A Washington state legislative memorial scheduled for a public hearing on Jan. 22 urges the Trump administration to investigate the death of Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a University of Washington graduate who was killed at the Beita Junction in Samaria on Sept. 6, 2024.
Senate Joint Memorial 8014, introduced by Democratic state senator Rebecca Saldana on Jan. 12, has 12 Democratic co-sponsors. A companion measure, House Joint Memorial 4010, was introduced on Jan. 14 by Democratic state Rep. Chipalo Street with 32 Democratic co-sponsors. (JNS sought comment from the sponsors.)
The joint memorial asks the United States to investigate the “killing of Eygi by Israeli military forces, to ensure justice and accountability for Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi and all United States citizens wrongfully killed at the hands of a foreign government.”
Eygi, 26, a U.S.-Turkish dual citizen who was born in Turkey and raised in Seattle, was an activist with the anti-Israel International Solidarity Movement. She was shot and killed during a protest near Nablus (Shechem), which the Israel Defense Forces said involved a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks toward security forces.
The state measure refers to Eygi as “a peaceful human rights observer” and alleges she was “unprovokedly shot by an Israeli military sniper while peacefully observing the illegal displacement of Indigenous Palestinians from their homes to make way for an Israeli settlement.”
The IDF stated on Sept. 10, 2024, that an initial inquiry conducted by IDF commanders found that “it is highly likely that she was hit indirectly and unintentionally by IDF fire, which was not aimed at her, but aimed at the key instigator of the riot.”
The Military Police Criminal Investigation Division launched an investigation into the incident, the IDF stated at the time, expressing its “deepest regret over” Eygi’s death.
“The findings will be submitted for review by the Military Advocate General’s Corps upon its conclusion. Israel has sent a request to carry out an autopsy.” The IDF has not publicly released its findings related to that investigation.
The legislative measure rejects the IDF’s account and calls for the U.S. government to conduct a “transparent, thorough and independent investigation.”
