White Home ‘Outraged’ At Israel Killing Ayşenur Eygi, However Stops Brief Of Penalties

Each President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris expressed outrage on Wednesday after Israel acknowledged duty for killing American activist Ayşenur Eygi within the West Financial institution, however they stopped in need of implementing or threatening to implement any penalties for the nation, which the U.S. continues to arm unconditionally.

Earlier than Wednesday morning, the White Home was going through elevated public scrutiny for taking a number of days to talk out after an Israeli sniper shot 26-year-old Eygi within the head on Friday whereas she served as a safety volunteer throughout a protest towards unlawful settlement enlargement in Beita, a village within the West Financial institution metropolis of Nablus.

In his assertion, Biden stated that he was “outraged and deeply saddened” by Eygi’s killing, whereas Harris referred to as her loss of life a “horrific tragedy that never should have happened.” Each figures referred to as the capturing unacceptable.

“Ayşenur was a recent U.S. college graduate. She was also an activist whose idealism led her to travel to the West Bank to peacefully protest the expansion of settlements,” Biden stated of the Seattle resident, who as a graduate scholar helped set up pro-Palestinian campus protests on the College of Washington. Eygi then joined the Worldwide Solidarity Motion, a human rights group during which members function worldwide observers and safety volunteers in order that Palestinians can safely protest the occupation.

“No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest,” Harris stated, including that she is conserving Eygi’s household and family members in her prayers.

Eygi’s household confirmed on Wednesday morning that Biden and Harris have nonetheless not referred to as them to immediately to precise their condolences, a break from the president’s normally swift communication with Individuals who’ve skilled loss.

“President Biden has said, ‘If you harm an American, we will respond.’ On September 9th, the State Department claimed, ‘when it comes to the protection of our citizens and our personnel and if they are targeted, we of course will take appropriate action,’” the household stated in a response to the White Home statements.

They continued: “Let us be clear, an American citizen was killed by a foreign military in a targeted attack. The appropriate action is for President Biden and Vice President Harris to speak with the family directly, and order an independent, transparent investigation into the killing of Ayşenur, a volunteer for peace.”

The State Division declined earlier this week to enter element on Eygi’s killing, as an alternative saying that officers wished to attend till the Israeli army completes its preliminary investigation. Israel typically investigates itself when below strain from the worldwide neighborhood, however such probes have hardly ever led to accountability and penalties. Eygi’s household has repeatedly requested for an impartial investigation into her loss of life.

Israel launched the outcomes of its preliminary inquiry on Tuesday, claiming that it was “highly likely” that an Israeli soldier shot Eygi “indirectly and unintentionally” whereas making an attempt to hit “the key instigator of the riot.” The army stated it has launched a legal investigation and “expresses its deepest regret” for killing the activist.

Each Eygi’s household and fellow activists, together with some who volunteered along with her on the protest, blasted Israel for what her household referred to as its “wholly inadequate” inner probe into the capturing that “cannot be misconstrued as anything except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian.”

Eyewitnesses stated that an Israeli sniper positioned on a rooftop about 750 toes away shot Eygi within the head whereas she and a Palestinian teenager have been standing in an olive grove greater than half an hour after clashes between protesters and the army had subsided over 900 toes away.

“We will always remember Ayşenur as the kindhearted, silly and passionate soul whose face expressed all those qualities,” her household stated. “We cannot speak of what happened to those expressions when her temple met a bullet fired by a trained Israeli soldier.”

Biden and Harris each appeared to take Israel’s conclusion at face worth, saying Eygi’s killing was the results of a “tragic error.” The U.S. has full entry to the preliminary inquiry and expects continued entry through the legal investigation, “so that we can have confidence in the result,” in accordance with the president.

A day earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that Eygi’s killing was “unprovoked and unjustified” and that the Israeli army ought to “make some fundamental changes” in the way it operates within the West Financial institution.

Eygi’s household blasted Biden on Wednesday for believing Israel’s conclusion that the killing was unintentional.

“Ayşenur was an international observer who stood in witness of ‘violent extremist Israeli settlers [who] are uprooting Palestinians from their homes’ – words President Biden himself used today,” the household stated. “Despite this, President Biden is still calling her killing an accident based only on the Israeli military’s story. This is not only insensitive and false, it is complicity in the Israeli military’s agenda to take Palestinian land and whitewash the killing of an American.”

Neither Biden, Harris nor Blinken have threatened penalties towards Israel for killing an unarmed U.S. citizen. This is in line with how the administration has dealt with the Israeli authorities’s repeated violations of worldwide regulation – significantly since October 2023, when Israel launched its harmful offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ assault in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 folks and captured about 250 hostages, an estimated 100 of whom have nonetheless not been launched.

Since Israel started its siege in Gaza — which has killed greater than 41,000 folks and displaced greater than 90% of the inhabitants, in accordance with native well being officers — Palestinians within the West Financial institution have additionally confronted a surge of violence and compelled evictions by Israeli troopers and settlers alike.

Biden stated Wednesday that the “violence in the West Bank has been going on for too long.”

Between Oct. 7, 2023, and Sept. 9, 2024, Israeli forces and settlers killed a complete of no less than 674 Palestinians within the West Financial institution, in accordance with the United Nations. In that very same interval, 276 Palestinian households have been displaced within the context of assaults by Israeli settlers within the territory, the U.N. stated. The Worldwide Courtroom of Justice dominated in July that Israel is violating worldwide regulation by persevering with to occupy Palestinian territories.