Three top Democrats from Washington state have urged the Biden administration to investigate the killing of Aysenur Eygi, an American citizen, in the West Bank, as the White House continues to resist her family’s calls for an independent probe.
In a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken on Wednesday, Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Pramila Jayapal requested “an immediate, transparent, credible, and thorough independent U.S. investigation” by the FBI into her death. Sen. Maria Cantwell also urged Blinken and President Joe Biden for an independent review into Eygi’s death in a separate letter.
Eygi, a 26-year-old from Seattle, was volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement, a group that supports Palestinian resistance against Israeli oppression, in the West Bank when she was killed on Sept. 6 during a protest against the expansion of settlements. The Israeli military has said its forces had likely “unintentionally” killed Eygi when “responding with fire toward a main instigator” who was hurling rocks — a claim that Eygi’s family and ISM have wholly rejected, saying it contradicts multiple eyewitness accounts.
A Washington Post investigation published Wednesday also found dozens of videos and witness accounts that reportedly refute Israel’s claim. According to the Post, Eygi was shot more than half an hour after confrontations between protesters and the military had peaked, and after protesters had moved away from Israeli forces. The IDF declined to respond to the Post’s questions. Neither MSNBC nor NBC News has confirmed the Post’s reporting.
Eygi’s family, like those of other American citizens killed by Israeli forces in the past, has demanded an independent investigation into her death. Although top White House officials — including Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, who only issued statements about her death this week — have expressed outrage over Eygi’s killing, they have not acknowledged her family’s calls for a U.S. probe, saying instead that they are leaning on Israel’s investigation for answers.
Jayapal and Murray wrote that Eygi’s family and community “deserve to know their government has done everything it can to fully understand what led to her killing, pursue accountability for those involved, and seek to ensure this does not happen again.” They pointed to a “pattern” of American citizens being killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank with impunity: Tawfic Abdel Jabbar, a 17-year-old Louisiana native who was shot in the head while driving in February 2024; Mohammed Khdour, another 17-year-old American citizen who killed under very similar circumstances just weeks later; Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian American who died after being taken into custody at a checkpoint in 2022; and Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian American journalist who was shot in the head by an Israeli soldier while on assignment. Israel has said it would look into Abdel Jabbar and Khdour’s deaths, but it’s unclear where those investigations stand or if they are even currently underway. Investigators from the U.S. embassy visited the homes of Abdel Jabbar and Khdour’s families, The Associated Press reported in February, but the White House has not announced any further action since. Assad’s family has repeatedly demanded that the U.S. launch an independent investigation into his death to no avail, and the Israeli military last year declined to bring criminal charges against the soldiers involved in his death. The IDF has acknowledged that its forces killed Abu Akleh, but declined to open a criminal investigation. The FBI launched a review into Abu Akleh’s killing that Israel refused to cooperate with, calling it an “interference in Israel’s internal affairs.” The agency has, until now, not released any findings or issued any arrests.
Clarissa-Jan Lim is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW. She was previously a senior reporter and editor at BuzzFeed News.
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