Category: Reports

Press Release: ISM Response to US State Dept Criticism of Israeli Investigation into Killing of Ayşenur Eygi

Ayşenur’s fellow activists honor her life and add to her memorial in the very spot she was martyred in Beita

September 18, 2024

Media inquiries: palreports [at] gmail.com

Ten days after US citizen Ayşenur Eygi, a human rights activist with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM), was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier while witnessing a protest in the West Bank, the US State Department finally suggested that trusting Israel to investigate itself may not produce accurate results. This conclusion may not have required ten full days of deliberation had the US government heeded what Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights groups have been proclaiming loudly and clearly for years: the Israeli military cannot be trusted to investigate itself.

This year alone, reports from NPR and the Associated Press have shown that Israeli military investigations are inadequate; NPR detailed how questions of misconduct are met with confidential “operational inquiries” wherein no evidence is collected and soldiers can coordinate their testimony, while the AP detailed case-by-case the lack of transparency, inconclusiveness and rare admissions of guilt in Israel’s investigations of military misconduct. Relating how ISM activist Rachel Corrie’s death at the hands of an Israeli bulldozer still hasn’t been subject to a thorough, credible and transparent investigation, Rachel’s parents Cindy and Craig Corrie summed it up best: “Israel does not do investigations; they do cover-ups.”

Without regard to these serious liabilities, the US State Department continues to allow Israel to manage the investigation, promising other action “if those results aren’t satisfactory.” Meanwhile, Eygi’s family has been calling for an independent investigation since the day Eygi was murdered, along with the ISM and the parents of US citizen Rachel Corrie, who was also killed by the Israeli military. In the two days since the State Department’s criticisms of Israel’s investigation, there has been no change in the status quo and the US continues to send weapons to Israel to be used in Gaza and in the West Bank against Palestinians.

It is crucial to understand Ayşenur’s murder in the context of Israel’s oppressive colonial regime. In the West Bank this year, in a dramatic escalation, the Israeli military has wrought mass destruction and displaced many refugees in the camps, destroyed infrastructure with the goal of displacing all the residents of the camps, killed 17 Palestinians on the same hill where Ayşenur was shot dead, and murdered 13-year-old Bana Laboum in her own home on the same day. Meanwhile, Israeli settlers have perpetrated coordinated assaults on villagers and their property with the allowance and even assistance of the military.

By counting on the Israeli military to continue an investigation that they cannot be trusted to carry out impartially and truthfully, the US remains complicit in Israel’s ongoing crimes against humanity.

Israeli plan to displace residents of Palestinian camps

Palestine – Northern West Bank

18-Sep-2024

By Diana Kwaelid

For the past two weeks, the Israeli army has been conducting the largest military operation in the northern West Bank, causing the displacement of dozens of families from the Jenin Camp, Nur Shams Camp, and Tulkarem camp. This comes following Israeli calls to evacuate the camps, raising concerns about the repetition of the Gaza scenario in the West Bank.

“Gaza scenario”

Israeli Foreign Minister Yisrael Katz said on August 28 that the threat in the West Bank must be dealt with in the same way as the Gaza Strip, coinciding with the start of the West Bank operation.

Katz explained in a tweet on his X page that the Israeli army is launching an intensive military operation in the Jenin and Tulkarm refugee camps for Palestinian refugees against what he called “the Iranian Islamic terrorist infrastructures that have been established there”.

He added that Iran is working to establish what he described as, “a terrorist front against Israel from the West Bank, based on the Gaza and Lebanon model, by financing and arming saboteurs and smuggling advanced weapons through Jordan.”

Katz also called for a temporary evacuation of the population there, and for any other necessary steps to be taken, justifying this by saying that: “This is a war on everything and we must win it.”

Inside the Tulkarem refugee camp

Israel’s grand plan

Since the launch of the large-scale military operation in the northern West Bank, which began on August 28, Israel has aimed at eliminating all Palestinian militants in the camps in the north of the West Bank, to facilitate the access of Israeli settlers to these areas and settle in them, as in the case of Masafer Yatta, the Jordan Valley area in Tubas, the villages of Nablus, Ramallah, and Hebron.

The Palestinian camps in the West Bank, specifically in the North west Bank, are a hotbed of terrorism for Israel.

Al-Balawneh neighborhood in Tulkarem camp

Breaking the popular incubator in the camps

Has Israel succeeded in breaking the popular incubator in the Palestinian camps?

During its military operation two weeks ago, the Israeli occupation forces destroyed the northern West Bank camps and turned them from a vital camp to a place where it is no longer possible to live; the northern West Bank camps have turned into a block of rubble and the infrastructure has been destroyed.

Fortunately, the Palestinians in the camps are aware that Israel’s first goal in destroying the camps, including houses, infrastructure, and shops, is to break the popular incubator and turn the Palestinian civilians living in the camp against the Palestinian fighters who have chosen the path of resistance and defend the camps in every way.

