Death of a young American activist in the West Bank: Fear of impunity

The young American activist, who had just arrived in the West Bank, was nervous but determined, believing that her presence, along with that of other foreign protesters, could help protect the land and lives of Palestinian villagers in the shadow of an encroaching Jewish settlement.

On Friday, their first outing in the sparse shelter of a few gnarled olive trees near the Palestinian village of Beita was their last. As her companions watched in horror on a rocky, dry hill, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26 – a vibrant, black-haired graduate of the University of Washington – fell to the ground, fatally wounded by a bullet in the head.

“I saw a soldier on the roof pointing his gun at us,” said Jonathan Pollak, an Israeli activist who was near where Eygi and a small group of protesters were standing when the shots rang out.

After an earlier brief clash in which Israeli soldiers fired tear gas at Palestinian protesters, it was calm, he said, and the force, which included Eygi and her foreign companions, moved some distance away.

“Nothing happened,” he said in an interview. “It was quiet.”

Then Pollak heard two shots and panicked screams broke out behind him.

“I saw Aysenur lying on the ground under an olive tree, bleeding to death,” he said. He and others tried to give her first aid, but although paramedics arrived quickly, it was obvious they could not save her.

“I could see brain matter,” said a European protester who was just a few meters away at the time and asked to be identified only as Mariam. Eygi, a U.S.-Turkish citizen, was later pronounced dead at a hospital in the nearby northern West Bank city of Nablus.

On Monday, hundreds of mourners marched through Nablus, carrying Eygi's body, draped in a Palestinian flag and a black-and-white keffiyeh, and condemning the young woman's death as a cold-blooded murder of a peaceful protester.

Her family said she would be buried in Turkey, where Eygi was born before spending her childhood and early adulthood in the United States.

The Israeli military admitted to firing shots to deter an alleged threat to the security of its troops. In an initial statement on Friday, it said the incident was being investigated. However, the military did not respond to subsequent inquiries.

The White House on Friday expressed “deep concern” over the news of the death, and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said the Biden administration was seeking additional information from Israel.

But in recent days, Eygi's friends, family and colleagues have expressed doubts that anyone would ever be held accountable for the murder – especially if the investigation was carried out by the Israeli military itself.

They pointed to similar deaths not only of Palestinian civilians but also of other US citizens in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including veteran Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, who was shot dead in the northern West Bank in 2022 while covering an Israeli raid on the Jenin refugee camp.

The Israeli military eventually apologized for Abu Akleh's death, citing the “high probability” that she had been shot by a soldier, but said she had been targeted in error. No criminal investigation has been launched.

“There is a culture of cover-ups,” said Neta Golan, an Israeli activist who co-founded the International Solidarity Movement in 2001, which organizes nonviolent protests in the Palestinian territories, including Friday's in Beita. “Israeli investigations are not investigations, they are 'How do we cover this up?'”

The murder sparked widespread calls for an independent investigation, including from the United Nations.

“People should be held accountable,” said Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The Eygi family also called for an independent investigation in a statement over the weekend. “An Israeli investigation is not sufficient,” they said.

Asked for a more comprehensive response to the killing, State Department spokesman Vedant Patel said Monday that U.S. authorities were still waiting for Israeli officials to present the results of their own investigation.

“We … encourage our partners in Israel to conduct and complete their process quickly and vigorously and to make their results public,” Patel told reporters at the State Department in Washington. “We … will not pre-empt that process.”

Israeli officials have made little public comment on Eygi's death, but an Israeli spokesman said U.S. Ambassador Jack Lew raised the issue at a weekend meeting with President Isaac Herzog, whose role is largely ceremonial.

“The President expressed his regret over her death and said the incident would be investigated by the [Israeli military],” said spokesman Jason Pearlman.

Israeli authorities have long viewed the International Solidarity Movement as a thorn in its side and sometimes try to prevent foreign activists from traveling through Israel to the Palestinian territories to take part in protests. In 2003, another American activist with the organization, 23-year-old Rachel Corrie, was run over by an Israeli army bulldozer while trying to prevent the demolition of her homes in the Gaza Strip.

Corrie's parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, said Eygi's death brought back painful memories. The couple, who have set up a charitable foundation in their daughter's name, also called for an independent investigation into Eygi's murder, which they compared to Rachel's.

The latest incident has heightened diplomatic tensions between the United States and Turkey, a NATO ally that has sharply criticized U.S. support for Israel in the 11-month-long war in Gaza. The Turkish Foreign Ministry condemned Eygi's death, calling it murder.

Turkish officials said the repatriation of Eygi's remains had been complicated by a deadly attack at the border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan over the weekend, and the body may have to be transported to Turkey by direct flight. On Sunday, a Jordanian gunman killed three Israeli civilian workers at the border crossing, which was subsequently closed.

Since the Gaza war began in October, violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank has increased, with more than 600 Palestinians killed, according to UN figures.

Against this background, some critics have questioned whether international activists are knowingly putting themselves in danger by participating in demonstrations such as the one near Beita, which take place almost weekly.

Mariam, the European protester who was just metres away from Eygi when she was shot and who was with her during preparations for the protest, described her as serious and aware of the risks, but still cheerful.

“She had the most beautiful smile,” said Mariam, who did not want to be fully identified for security reasons.

Colleagues from Egyi’s student days described her as committed and passionate.

She “abhorred suffering and believed in justice,” Kyle Haddad-Fonda, a history professor at the University of Washington, told the Seattle Times.

Since 2020, more than a dozen Palestinians have been killed in protests against the Israeli outpost of Evyatar, whose construction violated international and Israeli law. Palestinians say the settlers have seized private land in a campaign of violence and intimidation against villagers.

Protest organizers said Eygi and her companions did everything they could to protect themselves, but the dangers were clear to everyone. One example is the fact that on the same day in a nearby town, a 13-year-old Palestinian girl was shot dead as she watched a clash between troops and Palestinians from her window.

“She really played it safe,” Golan, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement who was not present at Friday's protests, said of Eygi.

“She stayed behind. They went into the olive grove and nothing happened where she was. She should have been safe.”

Times writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report from Washington.