ADDS COMMENTS FROM STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON
By Rabia Iclal Turan
WASHINGTON (AA) - Family of Turkish American activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was killed by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank in September, said it was "frustrating to hear the same things" without meaningful action after meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday.
"Secretary was attentive in listening to us, and unfortunately repeated a lot of the same things that we've been hearing for the past 20 years, particularly since Rachel Corrie’s killing, who is also a Washington State resident, like my wife. It’s frustrating to hear the same things again," her husband Hamid Ali told reporters after the meeting at the State Department.
"We hope that things will be different this time around. But as I said, our expectations are what they are," he said, repeating the family's call for a US-led investigation into her killing.
Ozden Bennet, Eygi's sister, said the US is still awaiting for an Israeli investigation, which she said the family does not find "credible".
"He listened to our frustrations, which were long, and at this point we did leave asking the Secretary of State Blinken to push publicly and put pressure on the Israeli government to at the very least to finish their investigation into my sister's killing before the change-over in the administration," she said.
- No accountability so far
Bennett noted that prior to Monday's meeting at the State Department, no one from the White House or the Biden administration had reached out to the family to offer condolences when asked about any such contact.
"There was a news reporter who mentioned that they had been in contact with family, so I'm not sure who that would be, but we, standing here representing her family, have not been in contact with anyone from the White House," she added.
Ali said his eyebrows were "raised" upon hearing the same rhetoric repeated after the killing of Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American woman who was killed in 2003 by an Israeli bulldozer while protesting the demolition of Palestinian homes in Rafah, Gaza Strip.
Recalling the US' call on Israel to change their rules of engagement, he said: "We've seen changes in rules of engagement and conduct happen for the Israel in the Israeli military, but obviously it didn't work, and if it had, we wouldn't be here today."
The meeting comes as the family continues to urge the Biden administration to launch an independent investigation into her killing, saying that she was killed in a deliberate attack during a peaceful protest.
The US, on the other hand, has called on Israeli authorities to conduct a "swift, thorough, and transparent investigation" into her killing three months ago, but no accountability has been achieved to date as the investigation is still ongoing.
- Blinken awaits results of Israeli probe
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said after the meeting that Blinken informed Eygi's family that Israel told the US in "recent days" that they are "finalizing" their investigation into the matter.
"He committed to them that as soon as we learn anything about the results of that investigation, we will report it to them and then," he said.
Miller added that launching an investigation into Eygi's killing is under the responsibility of the Justice Department, not the State Department.
Eygi, 26, was killed by Israeli forces Sept. 6 during a peaceful protest against illegal Israeli settlements near Nablus in the occupied West Bank.
A preliminary investigation by Israel found that Eygi was "highly likely" hit "indirectly and unintentionally" by Israeli fire that was targeting a "main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks" during the protest.
Video evidence and witness accounts, however, have contradicted Israel's version of events, with many saying she was directly hit by an Israeli sniper.
A report by The Washington Post also revealed that Eygi was shot more than 30 minutes after the peak of confrontations in Beita and about 20 minutes after protesters had moved over 200 yards down the main road, away from Israeli forces.
Turkish prosecutors launched an investigation on Sept. 11 into the killing Eygi, who was laid to rest in the town of Didim in western Türkiye after her body was repatriated.