Aysenur Ezgi Eygi’s mother and father need her to be buried in Didim, Turkey, the place the younger Turkish-American lady was born.
The 26-year-old activist for Palestine was shot dead by Israeli troops final Friday whereas protesting in opposition to unlawful Israeli settlements in Beita, south of Nablus within the occupied West Financial institution.
Turkish officers labored for days to safe the repatriation of Aysenur’s physique for a burial deliberate on Friday.
Aysenur, a current graduate of the College of Washington in Seattle, in the US, was protesting in opposition to an Israeli settlement in close by Evyatar when she was shot within the head.
Grief welled for the younger activist and an enormous funeral procession was held for her in Nablus on Tuesday.
Senior members of the Palestine Authority (PA) escorted her physique, draped in a Palestinian flag and keffiyeh, by way of the city earlier than it was carried away by a Palestinian ambulance.
‘Outdated soul’
Sam Chesneau, a co-founder and director of the Seattle-based American-Muslim organisation Wasat, of which Aysenur had been a member, described her as “an outdated soul, clever past her years, a really caring individual and profound thinker” who had “an amazing sense of humour”.
“The world mourns her as a result of all of us recognise the perfect potential of ourselves in her,” Chesneau stated.
“She reminds us to make peace with loss of life and, relatively, concern a lifetime of apathy, of selecting security on the expense of our beliefs and our humanity.”
From Aysenur’s household’s house in Didum, her aunt Gulay Yeniceoglu advised native media the younger activist was “a really compassionate individual and couldn’t flip a blind eye to injustice”.
Aysenur was killed throughout a peaceable protest in opposition to the unlawful settlement in Eyvatar, established on Palestinian land within the West Financial institution in 2013.
‘She was smiling’
Witnesses to Aysenur’s killing have additionally contradicted Israeli claims that her loss of life was unintended.
Amongst them was Italian activist “Mariam” who rode with Aysenur within the ambulance as she was transferred to Beita after which to Nablus, the place she was pronounced lifeless.
Mariam stated: “We have been clearly seen to the military, there was nothing taking place subsequent to us … it was a shoot to kill.”
Whereas she had simply met Aysenur after they arrived in Palestine, Mariam stated about her: “She was a sort individual … she was able to be right here, within the subject, in help of the Palestinian wrestle. She was smiling, she prayed once we have been within the backyard.”
A good friend of Aysenur’s, who had arrived within the occupied West Financial institution for the primary time three days earlier than the killing, advised the net title +972 that the protest at Beita was her and Aysenur’s first.
“We have been model new,” the good friend, who gave her title as EN, stated. “She was conscious of the dangers; she had a clearer image than me in regards to the state of affairs in numerous components of the West Financial institution … from speaking to individuals and researching and realizing those who skilled tragedies.
“However it’s nonetheless exhausting to understand if you happen to haven’t spent numerous time right here,” EN continued.
“How will you know that you’re going to get shot within the head within the first hour or two of being on the bottom? She wasn’t on the entrance line however on the again, they usually nonetheless murdered her.”
Israel issued a brief statement on Tuesday, by which it stated that it had investigated and that Aysenur was “extremely doubtless hit not directly and unintentionally” by its forces within the space.
It added that the bullet which struck Aysenur within the head had not been “geared toward her, however aimed on the key instigator of the riot” and that the navy had “deep remorse” over Aysenur’s loss of life.
The Worldwide Solidarity Motion (ISM), with which Aysenur was volunteering, stated the protest was peaceable.
Aysenur’s killing has drawn comparisons with that of Rachel Corrie, one other US citizen volunteering with the ISM when she was killed by an Israeli military bulldozer whereas protesting in Rafah, Gaza, in 2003.
Greater than 10 years later, an Israeli civil judge present in favour of the military in a case introduced by Corrie’s household, ruling her loss of life an accident.
‘They shot to kill’
Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak, who was on the protest and was one of many first individuals to achieve Aysenur after she was shot, stated the group had retreated from their protest spot on the high of the Mount Sabih hill and from Israeli troopers who had fired tear fuel at them.
The activists have been standing throughout the built-up space of Beita for about half-hour, throughout which period the troopers took over the rooftop of a home on the high of the hill.
That house belonged to the daughter of Munir Khudair, who was on the roof that Friday, he advised Al Jazeera: “In fact, the military surrounds this home each Friday and climbs onto the roof to make use of it to shoot at demonstrators. The military got here … and we went downstairs.”
On the time when two pictures sounded, Munir stated, there have been no confrontations or friction. “I feel it was a sniper who fired,” he stated, including: “We heard shouting from the group, saying: ‘Harm! Harm!’”
About 90 minutes after the capturing, the troopers left Munir’s daughter’s house.
Pollak stated that he was sure the pictures have been stay ammunition. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years, I do know the distinction between the sound of rubber bullets, tear fuel and stay ammunition.
“One in all them hit a metallic object after which the thigh of a younger man from the village, after which one other shot was heard.”
Pollak was known as over to the place Aysenur had fallen, and he held his hand – nonetheless bloodied as he spoke proper after the assault – to the again of her head to attempt to stem the bleeding.
“There may be nothing that may justify this capturing,” he stated adamantly. “They shot to kill … 17 individuals have been killed in demonstrations in Beita by the Israeli military since 2021.
In response to Israel’s admission of partial accountability for Aysenur’s loss of life, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken slammed the killing, calling it “unprovoked and unjustified” and known as for “basic modifications” in the way in which Israel operates within the West Financial institution.
Nonetheless, US President Joe Biden later appeared to ignore Blinken’s feedback, supporting Israel’s characterisation of Aysenur’s killing as an “accident”.
The day after Aysenur’s killing, her household issued an announcement by way of the ISM, calling for an impartial US investigation into her loss of life which doesn’t contain the Israeli navy to “guarantee full accountability for the responsible events”.
The United Nations Human Rights Workplace spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani advised the Turkish Anadolu information company that they have been calling for an “impartial worldwide investigation into the violations which were dedicated within the Palestinian territory”, with out additional clarification.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to take “each authorized step” to make sure her blood “was not spilled in useless” – actions together with a possible attraction to the Worldwide Court docket of Justice, already investigating Israel on costs of potential genocide.