Palestinians from inside Jenin, Nur Shams, and Tulkarem camps who lost their homes and private property had the same opinion.

They said: “The occupation will not make us turn against the resistance, and if they demolish my house, I will build another house better than it.”

The footprints of an Israeli soldier during the storming of one of the Palestinian houses in the camp

Palestinian camps showcase Palestinian steadfastness

For the Palestinian community, the Palestinian camps are the representation of steadfastness and challenge, because they are Palestinians who have been displaced from Palestinian cities that have been occupied since 1948 to the West Bank, they paid the price for their stay in Palestine, and the occupation continues to pursue them until now in destroying their place of residence in refugee camps.

For the Palestinian refugees in the West Bank camps, Israel has failed in all its attempts and will never succeed in displacing them from the camps. However, there are dozens of families who have emigrated from the camps because of fear for their families and because there are special cases of illness.

These are the remnants of the occupation – a military bag with food inside for Israeli soldiers in one of the Houses of the Tulkarm camp
Map of the Al Hammam neighborhood used by the occupation soldiers during the military operation in the camp

The Deliberate Policy of Forcibly Displacing Palestinians from the Camps

West Bank
13-Sep-2024
By Diana Khwael

Since the beginning of the military operation on August 28th, which the Israeli occupation called “Operation Summer Camps”, targeting three cities in the northern West Bank—Tulkarem, Jenin, and Tubas—the Israeli occupation forces withdrew a week after the operation in the Tulkarem camp and 10 days after the invasion in the Jenin area, specifically in the Jenin refugee camp.

In the city of Tulkarem, particularly in the Tulkarem refugee camp, a large battalion of Israeli occupation forces participated, especially using military bulldozers and jeeps, with the aim of destroying the camp’s infrastructure. This is not the first time the Israeli occupation has targeted the camp’s infrastructure.

Palestinians Fear History Repeating

Before the withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from the Palestinian camps, they left behind unprecedented devastation, not seen since 2002. A resident of the Tulkarem camp noted there hadn’t been such destruction since 1967. Hundreds of Palestinian homes were destroyed or burned, and hundreds of shops were demolished by Israeli bulldozers, along with streets and vital infrastructure. Electricity, internet, and water lines were cut off from the first day of the invasion of the northern West Bank camps.

Dozens of Palestinian homes lacked basic supplies, including bread, milk for children, and water.


Continuing Military Operations in the Camps

On Tuesday the 10th, Israeli occupation forces stormed the city of Tulkarem after Israeli special forces raided the Dabbas commercial complex around 2:00 PM. A state of panic gripped the residents, especially in the camps, as military reinforcements entered the city and shops were closed. Tulkarem turned into a ghost town once again.


No Safe Life

Residents of Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps have not yet recovered from the recent incursion. The occupation took only three days to storm the city and its camps and in broad daylight. Life in Tulkarem, especially in the camps, has become unsafe and unstable as dozens of Palestinian families began fleeing, fearing another invasion.

The affected Palestinians from the Tulkarem and Nur Shams camps described their neighborhoods as completely destroyed, similar to Gaza. Many homes were destroyed beyond repair or will take a long time to rebuild.

Others said, “We no longer feel safe; we are afraid for our children.” This indicates that Israel is using tactics to displace Palestinians from the northern West Bank camps, especially those in Tulkarem.

On the evening of Thursday the 12th, Israeli occupying forces bombed a car, assassinating three Palestinian resistance fighters inside. The fighters, from the Nur Shams refugee camp, were found charred beyond recognition. The death toll in Tulkarem during the recent military operation, which lasted more than 72 hours, rose to five martyrs. Three were from Nur Shams camp, including a young man in his twenties and a twenty-year-old girl who was targeted by an Israeli sniper while at home in the Tulkarem camp.

According to the Palestinian Health Organization, the total number of martyrs in the West Bank since October 7 has reached 702, with 5,700 injured. According to the Prisoners and Liberators Affairs Commission, more than 10,400 Palestinians are currently detained in Israeli prisons.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ISM Response to Pres Biden 11 Sept 24 Statement on the Murder of Aysenur Eygi

Israeli Army Push Back Press at Demonstration in Beita,
Israeli soldier harassing the press. July 19, Beita.

Media enquiries: ismtraining [at] riseup.net

On 11 September 2024, President Biden claimed to be “outraged” and “deeply saddened” by Israel’s murder of our comrade Aysenur Eygi, but his actions tell a very different story. While he described the shooting as “unacceptable,” he is refusing the family’s demand for an independent, transparent investigation and continuing to trust the murderers to investigate themselves. Aysenur’s family and the ISM have been clear that we have no confidence in any Israeli investigation, given the Israeli army’s longstanding practice of using investigations as exculpatory coverups. We continue to demand a transparent and independent investigation.

