You turn to us for voices you won't hear anywhere else.

Sign up for Democracy Now!'s Daily Digest to get our latest headlines and stories delivered to your inbox every day.

Blinken Calls Israel’s Killing of U.S. Activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi “Unprovoked and Unjustified”

HeadlineSep 11, 2024

The family of the Turkish American activist Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi says the White House has not called to offer condolences after Eygi was fatally shot in the head by an Israeli sniper at a protest in the West Bank town of Beita last Friday. On Tuesday, President Biden said he believed Eygi was killed by accident and that the bullet that struck her ricocheted off the ground. The Israeli military said in a statement it was “highly likely” Eygi was shot by its forces “indirectly and unintentionally” in fire that was not aimed at Eygi but another protester. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, meanwhile, criticized Israel’s military for Eygi’s death.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Her killing was both unprovoked and unjustified. No one — no one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views. In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.”

Despite those remarks, the Biden administration has yet to put any conditions on U.S. arms transfers to Israel, including $20 billion in additional weapons sales approved last month.

The original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.

Non-commercial news needs your support

We rely on contributions from our viewers and listeners to do our work.
Please do your part today.
Make a donation
Top