Michael Arria
Mondoweiss / September 11, 2024
Joe Biden released a new statement condemning the killing of Aysenur Eygi the day after repeating an Israeli claim that she was killed accidentally by a bullet that had “ricocheted off the ground.”
On Wednesday President Joe Biden released a new statement on the killing of Aysenur Eygi, the American activist who was shot by an Israeli sniper during a protest in the occupied West Bank last week.
“I am outraged and deeply saddened by the death of Aysenur Eygi. Aysenur was a recent U.S. college graduate,” said Biden. “She was also an activist whose idealism led her to travel to the West Bank to peacefully protest the expansion of settlements. The shooting that led to her death is totally unacceptable.”
“Israel has acknowledged its responsibility for Aysenur’s death, and a preliminary investigation has indicated that it was the result of a tragic error resulting from an unnecessary escalation,” he continued. “The U.S. government has had full access to Israel’s preliminary investigation, and expects continued access as the investigation continues, so that we can have confidence in the result. We will continue to stay in close contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities regarding the circumstances that led to Aysenur’s death.”
Vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris released a similar statement on Eygi’s death, calling it “a horrific tragedy that never should have happened.”
“The shooting that led to her death is unacceptable and raises legitimate questions about the conduct of IDF personnel in the West Bank,” said Harris. “Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”
The statements come just a day after Biden was criticized for telling reporters that Eygi’s death was “apparently was an accident,” as an Israeli bullet had “ricocheted off the ground” before hitting her. Eyewitness accounts from both activists with Eygi and doctors who treated her reported that she had been directly shot in the head.
At a White House briefing press secretary Karine Jean Pierre told reporters that Biden was referring to information from an Israeli military investigation into the incident that the Israeli government had shared with him.
Eygi killing
Turkish-American Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi was a 26-year-old volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) and a recent graduate from the University of Washington. She was protesting further settlement expansion in the West Bank village of Beita when, eyewitnesses say, she was shot by an Israeli army sniper perched on a nearby roof.
“We were peacefully demonstrating alongside Palestinians against the colonization of their land and the illegal settlement of Evyatar,” said a fellow protester in a statement. “The situation escalated when the Israeli army began to fire tear gas and live ammunition, forcing us to retreat. We were standing on the road, about 200 meters from the soldiers, with a sniper clearly visible on the roof. Our fellow volunteer was standing a bit further back, near an olive tree with some other activists. Despite this, the army intentionally shot her in the head.”
“She was very polite and respectful, very aware of the settlement danger and the case of Beita, sympathetic to our cause from a humanist standpoint,” local activist Mahmoud Barham told Mondoweiss.
“She stood beside us during the prayer in the protest location, and there were no confrontations,” he added. “Then, after the prayer, young men began to walk down the valley to protest, and the army fired the first two bullets. One hit a young man in the thigh, and the other hit Aysenur in the head.”
Further administration reaction
At a news conference in London, Secretary of State Antony Blinken referred to the killing as “unprovoked and unjustified” and called for changes to the Israel’s rules of engagement.
“No one, no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for expressing their views,” he said. “Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable. It has to change. And we’ll be making that clear to the senior-most members of the Israeli government.”
During Mondays briefings State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel and White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby refused to publicly acknowledge that an Israel solider was responsible for Eygi’s death and expressed confidence that Israel was capable of investigating its own crime.
The United States has repeatedly refused to open independent investigations into the killing of American citizens by Israel, despite public pressure for such probes.
In response to Biden’s initial comments Eygi’s partner Hamid Ali confirmed that The White House had not reached out to Eygi’s family.
“For four days, 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 Ayşenur,” said Ali. “This was no accident and her killers must be held accountable.”
Michael Arria is the U.S. correspondent for Mondoweiss
