 5, 2003.
The shooting, which according to Human Rights Watch was "unprovoked and did not occur in the context of any apparent hostilities",[1] caused Avery to suffer permanent disfigurement.
He lived for a year in a housing cooperative in Chicago, and later became associated with the Arab-Jewish Peace Alliance in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he came into contact with the ISM.
According to Shlomo Lecker, his Israeli lawyer, "The sum does not reflect the injuries Avery suffered... On the other hand, it's one of the very few times the state has awarded damages to anyone hurt by the IDF during the Second Intifada."
Lecker said that Avery was willing to settle because of the need to defray some of the costs of the reconstructive operations he must still undergo, in addition to skepticism that the 15-month-long investigation would ever reach a satisfactory conclusion.