Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris expressed outrage on Wednesday after Israel acknowledged responsibility for killing American activist Ayenur Eygi in the West Bank, but they stopped short of implementing or threatening to implement any consequences for the country, which the U.S. continues to arm unconditionally.
Before Wednesday morning, the White House was facing increased public scrutiny for taking several days to speak out after an Israeli sniper shot 26-year-old Eygi in the head on Friday while she served as a protection volunteer during a protest against illegal settlement expansion in Beita, a village in the West Bank city of Nablus.
In his statement, Biden said that he was outraged and deeply saddened by Eygis killing, while Harris called her death a horrific tragedy that never should have happened. Both figures called the shooting unacceptable.
Ayenur 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 said of the Seattle resident, who as a graduate student helped organize pro-Palestinian campus protests at the University of Washington . Eygi then joined the International Solidarity Movement, a human rights group in which members serve as international observers and protection volunteers so that Palestinians can safely protest the occupation.
No one should be killed for participating in a peaceful protest, Harris said, adding that she is keeping Eygis family and loved ones in her prayers.
Eygis family confirmed on Wednesday morning that Biden and Harris have still not called them to directly to express their condolences, a break from the presidents usually swift communication with Americans who have experienced 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 family said in a response to the White House 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 Ayenur, a volunteer for peace.
The State Department declined earlier this week to go into detail on Eygis killing, instead saying that officials wanted to wait until the Israeli military completes its preliminary investigation. Israel often investigates itself when under pressure from the international community, but such probes have rarely led to accountability and consequences. Eygis family has repeatedly asked for an independent investigation into her death.
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 Ayenur, a volunteer for peace.
- Family of American activist Ayenur Eygi
Israel released the results of its preliminary inquiry on Tuesday, claiming that it was highly likely that an Israeli soldier shot Eygi indirectly and unintentionally while trying to hit the key instigator of the riot. The military said it has launched a criminal investigation and expresses its deepest regret for killing the activist.
Both Eygis family and fellow activists, including some who volunteered with her at the protest, blasted Israel for what her family called its wholly inadequate internal probe into the shooting that cannot be misconstrued as anything except a deliberate, targeted and precise attack by the military against an unarmed civilian.
Eyewitnesses said that an Israeli sniper positioned on a rooftop about 750 feet away shot Eygi in the head while she and a Palestinian teenager were standing in an olive grove more than half an hour after clashes between protesters and the military had subsided over 900 feet away.
We will always remember Ayenur as the kindhearted, silly and passionate soul whose face expressed all those qualities, her family said. We cannot speak of what happened to those expressions when her temple met a bullet fired by a trained Israeli soldier.
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