The family of an American woman killed at a protest in the occupied West Bank demanded an independent investigation on Saturday, saying that Israel could not investigate her death impartially because witnesses and Palestinian officials accused Israeli soldiers of killing her.
The woman, Aysenur Eyzi Eygi, 26, was shot in the head in Beita, a village in the West Bank, during a protest against an Israeli settler outpost on Friday. In a statement, her family said “given the circumstances of Aysenur’s killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate.”
“We call on President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Secretary of State Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties,” said the statement, which was posted to Instagramby a friend, Juliette Majid.
Ms. Eygi’s death carried overtones of a prominent incident in 2003, when a 23-year-old activist named Rachel Corrie was crushed by an Israeli armored bulldozer during a protest in the Gaza Strip. Like Ms. Eygi, Ms. Corrie was a resident of Washington State, and both were associated with the International Solidarity Movement, a nonviolent group resisting the Israeli occupation.
Ms. Eygi’s family described her as “a fiercely passionate human rights activist” who “felt a deep responsibility to serve others and lived a life of caring for those in need with action.”
