Avshalom Feinberg was born in 1889 in Gedera, a small town in center of the Land of Israel. At the age of 14 he went abroad to study in Paris and took up interest in agriculture. 

Upon his return to the Holy Land, Feinberg found a job at an agronomy research station where he met Aaron Aaronsohn. Together with Aaron's sister, Sarah, and their friend Yosef Lishansky, the four founded the NILI in 1915.

The NILI was a small Jewish espionage organization that passed information to the British and assisted them in freeing Israel from Turkish rule. In order to make contact with British Naval Intelligence, Feinberg traveled to Egypt – on foot, in 1915. Two years later, Feinberg again set out with Lishansky to Egypt.

On January 20, 1917, Feinberg was murdered by marauding Bedouins in the Sinai. Lishansky was badly injured, but managed to escape. 

After Israel conquered the Sinai in Six Day War, an old Bedouin led soldiers to a place that they called Kabir Yehudi (the Jew’s grave). There Avshalom's remains were discovered under a lone palm tree in the middle of the desert that sprung from the date seeds he had in his pocket. His body was returned to Israel and buried in Mount Herzl National Cemetery.