For the United States government to accept the results of Israel’s internal military investigations is a complete dereliction of the US government’s responsibility to its own citizens, but it is nothing new. In 2003, the US did nothing to hold the Israeli killers of Rachel Corrie responsible for that murder. In recent years, the US has done nothing when Palestinian Americans, like Shireen Abu Akleh, have been murdered by Israel. President Biden is pursuing business as usual and allowing Israel to continue to kill both US Citizens and Palestinians with total impunity.

President Biden’s disrespect for Aysenur’s family and community extends even further. Although Aysenur’s family is mourning the death of a US citizen, his administration has yet to pick up the phone and call the family to offer condolences. He asserts that he will remain in contact with Israeli and Palestinian authorities but is unwilling to communicate with the ordinary people who were closest to Aysenur.

In his statement, President Biden asserts that he treats “violent extremist Israeli settlers” and “Palestinian terrorists” equally and implies that the violence in the West Bank is equally the fault of both groups. Both assertions are false. President Biden’s administration arms the violent Israeli extremists, as ISM volunteers can testify to based on our extensive experience doing protective presence work in the West Bank face to face with Israeli settlers armed with US weapons. These are the same weapons that make the US complicit in Israel’s genocide in Gaza. As long as the US continues to send weapons to Israel to kill Palestinians, in Gaza as well as in the West Bank, the US is sustaining the violent extremism of the Israeli settlers and the Israeli government. Meanwhile, President Biden’s false equivalence between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank elides the fact that the current violence has its roots in over a hundred years of settler colonial terrorism, ethnic cleansing, and now genocide, all perpetrated by Israel. Contrary to what President Biden asserts, it is Zionist colonization that is the obstacle to peace.

Ultimately, it is hypocritical for President Biden to attempt to change the focus to Israeli settlers alone, given that the Israeli army killed Aysenur with weapons likely provided by the Biden administration, which is fully aware that they are used to attack people protesting or witnessing demonstrations against illegal settlements. As one American ISM volunteer who wishes to remain anonymous says, “When I was detained by the Israeli army for my nonviolent work with ISM, everything I saw in the army van was stamped with ‘made in the USA’ or ‘property of the USA.'” As Amado Sison, another American citizen shot by Israel in August during the weekly demonstrations in Beita noted, “The money I pay in my taxes as a teacher probably funded the bullet they have run through me.” President Biden and his administration are complicit in Aysenur’s death and his statement today attempts to elide what the whole world knows: Israel’s violence is funded, sustained, supported, and endorsed by the US. Honoring Aysenur’s memory requires a complete change of policy, starting with an independent, transparent investigation and extending to an arms embargo.

A Response to the Killing of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi (From Cindy and Craig Corrie)

The Corries are the parents of Rachel Corrie, a volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) who was killed by the Israeli military on March 16, 2003, as she stood to prevent the demolition of a Palestinian home in Rafah, Gaza Strip.

September 6, 2024

On Friday, a soldier in the Israeli military killed American and Turkish citizen Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. Aysenur was a May graduate of the University of Washington in Seattle, a student of psychology, an activist, and a recent volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank. Our family is saddened and outraged by the heinous act that killed her. We mourn with Aysenur’s family and friends and hold them in our hearts in this most devastating time.

According to the International Solidarity Movement, Aysenur is the 18th protester killed in the Palestinian village of Beita since 2020. Seventeen Palestinians have been killed while demonstrating against construction of illegal Israeli outposts on the village’s land. While we deplore each of these deaths, Aysenur was the first American killed in Beita, and our government has an obligation to act on her behalf.

Our country and the international community must ensure that the Government of Israel is held accountable for Aysenur’s killing. In the cases of other Americans killed by the Israeli military, including in our daughter Rachel’s case, the U.S. Government has been unable, or unwilling, to hold those responsible to account. We need to do better this time.

Many individuals currently in US government were kind, helpful, and supportive of our family’s efforts on behalf of Rachel. Prior to becoming Secretary of State, Antony Blinken was active in seeking accountability for her killing. We understand he was even more involved in the case of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh. But years have passed and there has been no accountability for either of these killings. While serving at the Department of State in 2003, Dr. Bill Burns, now Director of the CIA, engaged with Rachel’s case and encouraged our family’s first visit to Gaza. U.S. Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, and Congressman Adam Smith, all from Washington State, worked with our family toward accountability for over a decade. While helpful with private statements and diplomatic communications with the Israeli Government, these individual efforts never had the full force of the U.S. Government behind them. Therefore, the ultimate goals of a credible investigation and accountability were never met. These public officials do have unique experience, influence, and power to hold Israel accountable – if they are willing to use it.

Aysenur and her family deserve better than White House and Department of State platitudes and calls for Israeli investigations that never result in truth, action, or enforcement of U.S. law. We are demanding more. The time for accountability is now.

Cindy and Craig Corrie

Rachel Corrie Foundation for Peace and Justice