What do you do with the bloody clothes your wife was wearing when she was murdered? How do you preserve them as evidence in an investigation that may never happen? An army of aides whose government killed her despite three months of daily efforts to get basic answers What else can we do when we are not willing to hold our soldiers accountable?
My wife, Aysenur Ezgi Eigi, was shot in the head and killed by an Israeli soldier on September 6, 2024, as she stood quietly under an olive tree in the occupied West Bank. The Biden administration said of her death: unwarranted and unfairhas not put enough pressure on Israel to seek justice for the murder of one of its citizens.
I'll probably leave my wife's bloody clothes in the box they came in and decide instead to keep the closet spotless and full of warm memories. It's filled with clothes she wore on long days with friends, walks with her father, and outings with her nieces, nephews, sister, and brother-in-law. I can piece together in my head our wedding day, our first date, and the outfit she wore when I first met her.
I was 26 years old when we met. She was the same age when she was killed. On our second date, I stared at her in awe, remembering her recent trip to Southeast Asia. There she spent most of her time volunteering at refugee relief villages in Myanmar. The more we know about her, the more her commitment to justice has been lifelong, from helping organize the Seattle high school student walkout after the 2016 election to the Standing Rock protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline. It turned out that I was able to participate in this event and get a seat at the negotiating table. He testified at the University of Washington during student protests against Israel's devastating war in Gaza, and finally in the West Bank to the injustices experienced by Palestinians living under Israel's brutal military rule.
As I stand in my closet, I see the t-shirt I wore the night we last talked on the phone. We discussed her plans in the next few hours to join the weekly protests against illegal Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian territory owned by the Beita people. As I hung up reluctantly, I told her I loved her and asked her to text me before I left and once I got back safely. A few hours later, I woke up in the dark and instinctively checked my phone, but there were no text messages. I quickly messaged her and tried to go back to sleep. Two minutes later, the phone rang with the news that Aysenur had been shot in the head and had died.
She took shelter behind an olive tree several hundred feet away from most of the protesters and Israeli soldiers and remained calm for about 20 minutes before she was shot and killed, according to witnesses and journalists.
For a moment, I stared at the black pants I wore at her funeral that still had dirt from the grave. I was in Turkey helping coordinate the arrival of her body when I read about the Israeli military's initial response to her murder. They falsely claimed that Aysenur was accidentally shot during a violent protest, but this claim was quickly debunked by multiple eyewitness accounts and testimonies. major news organizations.
I was stunned – was I really supposed to accept that an Israeli soldier had accidentally shot her in the head from hundreds of feet away? And has my own government found this explanation sufficiently acceptable to abandon holding foreign forces accountable? Should we have forgotten the long history of Israeli soldiers illegally killing American citizens with impunity, like the famous Israeli soldier? Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akre In 2022?
Aysenour's killer, who fired a bullet into his skull without any basis, will go unpunished in the same way as the soldier who killed Shireen, further emboldening Israeli soldiers to leave American citizens, Palestinians, and others with impunity. It's taking lives.
I am now standing in my closet choosing a suit to wear while my family meets with the State Department and members of Congress next week to plead with them to do something about Aysenour's senseless killing. We will ask them to support our family's call for an independent U.S. investigation into her death and the responsibility of the soldiers who killed her. I urge President Biden to prioritize this case in his final days in office and secure justice for our families.
What if the US had held Israel responsible for the murder of other Americans? rachel cory If it were Shireen Abu Akre or Shireen Abu Akre, Israeli soldiers probably wouldn't feel bold enough to kill Americans or other civilians today. Maybe I'd be picking out something to wear to dinner with Isenur instead of standing alone in this closet right now, numb with pain.
Hamid Ali is the widow of Aysenul Ezgi Eigi.
