Why does the US forgo meaningful investigations when its citizens are killed by Israel?
The brutal killing of another US citizen by the Zionist occupation forces in the West Bank two weeks ago has been condemned widely. Aysenur Eygi was a 26-year-old dual US-Turkish citizen. The volunteer with the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) was shot and killed during a protest against Israeli settlement expansion in the town of Beita near Nablus in the occupied West Bank on 6 September. Eyewitnesses reported that Israeli soldiers fired at demonstrators; Eygi was hit, and was pronounced dead in a local hospital.
The incident has reignited discussions about accountability for the killing of US citizens by Israeli forces in the occupied Palestinian territories. As usual, the US administration has expressed condolences and indicated that it will seek further information and an investigation into Eygi’s death. However, there are concerns about the effectiveness of such responses given the experience with similar incidents.
Advocates are urging the US government to adopt a firmer stance against these indiscriminate killings, raising concerns about whether justice will be sought for Eygi and others killed by Israelis.
The killings of American citizens have seen investigations fail to hold Israeli forces accountable.
Earlier this year, for example, 17-year-old US citizen Tawfiq Ajaq was shot and killed near the village of Al-Mazraa Ash-Sharqiya in the West Bank. Tawfiq grew up in a suburb of New Orleans, and he and his four siblings were taken by their parents to their ancestral village to reconnect with their Palestinian roots. Tawfiq was barbecuing in a village field when Israeli bullets struck him in the head and chest.
Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian-American journalist working with the Al Jazeera, was killed by Israeli forces while covering a raid in Jenin in 2022. Despite acknowledging that an Israeli soldier intentionally fired the fatal shot, the military classified it as an accident and did not discipline anyone.
Omar Assad, a 78-year-old Palestinian-American, died in 2022 after being detained by members of the Israeli army’s Netza Yehuda unit near his home in Jiljilya. Despite the soldiers’ history of misconduct, the US ultimately opted not to withdraw funding from their unit.
Furkan Dogan, a 19-year-old Turkish-American, was among nine activists killed when Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla. Dogan was proud of his American passport and dreamt of going back to the US after completing medical school in Turkiye. Five Israeli bullets — at least two of them to the head — ended that dream on 31 May, 2010.
Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old American peace activist, was killed in 2003 when an Israeli military bulldozer ran over her as she protested against house demolitions in Gaza. Corrie was also with the ISM as a volunteer using non-violent means to try to end the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
These incidents underscore the difficulties in achieving accountability when American citizens are killed by Israeli forces in the occupied territories. In each case, the US has refrained from pressing Israel to act against those responsible, largely because they are close allies.
In the killing of Aysenur Eygi, the US has indicated that it will seek further information and an investigation from Israel, but advocates are concerned that this approach has always led to a lack of accountability.
Tawfiq Ajaq’s father Hafez has spoken out against US financial support for the Zionist regime. “They are killer machines – they are using our tax dollars in the US to support the weapons to kill our own children,”, he said about the Israeli occupation forces, as reported by Associated Press.
Last November, the US Department of Justice informed Israel about the FBI investigation into the killing of Abu Akleh, but Israel announced that it would not cooperate with the inquiry. The FBI has yet to release any findings, and the investigation has not resulted in any statements of responsibility or arrests.
Omar Assad’s nephew said that he and his family felt betrayed after the US decision to continue funding the army unit responsible for the 78-year-old’s death. “We see this as hypocrisy. A US government that allows a foreign entity to have this opportunity to kill,” Assad, 36, told Al Jazeera in a telephone interview from his home in Wisconsin.
Commenting on the murder of 19-year-old Turkish-American Furkan Dogan, Pulitzer Prize winner journalist Roger Cohen wrote in the New York Times: “I have little doubt that if the American killed on those ships had been Hedy Epstein, a St. Louis-based Holocaust survivor, or Edward Peck, a former US ambassador to Mauritania, we would have heard a lot more. We would have read the kind of tick-tock reconstructions that the deaths of Americans abroad in violent and disputed circumstances tend to provoke.” Epstein had planned to be on board the Mavi Marmara in the flotilla and Peck was. “I also have little doubt that if the incident had been different — say a 19-year-old American student called Michael Sandler killed by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank when caught in a cross-fire between Palestinians and Israelis — we would have been deluged in stories about him.”
In Rachel Corrie’s case, despite calls from her family and Democratic Representative Brian Baird for an investigation, the House took no action. Rachel’s parents, Cindy and Craig Corrie, did not receive any compensation for their daughter’s death, as an Israeli court dismissed their lawsuit in 2012.
Furthermore, they received no assistance from the US government in their pursuit of justice.
It is evident from these incidents that the US may be complicit in Israel’s actions against Palestinians and their supports, and at the very least condones them by its inaction. A 2023 legal analysis by the Centre for Constitutional Rights argued that by providing military aid and diplomatic support to Israel, the US is failing to uphold its obligation to prevent genocide against Palestinians. As Hafez Ajaq said, US taxpayers are paying for the weapons used to kill US citizens within the context of this genocide.
The US government asserts that it prioritises the safety of American citizens globally. Following Eygi’s death, Secretary of State Antony Blinken reiterated this commitment; however, the sincerity of his claim is questioned.
The US provides almost unlimited military aid to Israel, handing over at least $150 billion since its establishment in Palestine in 1948. This is justified by the notion that Israel is a strategic ally in the Middle East.
However, the killing of US citizens in the occupied territories has contributed to shifting public opinion regarding Washington’s support for Israel. Polls indicate a growing divide among Americans, with increasing numbers describing Israel as a flawed democracy or likening its actions to apartheid.
The government’s responses to these incidents often involve calls for investigations rather than punitive measures. This approach has been consistent, even when evidence suggests potential misconduct by Israeli forces. Moreover, the killing of Eygi has the potential to strain US-Turkiye relations further, especially given Ankara’s strong condemnation of Israeli actions and America’s historical support for Israel.
The world is aware of US complicity in Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians.
Compounding this disgrace is Washington’s failure to safeguard its own citizens who are being murdered by the Israeli regime.
Such humiliations from the Zionist state are nothing new. The attack on the USS Liberty by the Israeli Air Force and navy on 8 June, 1967, which killed 34 crew members. Despite the severity of the attack, the US did not retaliate against Israel, and Washington has been accused by survivors of an official cover-up to protect Israel. This reflects the nature of this “special” relationship.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.