UPDATE- this action alert now includes the US Senate. If you have already taken action to contact your Representative, you can fill out the form again to get in touch with your Senators.
On September 6, 2024, Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, an American citizen, was shot and killed by an IDF soldier. This fact is not contested or in doubt. What is contested is how it happened. The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) preliminary investigation found “it is highly likely” Ms. Eygi “was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her” during a “violent riot.” This report contradicts credible, independent eyewitness accounts that suggest the shooting was intentional without provocation.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has called her killing “unprovoked and unjustified” and has said that “no-one should be shot and killed for attending a protest.”
We wholeheartedly agree.
Dear President Biden, Secretary Blinken, and Attorney General Garland:
On September 6, we learned about the fatal shooting in the West Bank of American citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a Seattle resident and recent graduate of the University of Washington. We extend our deepest condolences to Ms. Eygi’s family during this moment of tragedy, and our thoughts are with her family and loved ones.
We are deeply disturbed by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) preliminary investigation that found “it is highly likely” Ms. Eygi “was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire which was not aimed at her” during a “violent riot.” This contradicts credible, independent eyewitness accounts that suggest the shooting was intentional without provocation. A Washington Post investigation based on interviews with eyewitnesses and West Bank residents, photos, and videos indicates the shooting occurred “more than a half-hour after the height of confrontations in Beita, and some 20 minutes after protesters had moved down the main road — more than 200 yards away from Israeli forces.”
Given the evidence, we believe the United States must independently investigate whether this was a homicide. To walk away without asking further questions gives Israeli forces an unacceptable license to act with impunity. There must be accountability for Ms. Eygi’s death. We therefore call on the White House, State Department, and Department of Justice to lead an independent, thorough, credible, and transparent investigation into the killing of Ms. Eygi. This investigation should include all evidence found and rationale for how findings were determined in a written report to the family.
We request a written explanation provided to the family and the undersigned members to the following questions no later than October 4, 2024:
- What does the U.S. government currently know about the circumstances surrounding Ms. Eygi’s killing?
- Will the U.S. government conduct an independent, thorough, credible, and transparent investigation into the killing of Ms. Eygi?
- What would be the proposed timeline and plan for such an investigation?
- How will the U.S. government seek accountability if the Israeli government refuses to cooperate with such an investigation?
We appreciate your attention to these matters and look forward to your prompt response.
Yossi Alpher is an independent security analyst. He is the former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University, a former senior official with the Mossad, and a former IDF intelligence officer. Views and positions expressed here are those of the writer, and do not necessarily represent APN's views and policy positions.
September 6, 2024- Americans for Peace Now is outraged by the death of American citizen Aysenur Eygi at the hands of the IDF in the occupied West Bank and urges a swift and independent investigation of the circumstances that caused her death. APN conveys its deepest condolences to Eygi’s family.
This heartbreaking event underscores the urgent need for a thorough, independent, and transparent US-led investigation to determine the facts surrounding her death, including whether US-supplied weapons or materiel were involved –in violation of the Leahy Law. Eygi’s family deserves justice and the American people deserve accountability.
Recording of our September 16, 2024 webinar with Amir Tibon. This conversation was hosted by Hadar Susskind and Maxxe Albert-Deitch.
We spoke with author Amir Tibon about his new book, The Gates of Gaza, as well as his experience as a journalist in Israel over the last 11 months. This webinar was coordinated in partnership with our colleagues at Canadian Friends of Peace Now.
About the book: In The Gates of Gaza, Amir Tibon tells the harrowing story of his family’s survival on October 7th at Kibbutz Nahal Oz. He describes his family's ordeal—and the bravery that ultimately led to their rescue—alongside the histories of the place they call home and the systems of power that have kept them and their neighbors in Gaza in harm’s way for decades. Woven throughout is Tibon's own expertise as a longtime international correspondent, as well as more than thirty original interviews: with residents of his kibbutz, with the Israeli soldiers who helped to wrest it from the hands of Hamas, and with experts on Gaza, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the peace process. More than one family's odyssey, The Gates of Gaza is the intimate story of a tight-knit community and the broader saga of war, Occupation, and hostility between two national movements—a conflict that has not yet extinguished the enduring hope for peace.
Ori Danino
Carmel Gat
Hersh Goldberg-Polin
Alexander Lobanov
Almog Sarusi
Eden Yerushalmi
Six hostages, murdered in cold blood by Hamas. Six hostages each of whom survived 11 terrible months of captivity only to be killed before they could be reunited with their families. Six souls, kidnapped and murdered by Hamas, and abandoned by their own government.
Seeing Rachel and Jon Goldberg Polin on stage last night at the DNC was powerful and heartbreaking. It was important because it was not about politics, it was about empathy and humanity. I cried as they shared their story and their grief with the world.
But grief and humanity are not limited to Israelis, and neither should empathy be so. I stand with my Palestinian friends in their call to have their voices and their humanity recognized and valued in the same way.
As a Jewish, Israeli-American, I hope that the DNC will reconsider and put a Palestinian-American on the stage tonight.
August 28 2024- Americans for Peace Now strongly supports the Biden Administration’s imposition of new
sanctions on extremist West Bank settlers and the institutions of Occupation.
The sanctions on “farm outpost” Hashomer Yosh are long overdue: as our sister organization Peace Now reported in 2021, “the association supports at least 28 illegal outposts across the West Bank…Thus, with a relatively small investment (one family and a few young boys who herd sheep or cows upon a hill), settlers are able to take over huge amounts of land and dispossess Palestinian farmers from that same land.” The organization receives Israeli government funding and has been involved in violence against Palestinians.
Yitzhak Filant, “security officer” for the Yitzhar settlement, has played a major role in coordinating
similar violent attacks against the residents of Palestinian villages.