Originally published at Zeteo.com
Seven Days After Israeli Forces Kill American, Biden and Harris Haven’t Spoken to Victim’s Family
And any Israeli “investigation” apparently hasn’t even reached out to other eyewitnesses.
One week has passed since US-backed Israeli forces shot and killed 26-year-old US citizen Ayşenur Eygi as she demonstrated against US-condemned illegal settlement activity in the West Bank. And the White House has still not reached out to the victim’s family.
Since the shooting, Eygi’s family has made repeated appeals to the US government for an independent investigation, and for at least a simple phone call from US leaders.
While the US insists the Israeli government is investigating, the perpetrator’s initial findings were already undermined — and other volunteers say they and other eyewitnesses have not even heard from anyone involved in the supposed “investigation.”
“No one from the investigation has contacted us,” said Vivi, a volunteer with Faz3a, a group leading a campaign to provide protective presence to Palestinians against illegal Israeli settler activity. “So, it’s a bit frustrating, because what kind of investigation are you doing if you aren’t even talking to the people who are right next to her when she was killed.”
“No one from the State Department or anyone back in America has contacted us,” she added.
“It is frustrating to be American citizens…being shot at by weapons from our own country,” Vivi said. “Having seen the response after multiple settler attacks, after Amado [Sison] got shot, and now [Ayşenur] has been killed, and there's been really no condemnation of Israel from the top — I don't know. It feels like they just don't care about Americans at all.”
While it’s been all quiet on the US front in the week since Eygi’s killing, internally, volunteers have had to navigate an array of emotions while still trying to remain clear-eyed.
Eygi was in Palestine volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement — the same group American Rachel Corrie was with when she was killed 21 years ago by an Israeli bulldozer. Mariam, another of their volunteers, said it’s been “24/7 work” since the shooting. Interfacing with press, responding to the various statements from the US and Israeli government, and the primary work of continuing to provide protective presence to Palestinians. “We've been quite busy, but of course, we've been grieving. I think the funeral was probably an opportunity to be together as a group and to grieve and say goodbye to Ayşenur.”
“Unfortunately, it was her first day on the ground, it was our first action together.”
Some volunteers, meanwhile, have even made sure to write their last wills and testaments.
“Everyone's been thinking a lot more seriously about getting their affairs in order,” Vivi of Faz3a said, explaining how some have turned to the internet and used each other’s templates as models, signing one another's wills as witnesses. “I think we're just thinking about our families and how we would want it to be broken to them, and what we would be leaving behind with them.”
The volunteers have nevertheless wanted to ensure focus on the reason they are there at all: the suffering of the Palestinian people. “The language from Biden and Harris is still…’I will support Israel's right to defend itself,’ but we've seen that there's absolutely no defense going on here in the West Bank. They're attacking refugee camps here that house generations of people who have been displaced during previous Nakbas, who are just waiting with the hope to maybe one day go back.”
“An accident, ricocheted off the ground”
As soon as the day of the shooting, Eygi’s family spoke out.
“Like the olive tree she lay beneath where she took her last breaths, Ayşenur was strong, beautiful, and nourishing. Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military,” the family wrote. “…an Israeli investigation is not adequate. We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a US citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties.”
The US, meanwhile, first responded as if the killing was an act of deep misfortune. “We deplore this tragic loss,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last Friday, adding “the most important thing to do is to gather the facts, and that’s exactly what we’re in the process of doing, and we are intensely focused on getting those facts. And any actions that we take are driven by the facts.”
Days later, on Tuesday, the Israeli military announced its initial findings: it was "highly likely" that Eygi "was hit indirectly & unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her but aimed at the key instigator of the riot."
Shortly after, Biden told reporters: "Apparently it was an accident, ricocheted off the ground and just got hit by accident. I'm working that out now,” going even further than the Israeli military’s already-spurious claim.
Implicit in the Israeli military’s Biden-echoed claim was that they were indeed shooting gunfire into the crowd, but somehow didn’t hit their intended target. But footage reported by the Washington Post shows that the Israeli military shot Eygi more than 30 minutes after the peak of confrontations between demonstrators and Israeli soldiers, some 20 minutes after demonstrators moved down the road over 200 yards away from Israeli forces.
Eygi’s family responded publicly to Biden’s statement, saying they were “deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional,” reiterating their demand for Biden, Harris, and Blinken to order an independent investigation.
Wednesday morning, both Biden and Harris released relatively stronger statements. The separately-released statements read mostly similar — both referring to the killing as a “tragic error” — but Harris also scrutinized the broader conduct of the IDF and referred to the incident as “the killing of” Eygi while Biden left it as “the death of.”
“No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest,” Harris added.
Ayşenur Eygi’s family responded once more, calling out the continued reference to the shooting as accidental. “Let us be clear, an American citizen was killed by a foreign military in a targeted attack. The appropriate action is for President Biden and Vice President Harris to speak with the family directly, and order an independent, transparent investigation into the killing of Ayşenur, a volunteer for peace.”
Neither Biden nor Harris have connected yet with the family. The White House and Harris campaign did not respond to questions from Zeteo.
Given how little it has actually been held accountable for alleged war crimes — including the killing of Americans — the Israeli government has seemed to proffer weaker and weaker stories behind their violent acts. After all, the Israeli military has killed numerous Americans including teenagers Mohammad Khdour & Tawfic Abdel Jabbar; World Central Kitchen worker Jacob Flickinger; 78-year-old Omar Assad; journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh; peace activist Rachel Corrie; and more. And they’ve faced no consequence for any of it.
Flickinger’s killing — alongside his colleagues — for instance, momentarily seemed to possibly be an inflection point in US policy (perhaps helped by the workers being from the West, and the World Central Kitchen being founded by DC-beloved chef José Andrés).
And yet, even that wasn’t enough. In May, the administration released a long-awaited report, which actually admitted it was “reasonable to assess” Israel was using US weapons in violation of international law. It however listed the WCK attack as among those it could not “reach definitive conclusions” as to whether US weapons were used, nevertheless holding that Israel could keep receiving weapons.
There is another analogue of Israel committing a high-profile alleged human rights violation, being “pressed” by the US to investigate, and then apparently lying about their findings that happened 228 days ago: the killing of Hind Rajab, her family members, and the medics sent to save her. In that case, the US deferred for months to the Israeli government, which, as I reported earlier, was apparently lying about the extent of their investigative efforts.
When Zeteo asked the State Department about the parallels between the US’s posture on Rajab and Eygi they said they would “do everything we can to ascertain and gather whatever information is required.”
Pressed if “everything” included conditioning weapons to Israel, the State Department assured: they had no policy announcements to make.
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