Israel’s fatal shooting of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi prompts US investigation

Juliette Majid named Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi “Baklava” after the distinctive cinnamon-flavored puff pastry dessert that Eygi made from scratch and fed to her friends, exuding her sweet “big sister” energy.

Others in the Seattle woman's inner circle, including Kelsie Nabass, called her by her middle name Ezgi – “melody” in Turkish – which fits Eygi's harmonious nature and her sense of bringing people together.

Seemi Ghazi knew her only as Ayşenur after they were introduced at a wedding in Washington state last year that Ghazi officiated. It wasn't long before Ghazi, a friend of my family, was drawn to Eygi's quiet charm and compassion as she and Eygi's partner, Hamid Ali, chatted that evening.

“She had so much elegance, subtlety and warmth, it was tangible,” Ghazi told me about 26-year-old Eygi, who was shot dead by Israeli soldiers over a week ago in the occupied West Bank, where she had been protesting against the settlements with Palestinians and other activists.

For Ghazi, the wedding celebration is now a bittersweet memory and the cheerful messages from the three new friends have been replaced by somber text messages from a grieving Ali, who is currently in Turkey to attend Eygi's funeral this weekend.

Ali and Eygi's other relatives have not yet heard from President Joe Biden, who recently offered comfort by phone to the parents of slain Hamas hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin and released a video of his phone call with Natalie and Judith Raanan of Evanston after Hamas released the mother and daughter two weeks after their deadly Oct. 7 attack.

Biden cannot be expected to call and hug every American involved in a foreign conflict or every relative of a citizen killed abroad. But many of Eygi's friends and family feel slighted and believe Biden is deliberately avoiding contact because Israel, a U.S. ally, carried out the fatal shooting long after a confrontation between protesters and the military, according to witness testimony and video footage, and not during a “violent riot,” as the Israel Defense Forces claim.

The fact that no contact was made with the Muslim family while Israel continued to bomb Gaza signals to American citizens that Eygi is not one of them, even though she has lived in the United States since she was a child, Nabass said.

“We notice which types of deaths among Americans get attention and condolences (from elected officials) and which Americans are 'sidelined,'” said Nabass, 31. “We should be able to protest the suffering of a people (the Palestinians) without fear of being murdered.”

On the same day that US Secretary of State Antony Blinken rebuked Israel for its actions last week, Biden called the September 6 incident an “accident” – not deviating too far from the Israeli narrative that Eygi was “probably” hit “indirectly and unintentionally” by Israeli fire.

Eygi's family doesn't believe it, and neither do many other Americans.

“She was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper positioned 200 meters away,” Ali said in a statement. “This was not an accident…”

Biden has since expressed his “outrage and deep sadness” over Eygi's death and called for “full accountability” as Israel launches its criminal investigation.

What Ali, his in-laws and many others want more than a phone call is for the United States to launch its own independent investigation, as Turkey, of which Eygi was also a citizen, has done.

If Israel's results are accepted, they fear that no one will be punished. This has happened before. Consider the shooting death of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh in 2022. Also the murder of Rachel Corrie, another woman from Washington state and member of the International Solidarity Movement, who was run over by an Israeli bulldozer over two decades ago while protesting against the destruction of Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.

“Israel is not conducting an investigation, it is conducting a cover-up,” Corrie's father Craig Corrie told the independent news program Democracy Now! on Monday.

Eygi's friends now wonder if she will be involved in another whitewashing. “She deserves justice,” said 26-year-old Majid. “Her family deserves justice.”

Eygi was not only an activist who was on the front lines for Black Lives Matter and Gaza and other movements at the University of Washington, Nabass and Majid said.

She was a proud, die-hard Seattle girl who loved nature, horror movies, and her espresso machine.

Just before boarding a plane for a short visit to Turkey before leaving for the West Bank, she told Nabass that she had just received her motorcycle license.

If she had returned, Eygi would be riding with the wind in her hair, trying to persuade her friends to climb up to admire the glacier-capped mountains and the back coast of the Pacific Ocean.

Rummana Hussain is a columnist and member of the editorial board of the Sun-Times.

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