‘Light in any room’: Friends hail Aysenur Eygi, US citizen killed by Israel

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi never saw an injustice that did not move her personally.

That’s how friends remember the American Turkish activist, who was fatally shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank last week. They say she was known for her empathy, joyous presence and drive to support oppressed people, no matter who or where they are.

For many in Eygi’s community in Seattle, Washington, Aysenur — pronounced Aysha-Nour — was a name synonymous with laughter and compassion.

“She was a light in any room,” Kelsie Nabass, a friend of Eygi, said.

“She always had the biggest, brightest smile on her face. She was the friend in the room that would make jokes and little side comments and just make sure that the vibe was always fun. She was very warm and very, very inviting.”

Eygi was 26 years old. She had big dreams and wanted to attend graduate school to get a law degree. Her life was cut short when an Israeli soldier shot her in the head as she was attending a demonstration against an illegal settler outpost on September 6. Israel has acknowledged its forces “likely” fired the fatal bullet.

“She went there to witness the Palestinian people and their struggles,” Nabass said. “She was committed to the liberation of the Palestinians, and I think that commitment was her driving force to be there in the first place.”

According to friends, Eygi has been attending protests throughout her life, going back to 2016 – when as a teenager, she joined activists at Standing Rock to reject an oil pipeline that posed a threat to Indigenous people’s drinking water in North Dakota.

“From a very young age, she has been a social justice warrior. She always fought against inequities,” Nabass said.

“I know that the Palestinian people were very important to her because of the oppression that they’ve been facing for the last 75 years. And I know that she stood for the liberation of not just the Palestinian people, but the liberation of all people.”

‘Big sister energy’

Eygi was born in Turkey, but she grew up in Seattle on the US West Coast, where she attended the University of Washington (UW).

Those who knew her say she had a remarkable ability to bring people together, creating a community around her hospitality, food and advocacy, especially during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

Her killing has been felt deeply in the various social circles that she traversed and connected.

Bitaniya Giday, a UW student, lamented that she will no longer be able to hear Eygi’s stories and learn from her activism.

“It’s been a great tragedy,” Giday told Al Jazeera. “I’m just deeply saddened by the fact that I will never get to know her better … She had a deep network. In the larger community, we lost a comrade. We lost an advocate. We also lost a sister. And for me, I feel like I lost a mentor.”

Juliette Majid, another friend of Eygi, stressed that the activist cared for the rights of marginalised people in the US and across the world.

“She wore her heart on her sleeve, and she was very caring,” Majid said, adding that Eygi had “big sister energy”.

Eygi’s dedication and easy-going nature were apparent even to those who knew her in passing, like Lubna Alzaroo.

“She was just a very, very joyful person; that was my impression about her,” Alzaroo, who only met Eygi once, told Al Jazeera. “She was just very kind, had really kind eyes and a very beautiful smile. She was very easy to talk to.”

Calls for accountability

The Turkish American activist’s friends say nothing will fill the void left by her absence or compensate for her loss. For accountability, they want the US government to heed her family’s call for an independent investigation into her killing.

Earlier this week, the Israeli military said that Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally”.

After the Israeli assessment, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Vice President Kamala Harris both called the killing “unacceptable”, but they failed to back an independent probe.

Moreover, the family has not heard from President Joe Biden, who customarily calls the relatives of US citizens killed abroad.

“We have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing: to call us, offer his condolences, and let us know that he is ordering an independent investigation of the killing of Aysenur,” Hamid Ali, Eygi’s partner, said in a statement earlier this week.

Majid, Eygi’s friend, said she can only amplify the family’s demands for an independent investigation.

“She was a US citizen. She deserves this, and her family deserves justice, and that is what I want. I want the US government to take this seriously and to get justice for Aysenur and hold the guilty parties accountable,” said Majid.

Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, and other officials appear to be using unusually direct language when criticising Israel for killing, but Giday said anything short of meeting the family’s demands is “not enough”.

On Wednesday, US Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal and Senator Patty Murray sent a letter to Biden and Blinken requesting “an immediate, transparent, credible, and thorough independent US investigation” led by the FBI.

Sixty-six Washington state legislators also made a similar demand in a joint statement this week.

In Ezgi Eygi’s memory

The northwestern state has previously been through the pain of having a resident killed by the Israeli military: In 2003, activist Rachel Corrie was deliberately crushed and killed by an Israeli bulldozer in Gaza.

While there was never any meaningful accountability for her death, Corrie — who was from Olympia, Washington — has become a symbol of Palestinian rights activism in the US.

More than 20 years after her brutal killing, it is not uncommon to see Corrie’s posters at Palestine solidarity demonstrations.

The memory of Eygi will also live on, her friends pledge.

“We will be talking about her forever. I know I will carry her memory forward until the day I die, whether I’m in Seattle or not. I will bring her memory in every space I enter. We’ll always remember her,” Giday said.

But she struggled for words when she thought of her friend as someone who will be remembered but not physically present — like Corrie.

“I’ve heard about Rachel for a long time. It’s hard to think of Aysha as a martyr as well right now,” Giday told Al Jazeera.