Advocates demand justice after US protester killed in Israeli gunfire

Washington, DC – The fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Turkish American protester in the occupied West Bank has sparked fresh calls for the United States to demand accountability from Israel’s armed forces.

But advocates say justice for US citizens killed by Israeli soldiers has long proven elusive, with many accusing the administration of President Joe Biden of applying a double standard to Israel and its military.

Friday’s shooting claimed the life of 26-year-old Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a dual US and Turkish citizen who was taking part in a demonstration against an illegal Israeli settlement on Mount Sbeih in Beita, a town south of Nablus.

During the protest, witnesses said an Israeli soldier shot Ezgi Eygi in the head, and she collapsed in an olive grove. She later died of her wounds at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.

Palestinian American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was among the first US officials to respond to the killing, and she called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “do something to save lives”.

Blinken himself was asked about the killing at a news briefing later in the day, where a journalist pressed him on the military aid the US continues to provide to Israel.

“I just want to extend my deepest condolences, condolences of the United States government, to the family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi,” Blinken responded. “We deplore this tragic loss.”

He said the Biden administration would “gather the facts” and “act on it” as necessary.

“I have no higher priority than the safety and protection of American citizens, wherever they are,” Blinken added, echoing a similar statement made by US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew.

.@SecBlinken: Do something to save lives! https://t.co/2g4hKCa330

— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 6, 2024

Elusive justice?

But advocates have questioned the US government’s commitment to American safety overseas, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories.

They pointed to a string of high-profile killings by Israeli forces that they say Washington has not sought accountability for.

Earlier this year, for instance, an off-duty Israeli police officer and a settler opened fire and killed 17-year-old US citizen Tawfiq Ajaq near his ancestral village of al-Mazraa ash-Sharqiya in the West Bank. An investigation into the case is ongoing.

In 2022, an Israeli sniper also shot US citizen and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was reporting at the time in the West Bank’s Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli military later admitted its soldier fired the fatal bullet but deemed the killing an accident and declined to punish any individual involved. While the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) opened an inquiry nearly two years ago, it too has offered no updates or resolution.

That same year, 78-year-old Palestinian American Omar Assad died after being detained by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near his home in Jiljilya. The US ultimately declined to cut funding to the soldiers’ unit, despite its track record of abuses.

Other examples stretch back more than a decade. In 2010, teenager Furkan Dogan, another dual US and Turkish citizen, was killed when Israeli commandos boarded a ship trying to deliver aid to Gaza.

And in 2003, an Israeli soldier driving a bulldozer crushed Washington resident Rachel Corrie to death as she protested the destruction of Palestinian homes.

Her name is Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, and she’s not the first US citizen to be killed by the IDF whilst peacefully protesting Israel in Palestine, or whilst simply doing her job there.

From Rachel Corrie to Shireen Abu Akleh, this sad list is growing. https://t.co/yOxTAxNpNq

— Monica Marks (@MonicaLMarks) September 6, 2024

White House reaction

In the case of Friday’s killing, the Biden administration indicated it would rely on Israel to look into the incident.

“We have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident,” White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett said.

He added that the administration was “deeply disturbed by the tragic death”.

For its part, the Israeli military issued a statement saying its forces had “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces who posed a threat to them”.

It said it was looking into reports “that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area”.

Israel is one of the US’s closest allies in the Middle East, and critics fear that has led to a reticence towards pursuing justice in cases in which its soldiers appear to be at fault.

On Friday, for instance, the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) underscored the lengthy delays in seeking accountability.

“For years, American Muslim and Palestinian-American organisations have been calling for the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to address crimes against Palestinian-Americans killed by Israeli government and adjacent actors,” Robert McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director, wrote in an open letter.

A double standard

The US was the first country to recognise Israel as a country in 1948, and it has maintained tight relations with its government ever since.

Washington provides $3.8bn in military aid to the country each year. That number has increased since Israel’s war in Gaza erupted in October, with the Biden administration pledging additional weapons and support.

The war started with an attack on southern Israel by the armed group Hamas. About 250 people were taken captive during the attacks, and some have since been killed in Gaza.

Among them was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old US citizen. Advocates on Friday questioned whether the Biden administration would pledge to seek the same accountability in Ezgi Eygi’s case as it had in Goldberg-Polin’s.

“There was — rightfully — outrage and sadness when an American hostage was killed last week in Gaza,” Yohan Lieberman, the co-founder of IfNotNow, an American Jewish advocacy organisation, wrote on the social media platform X.

But Lieberman wondered whether the same outrage would greet Ezgi Eygi’s death. “Will [Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] even acknowledge her?” he asked.

Political analyst Omar Baddar also pointed to the public statements Biden made after Goldberg-Polin’s killing.

“Remember: when Hersh Goldberg-Polin was killed, Biden said ‘Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.’ We’re about to get another demonstration of who can kill Americans with impunity,” Baddar wrote.

Biden had not yet responded to the killing as of Friday afternoon.

Open an FBI investigation and seek extradition of the murderer. #dosomething https://t.co/3tkibOtO5a

— Mike S. Omer-Man (@MikeOmerMan) September 6, 2024

What does accountability look like?

Several advocates took to social media to demand concrete steps be taken to bring Ezgi Eygi’s killer to justice.

“Open an FBI investigation and seek extradition of the murderer,” wrote Michael Omer-Man, a director of research at the Washington, DC-based advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).

CAIR, meanwhile, called on the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute all “Israeli officials, soldiers and illegal settlers” responsible for killing not just Ezgi Eygi but other Americans like the journalist Abu Akleh.

It noted the department unveiled charges of terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions evasion earlier this week against the leaders of Hamas.

“Now that the Department of Justice has demonstrated its ability and willingness to prosecute Hamas crimes against Israelis and Israeli-Americans in the Middle East, it is imperative that the Justice Department bring the same uncompromising legal rigor to bear in prosecuting crimes committed against Palestinian Americans by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” McCaw, CAIR’s government affairs director, said.

“The DOJ must act swiftly and decisively to uphold justice for all American citizens, regardless of their ethnic background.”

Omer-Man went one step further, calling for the US to seek accountability for all human rights abuses, no matter whom they are directed at.

He noted a 13-year-old Palestinian girl had also been killed by Israeli forces near Nablus in a separate incident on Friday.

“Just a reminder not to base the value of a life or the criminality of taking that life based on what passport the victim might be carrying,” he said.