White House ‘Outraged’ At Israel Killing Ayşenur Eygi, But Stops Short Of Consequences

Both President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris expressed outrage on Wednesday after Israel acknowledged responsibility for killing American activist Ayşenur 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 Eygi’s killing, while Harris called her death a “horrific tragedy that never should have happened.” Both figures called the shooting unacceptable.

“Ayşenur 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 Eygi’s family and loved ones in her prayers.

Eygi’s family confirmed on Wednesday morning that Biden and Harris have still not called them to directly to express their condolences, a break from the president’s 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 Ayşenur, a volunteer for peace.”

The State Department declined earlier this week to go into detail on Eygi’s 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. Eygi’s family has repeatedly asked for an independent investigation into her death.

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 Eygi’s 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 Ayşenur 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.”

Biden and Harris both appeared to take Israel’s conclusion at face value, saying Eygi’s killing was the result of a “tragic error.” The U.S. has full access to the preliminary inquiry and expects continued access during the criminal investigation, “so that we can have confidence in the result,” according to the president.

A day earlier, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that Eygi’s killing was “unprovoked and unjustified” and that the Israeli military should “make some fundamental changes” in how it operates in the West Bank.

Eygi’s family blasted Biden on Wednesday for believing Israel’s conclusion that the killing was unintentional.

“Ayşenur was an international observer who stood in witness of ‘violent extremist Israeli settlers [who] are uprooting Palestinians from their homes’ – words President Biden himself used today,” the family said. “Despite this, President Biden is still calling her killing an accident based only on the Israeli military’s story. This is not only insensitive and false, it is complicity in the Israeli military’s agenda to take Palestinian land and whitewash the killing of an American.”

Neither Biden, Harris nor Blinken have threatened consequences against Israel for killing an unarmed U.S. citizen. This is in line with how the administration has handled the Israeli government’s repeated violations of international law – particularly since October 2023, when Israel launched its destructive offensive in Gaza in response to Hamas’ attack in southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people and captured about 250 hostages, an estimated 100 of whom have still not been released.

Since Israel began its siege in Gaza — which has killed more than 41,000 people and displaced more than 90% of the population, according to local health officials — Palestinians in the West Bank have also faced a surge of violence and forced evictions by Israeli soldiers and settlers alike.

Biden said Wednesday that the “violence in the West Bank has been going on for too long.”

Between Oct. 7, 2023, and Sept. 9, 2024, Israeli forces and settlers killed a total of at least 674 Palestinians in the West Bank, according to the United Nations. In that same period, 276 Palestinian households were displaced in the context of attacks by Israeli settlers in the territory, the U.N. said. The International Court of Justice ruled in July that Israel is violating international law by continuing to occupy Palestinian territories.