Washington, DC – The fatal shooting of a 26-year-old Turkish-American protester in the occupied West Bank has sparked renewed calls for the United States to hold Israel's military accountable.
But advocates say justice for American citizens killed by Israeli soldiers has long proven elusive, with many accusing President Joe Biden's administration of applying double standards to Israel and its military.
Friday's shooting claimed the life of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, a US-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 that an Israeli soldier shot Ezgi Eygi in the head and that she collapsed in an olive grove. She later died from her injuries at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus.
Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was one of the first U.S. officials to respond to the killing, calling on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to “do something to save lives.”
Later that day, at a press conference, Blinken himself was asked about the killing, where a reporter pressed him on the military aid the US continues to provide to Israel.
“I just want to express my deepest condolences, the condolences of the United States government, to the family of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi,” Blinken said. “We are sorry for this tragic loss.”
He said the Biden administration would “gather the facts” and “act accordingly” as necessary.
“I have no higher priority than the safety and security of American citizens, wherever they are,” Blinken added, echoing a similar statement made by US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew.
.@SecBlinkenDo something to save lives!
—Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) September 6, 2024
Elusive justice?
But advocates have questioned the US government's commitment to American security abroad, particularly in the occupied Palestinian territories.
They pointed to a series of high-profile killings by Israeli forces, for which they say Washington has failed to demand accountability.
Earlier this year, for example, an off-duty Israeli policeman 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 American citizen and Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was reporting at the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank at the time.
The Israeli military later admitted that its soldier had fired the fatal bullet, but dismissed it as an accident and refused to punish those involved. Although the FBI opened an investigation nearly two years ago, it has not provided any new information or a resolution.
That same year, Palestinian-American Omar Assad, 78, died after being detained by Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint near his home in Yiljilya. The US eventually refused to cut funding for the soldiers' unit, despite their history of abuse.
Other examples date back more than a decade. In 2010, teenager Furkan Dogan, also a US and Turkish citizen, was killed when Israeli commandos boarded a ship attempting 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 is not the first American citizen to be killed by the Israel Defense Forces while peacefully protesting against Israel in Palestine or simply while doing her job there.
From Rachel Corrie to Shireen Abu Akleh, this sad list keeps growing.
— 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 investigate the incident.
“We have reached out to the government of Israel to request further information and to request an investigation into the incident,” said White House National Security Council spokesman Sean Savett.
He added that the administration was “deeply disturbed by the tragic death.”
The Israeli military, for its part, issued a statement saying its forces had “responded with fire against a main instigator of the violent activity who threw stones at forces that posed a threat to them.”
He said he was investigating reports “that a foreign national was killed as a result of gunfire in the area.”
Israel is one of America's closest allies in the Middle East, and critics fear this has led to a reluctance to seek justice in cases where its soldiers appear to be guilty.
On Friday, for example, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) highlighted the long delays in seeking accountability.
“For years, Muslim American and Palestinian American organizations have been calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to address crimes against Palestinian Americans killed by the Israeli government and adjacent actors,” Robert McCaw, CAIR’s director of government affairs, wrote in an open letter.
A double standard
The United States was the first country to recognize Israel as a country in 1948, and has maintained close relations with its government ever since.
Washington provides $3.8 billion in military aid to the country each year. That figure has risen since Israel's war on Gaza erupted in October, when the Biden administration pledged additional arms and support.
The war began with an attack by the Hamas armed group against southern Israel. Some 250 people were captured during the attacks and some of them have been killed in Gaza.
Among them was Hersh Goldberg-Polin, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen. Immigrant rights advocates questioned Friday whether the Biden administration would commit to seeking the same accountability in Ezgi Eygi’s case as it did in Goldberg-Polin’s.
“There was rightly outrage and sadness when an American hostage was killed last week in Gaza,” Yohan Lieberman, co-founder of IfNotNow, an American Jewish advocacy organization, wrote on the social media platform X.
But Lieberman wondered whether Ezgi Eygi's death would provoke the same outrage. [Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris] “Do you even recognize her?” he asked.
Political analyst Omar Baddar also highlighted Biden's public statements after Goldberg-Polin's murder.
“Remember: When Hersh Goldberg-Polin was assassinated, Biden said, ‘Hamas leaders will pay for these crimes.’ We are about to witness another demonstration of who can kill Americans with impunity,” Baddar wrote.
Biden had yet to respond to the killing as of Friday afternoon.
Open an FBI investigation and request the extradition of the killer. #dosomething
— Mike S. Omer-Man (@MikeOmerMan) September 6, 2024
What does accountability look like?
Several advocates took to social media to demand that concrete steps be taken to bring Ezgi Eygi's killer to justice.
“Open an FBI investigation and request the extradition of the killer,” wrote Michael Omer-Man, research director of the Washington DC-based advocacy group Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN).
Meanwhile, CAIR called on the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute all “Israeli officials, soldiers and illegal settlers” responsible for the murder of not only Ezgi Eygi but other Americans such as journalist Abu Akleh.
He noted that the department unsealed charges of terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions evasion earlier this week against Hamas leaders.
“Now that the Justice Department 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 apply the same uncompromising legal rigor in prosecuting crimes committed against Palestinian Americans by Israeli soldiers and settlers,” said McCaw, CAIR's director of government affairs.
“The Department of Justice must act swiftly and decisively to ensure justice for all American citizens, regardless of their ethnicity.”
Omer-Man went a step further, calling for the United States to hold all human rights abuses accountable, regardless of who they are directed against.
He noted that a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was also killed by Israeli forces near Nablus in a separate incident on Friday.
“Just a reminder that we should not base the value of a life or the criminality of taking that life on whatever passport the victim may be carrying,” he said.
