US Muslim group asks Justice Department to investigate Israeli killing of Turkish-American activist

By Diyar Guldogan

WASHINGTON (AA) – A Muslim American advocacy group on Friday asked the US Department of Justice to investigate Israeli killing of a Turkish-American activist in the northern occupied West Bank.

"I write to request that the Justice Department investigate and prosecute the Israeli officials, soldiers, and settlers responsible for committing violent crimes against Palestinian-Americans, including slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and peace activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers today in the Occupied West Bank," Robert S. McCaw, director of the Government Affairs Department of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), said in a letter.

His letter came after Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was shot dead by Israeli forces on Friday during a protest against illegal Israeli settlements in the town of Beita in the Nablus district of the occupied West Bank.

"CAIR calls on the DOJ, working in coordination with FBI and Department of State, to immediately investigate and prosecute the horrific murder of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, who was allegedly shot in the head by Israeli soldiers while volunteering with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) to protect Palestinian farmers," McCaw said.

Stressing that Eygi’s life was "violently" taken just hours before the appeal, and eyewitness accounts are still emerging as her body remains at Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, he added: "In light of this heinous act of violence, we demand the U.S. government act on its own accord and not passively defer to Israeli investigations, which time and again have resulted in predictable exoneration."

CAIR expects the Justice Department to act "immediately and decisively," he said.

Fouad Nafaa, the director of the Rafidia Hospital in Nablus, told Anadolu that Eygi arrived at the hospital with a gunshot wound to the head. She succumbed to her injuries despite medical teams’ efforts to revive her, according to Nafaa.

Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers opened live fire on a group of Palestinians protesting illegal settlements on Mount Sbeih in Beita, which lies south of the city of Nablus.

The official Palestinian news agency Wafa confirmed that the victim was a volunteer with the Fazaa campaign, an initiative aimed at supporting and protecting Palestinian farmers from ongoing violations by illegal Israeli settlers and the military.

Residents of Beita hold weekly protests after Friday prayers to oppose the illegal Israeli settlement of Avitar, which sits on the peak of Mount Sbeih. The community demands the removal of the settlement, which they view as a violation of their land rights.

Eygi was born in the Turkish city of Antalya in 1998.