Washington, DC – A year after the Israeli forces killed American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, her husband, Hamid Ali, says that confusion and pain continue to grasp his life.
“It was very painful to adapt to life without Aysenur – an empty house, see the effect she had on her father and family. The word I would use to sum up is confusing,” Ali in Tel Aviv Tribune told.
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Eygi, whose first name is pronounced Aysha-Nour, was fatally shot down by Israeli forces when she participated in a protest against an illegal outpost of settlers in the occupied West Bank on September 6, 2024.
While Israel intensifies its assault against Gaza, violence in the West Bank has also increased. At least 10 American citizens have been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers since 2022.
Presidents’ administrations Joe Biden and Donald Trump ignored Eygi’s family calls for an investigation led by the United States in his murder while Washington continued to provide Israel from billions of dollars in military aid.
Ozden Bennett, Eygi’s sister, said that she understood that justice may not be in sight, but that does not shake the family’s determination to maintain the memory of the militant killed.
“We are engaged in the long-haul journey of the search for justice and responsibility and to find a meaning in the process of doing so, even if it does not happen immediately or perhaps ever. I hope it will do it,” Bennett told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“I see us continue to ask for responsibility and justice for my sister because it is the right thing to do and she deserves it. Each life constantly taken by Israel deserves it. “
Remember Aysenur
Eygi, who was of Turkish origin and lived in Seattle, Washington, was 26 years old when she was killed. Those who knew her said she was joyful and empathetic.
She had been engaged in activism from a young age and had been deeply moved by injustices in the United States and abroad. Ali and Bennett described him as almost “childish” in his compassion and his playfulness.
“She has always had this kind of childish essence for her, this curiosity, this stupidity,” said Bennett. “She was such a special, sweet – sometimes boring sister – that I miss so much.”
Ali believes that it was this authenticity that led it to activism.
“He was someone who was to live according to her values and beliefs, and she had to say what she felt,” he told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“It is therefore the kind of person she was, and that is exactly why she wanted to do the activism she had done in the states (united) was not enough. She had the impression of going to the West Bank was the next thing she could do.”
At least two other American citizens have been killed in the West Bank since Eygi was shot.
In July, the settlers beat Sayfollah Musallet, 20, aged 20. Less than three weeks later, Khamis Ayyad, 40, father of five and former resident of Chicago, was also killed in another settlers’ attack.
In both cases, families call for an American survey on murders, citing laws that would allow such an investigation, including the American-Israeli mutual assistance treaty.
But the Trump administration only called on Israel to investigate its own abuses. Israel rarely finds reprehensible acts in the conduct of his forces against the Palestinians and their supporters.
Likewise, when Eygi was killed last year, the administration of the president of the Biden era called Israel to investigate the incident, but he did not launch his own investigation.
“Hypocrisy is amazing”
This lack of responsibility is a recurring scheme. In the 10 cases of Americans killed by Israeli settlers and soldiers since 2022, no criminal accusation has been made against the authors
The victims include the veteran of the journalist from Tel Aviv Tribune Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot in the head as he wore a bright blue jacket labeled “press”.
Defenders of rights qualified inaction a form of impunity for those who kill Americans abroad. They date back decades back, in 2003, when an Israeli bulldozer ran the activist Rachel Corrie in Gaza.
She had tried to protect a Palestinian house from demolition at the time of her death.
Corrie, who was also Washington’s state, is now one of the icons of the Palestinian cause in the West. However, no one was held responsible for his murder.
Ali established a parallel between the death of his wife and the murder of Corrie.
“It was the same thing with Rachel Corrie, and it was 20 years ago, so it’s not a new one unfortunately,” he said.
“We know the model, but it’s always frustrating all the same and extremely hypocritical.”
Despite this frustration, Eygi family members have made their requests to the legislators and US officials in order to keep the case alive.
Last year, they met the Secretary of State then, Antony Blinken, but according to Ali and Bennett, the best American diplomat transmitted an inability – a proverbial by raising their shoulders – to seek justice.
But a few days before Eygi was killed, the United States Ministry of Justice filed charges of “terrorism, murder conspiracy and sanctions” against Hamas leaders after the murder of the American-Israeli captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin in Gaza.
For Bennett, the contrast in the American approach is clear. “This sends a message that all American lives are not equal,” she told Tel Aviv Tribune.
Raed Jarrar, the director of advocacy of the United States based on the Defense of Rights based, said that the inability of the United States to continue responsibility for Eygi and other American citizens killed by Israel shows that Washington “values Israeli impunity more than American life”.
“The hypocrisy is astounding. When American citizens are killed by someone else, the American government mobilizes each diplomatic, economic and military tool at its disposal to demand justice and responsibility,” Jarrar told Tel Aviv Tribune.
“But when Israel kills Americans, the United States accepts Israeli” surveys “and excuses, sends more weapons and shields Israel of international responsibility.”
“Unrelevant” Israeli probe
A first Israeli military report after the murder of Eygi said that she was probably killed by an “indirect and involuntary” fire. But witnesses said that she was targeted in the head by a sniper.
It has been reported that a broader Israeli survey on the incident was also launched, but there was no public announcement on its results.
The Israeli government’s foreign press service has not responded to the request for comments from Tel Aviv Tribune.
Bennett said the family is not expecting any responsibility for leaving an Israeli investigation.
“The Israeli investigation-for us-is not relevant because it is not appropriate or acceptable that Israel, the murder attacker, he did not,” she said.
For Ali, justice for Eygi may seem elusive, but if his memory can help the release of the Palestinian people, he said, that would facilitate his feeling of loss.
“I am not necessarily convinced that this will happen soon or that the responsibility will come soon, but I know in one form or another, it will come,” said Ali.
