More than 100 days have passed since Israeli forces killed 26-year-old Turkish-American Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi as she protested illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. And still, no one has been held to account.
Despite pleas from her family and lawmakers, the Biden administration has not opened an independent investigation into her killing. Instead, it has said it’s awaiting the final results of Israel's probe, and reiterated this week that it’s up to the Justice Department to determine whether to launch an investigation into Ayşenur’s killing.
This week, Ayşenur’s family was in Washington, DC, to appeal to their government to take action.
Ayşenur’s husband, Hamid Ali, and her sister, Ozden Bennett, spoke with me about their long-awaited, ultimately frustrating meeting with Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Ozden Bennett: “We learned nothing new, and Blinken's complete deference to Israel and the Israeli investigation really left us with no optimism that he's going to help
.”Hamid Ali: “…We know that the secretary of state is not some voiceless, powerless individual in the government… There's so much passiveness that we felt in that meeting [with Blinken]. Unwillingness. There's just this lack of political will to do what's right and what's the bare minimum.”
They also reflected on Ayşenur’s memory and what she gave the world.
This was a beautiful, painful conversation. I invite you to watch the interview above and meet and listen to Ozden and Hamid.
Read more about Ayşenur:
Share this post