We speak with the husband and sister of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old Turkish American activist killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in September, who have criticized the Biden administration for failing to independently investigate her death. The recent University of Washington graduate was fatally shot in the head after taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita, which she attended as an international observer. Witnesses say she was shot by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed. Members of Eygi’s family spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken earlier this week but left the meeting with little hope the U.S. would hold Israel accountable. “Accountability starts with an investigation by the U.S. of the killing of one of its own citizens by an ally,” says Eygi’s husband Hamid Ali. “The answer to the question of why my wife is not getting justice is because Israel enjoys this level of impunity throughout its existence that no other country, no other state in the world enjoys.”
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman, with Juan González.
The Biden administration is coming under criticism this week for failing to independently investigate the killing of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, the 26-year-old American activist shot to death by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in September. The recent University of Washington, “U Dub,” graduate was fatally shot in the head after taking part in a weekly protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita. Witnesses say she was shot by an Israeli sniper after the demonstration had already dispersed.
On Monday, members of her family met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken but left the meeting saying they had little hope the U.S. will hold Israel accountable. Her family also held a vigil outside the White House on Monday night and a press conference on Tuesday outside the Capitol, where speakers included Democratic Congressmember Pramila Jayapal of Washington state.
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL: Outside reporting, including an in-depth investigation by The Washington Post, directly challenges the Israeli government’s account of what happened and how Ayşenur was killed. This investigation found that Ayşenur was shot more than 30 minutes after the confrontation that the IDF claimed to be responding to had already ended. And she was killed from more than 200 yards away, horrifically shot in the head. That is not a, quote, “mistake,” as the IDF has claimed. That is not accidental. …
I am absolutely appalled with the lack of movement on this case, the lack of attention from the State Department, the U.S. State Department, for the well-being and the safety of our own U.S. citizens. Nothing that I have heard from the State Department gives me any assurance at all that the killing of a United States citizen by the IDF is being treated with the urgency that it deserves. And this is all particularly galling when the U.S. continues to provide unfettered aid to Israel — bullets, bombs, weapons — violating our own domestic Leahy Laws and international humanitarian law.
AMY GOODMAN: That was Democratic Congressmember Pramila Jayapal of Washington state, represents Seattle, where Ayşenur also grew up and went to college. Pramila Jayapal was speaking Tuesday at a news conference calling for a U.S. probe into Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi’s death, shot dead by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank.
We’re joined now by Ayşenur’s sister, Ozden Bennett, and her husband, Hamid Ali.
We thank you so much, both, for joining us, and our deepest condolences on the death of your wife and your sister. Ozden, if you could start off by talking about your meeting with Blinken? Both of you weigh in. Why did he agree to meet with you? Your sister is an American citizen. And what he promised?
OZDEN BENNETT: My sister’s killing happened over three months........