Washington, DC – Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s husband, Hamid Ali, claims confusion and sorrow still grip him. One year ago, Israeli forces killed American citizen.
“Seeing the impact it has had on her father and her family, it’s been very difficult to adjust to life without Aysenur, an empty house.” Ali told Al Jazeera, “The word I’d use to sum up is confusing.
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On September 6, 2024, Israeli forces fatally shot Ezgi Eygi, whose first name is Aysha-nour, while protesting an illegal settlement outpost in the occupied West Bank.
Violence in the West Bank has increased as Israel continues to attack Gaza. Since 2022, Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 US citizens.
While Washington has continued to give Israel billions of dollars in military aid, the presidents Joe Biden and Donald Trump have ignored requests from Ezgi Eygi’s family for a US-led investigation into her death.
Ezgi Eygi’s sister Ozden Bennett said she is aware that justice may not be in sight, but that this does not undermine the family’s resolve to preserve the activist’s body.
Even if it doesn’t happen right away or perhaps ever, we’re committed to the long-haul journey of finding meaning in the process. Bennett told Al Jazeera, “I’m optimistic it will.”
Because it’s the right thing to do and my sister deserves it, “I see us fighting on.” Israel should be commended for every life it has taken without meaning.
Aysenur Memorial
When Ezgi Eygi died, she was 26 years old and had Turkish ancestry. Those who knew her described her as empathetic and joyful.
She was deeply moved by injustices in the US and abroad because she had been active since she was a young child. She is almost “childlike” in her compassion and playfulness, according to Ali and Bennett.
According to Bennett, “She always had that kind of childlike essence to her, that curiosity, that silliness.” I just miss her so much because she was such a special, sweet, and occasionally obnoxious sister.
Ali thinks that her activism was motivated by that authenticity.
He told Al Jazeera, “She had to live by her values and beliefs, and she had to express her feelings.”
“So she was the kind of person she was, and that’s exactly why she believed that doing the activism she did in the [United] States wasn’t enough. She thought that going to the West Bank would be her best course of action.
Since Ezgi Eygi was shot, at least two more US citizens have died in the West Bank.
Sayfollah Musallet, 20, was shot to death by settlers in Florida in July. Khamis Ayyad, a father of five and former resident of Chicago, was killed in a second settler attack less than three weeks later.
The families in both cases are calling for a US-Israel Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty and other applicable laws that would allow for such an investigation.
Israel has been asked to look into its own abuses by the Trump administration, but that is all it has done. Israel’s forces’ actions toward Palestinians and their supporters are rarely deemed to be wrong.
Similar to the incident’s death last year, the administration of then-President Biden requested an investigation into it, but it opted to ignore it.
The hypocrisy is “stunning.”
A consistent pattern is that there is no accountability. No criminal charges have been brought against the alleged killers in all ten cases of Americans who have been killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since 2022.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a veteran Al Jazeera reporter, was shot in the head while dong a bright blue jacket with the tagline “press.”
The inaction, according to rights advocates, constitutes impunity for Americans who kill Americans abroad. They trace the pattern back a number of decades, dating back to the 2003 incident where an Israeli bulldozer struck activist Rachel Corrie in Gaza.
At the time of her death, she had been attempting to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home.
Corrie, who was also a native of Washington state, is a prominent figure in the West’s support for the Palestinian cause. No one is still held accountable for her murder.
Ali’s wife’s passing and Corrie’s passing are analogous, Ali said.
He said, “This isn’t anything new, because it was the same as Rachel Corrie, and that was 20+ years ago.”
“We recognize the pattern, but it’s also frustrating and incredibly hypocritical.”
In an effort to keep the case alive, Ezgi Eygi’s family members have been bringing their demands to US lawmakers and officials despite their frustration.
The top US diplomat, according to Ali and Bennett, showed an inability to seek justice when they met with the then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken last year.
Following the killing of US-Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza, the US Department of Justice filed charges of “terrorism, murder conspiracy, and sanctions-evasion” against Hamas leaders days before Ezgi Eygi’s death.
The US approach’s contrast is obvious to Bennett. She told Al Jazeera, “It sends a message that not all American lives are equal.”
The US-based rights organization DAWN’s Raed Jarrar, who is in charge of advocacy, claimed that Washington “values Israeli impunity more than American lives” because of the US’s failure to hold accountable Ezgi Eygi and other US citizens who were killed by Israel.
“The hypocrisy is awe-inspiring.” The US government uses every diplomatic, economic, and military tool at its disposal to demand accountability and justice when Americans are killed by anyone else, according to Jarrar.
However, when Israel murders Americans, the US accepts Israeli “investigations” and justifications, provides additional weapons, shields Israel from international scrutiny, and accepts them.
Israeli investigation is “Irrelevant.”
According to an initial Israeli military report following Ezgi Eygi’s death, she was most likely killed by “indirect and unintended” fire. However, witnesses claim that a sniper struck her in the head.
No public announcements about the results of the investigation’s findings, despite reports that a wider Israeli investigation into the incident has been launched.
Al Jazeera’s request for comment was not received by the Israeli government’s Foreign Press Department.
Bennett claimed that the family is not anticipating an Israeli investigation’s release of any kind of accountability.
According to us, the Israeli investigation is irrelevant because it is inappropriate or acceptable for Israel, the murderer, to conduct an internal investigation.
If Ezgi Eygi’s memory can contribute to the Palestinian people’s liberation, Ali said, it would ease his sense of loss. Justice for Ezgi Eygi may seem elusive to him.
