More than two months after the American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was killed in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, allegedly by a member of the Israeli security forces, his family told CBS News that their trust in the United States has been broken due to the lack of any independent criminal investigation.
Eygi’s husband, Hamid Ali, said he was dismayed by the Biden administration’s response.
“I hope that the American government will be able to implement its own law in this case and withhold, at the very least, its own taxpayer funding that went to that unit or that soldier that killed one of its own citizens,” he told CBS News.
Family document
Neither the Biden administration nor any U.S. law enforcement agency has announced an investigation into Eygi’s killing. The State Department told CBS News it continues to press for the results of a “full and transparent” Israeli investigation.
Eygi’s sister, Özden Bennett, said the Biden administration’s response had made the grieving process “even more heartbreaking and painful.”
“No family should have to go through this,” she told CBS News, with tears in her eyes.
Bennett said that growing up in the United States, she developed an idealistic view of the country and its values, but that her sister’s death “shattered” those ideas.
“It feels like they don’t care about all American citizens equally,” she said. “The failure of the US government, or the Biden administration in particular, to open an investigation makes us wonder why he is not being treated equally. »
Witnesses, his family and the group that Eygi had joined during a demonstration said The US-Turkish dual national was shot in the head by an Israeli sniper while standing under a tree in the West Bank city of Nablus.
She was shot shortly after participating in a protest organized by the International Solidarity Movement, during which the Israeli military said some demonstrators threw projectiles at soldiers. Witnesses said she was shot after the protest, and far from where it took place.
THE The IDF said an initial investigation found it “very likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally” by a member of the Israeli security forces. The Israeli military told CBS News on Thursday that it was unable to provide further details about its ongoing investigation.
A State Department spokesperson told CBS News last week that the United States continues to press Israel for “a full, transparent and timely investigation.”
“We look forward to knowing the results as quickly as possible, including the appropriate accountability measures that will be taken,” the spokesperson added.
When asked whether the U.S. government intended to launch its own criminal investigation into Eygi’s killing, the White House referred CBS News to President Biden’s comments. statement in September, in which he said Israel had “acknowledged responsibility for Aysenur’s death” and that the United States had “full access to Israel’s preliminary investigation and expects continued access as the investigation continues, so that we can have confidence in the outcome.” »
But Eygi’s father, Mehmet Suat Eygi, said it seemed to have become the norm for the U.S. government to downplay the killings of Americans by Israeli forces. He said his daughter’s death reminded him of the deaths of other U.S. nationals in the Palestinian territories, particularly Rachel Corrie And Shireen Abou Akleh.
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“It’s beyond disappointing,” the grieving father told CBS News. “The US government’s response simply asserts that Israel could kill anyone and there would be no consequences. »
He emigrated to the Seattle area in 1999, when his daughter was 10 months old, and was naturalized in 2005. Aysenur Eygi grew up in the Pacific Northwest and graduated from the University of Washington in the spring 2024. She had planned to create a school. PhD program after taking a gap year.
“The safety of American citizens should not be tied to their ideological support for Israel,” Eygi’s father told CBS News.
Samah Park Imtiaz was a close friend of Eygi. Sobbing softly, she recalled to CBS News their last phone call, when Eygi told her how much she missed her cat.
“I am still in a dream state when I think about what happened,” Imtiaz said. “(Biden) said anyone who hurts Americans would face consequences. We are Americans and we deserve answers.
In September, 103 members of the US Congress signed a letter to Mr. Biden, urging the administration to launch an independent investigation into Eygi’s killing.
“Walking away without further questioning gives Israeli forces an unacceptable license to act with impunity,” the lawmakers said.
Brad Parker, a member of the legal team supporting Eygi’s family, called the Biden administration’s response so far “disappointing” and said it was “concerning” that there was no there was no “strong sign for justice to be done for Aysenur”.
“I think this is the current policy, which can be characterized as granting impunity to Israeli forces, even for the murder of American citizens,” he told CBS News. “The focus has been on the Israeli military adjusting its rules of engagement, rather than on justice and accountability for specific killings of American citizens. »
Eygi’s husband, Ali, said Israel’s close alliance with the United States should not shield him from consequences.
“Israel has a history of not being willing to conduct any investigation, and when it does, what it offers is grossly inadequate,” he said.
Her sister-in-law said the Biden administration has yet to respond to the family’s pain, “other than condolences.”
“If the US government does not respond to cases like his, which has never been the case, Israel has the green light to continue to act with impunity and kill other citizens,” Bennett said.