The face of a young woman is everywhere in the village of Beita, in the occupied Palestinian territory of the West Bank. On the walls, on the doors of houses, on the trunks of olive trees, on the fences… They are portraits of Aysenur Ezgi, the 26-year-old Turkish-American anti-occupation activist who was shot dead in the head by an Israeli soldier a week ago. On Friday, several dozen people, mostly Palestinians of all ages – there were no women – and a dozen international activists paid tribute to her at the scene of the incident, surrounded by Israeli security forces. The event took place as the activist’s body was landing in Turkey, where she will be buried.
In Beita, there is also a small altar with two photos of Ezgi, flags of Palestine and Turkey — not the United States — installed under the olive tree where she was shot. It was her first and last field mission in the West Bank as a volunteer for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM). Several of her comrades in arms approach the place respectfully. Ezgi is the 18th fatal victim — the others are 17 Palestinians — since the protests began in 2021 on this hill near the Jewish settlement of Eviatar, illegal like the dozens of others that dot the West Bank. Some posters remember them with photos of all of them alongside those of the foreign volunteer.
Among the activists present was Israeli Jonathan Pollack, who collected Aysenur Ezgi’s body after she was shot. He repeatedly denied the version given by the Israeli army. The military explained that the death was “involuntary” in an investigation after accusing the Turkish-American activist of throwing stones at them. Pollack believes that this investigation is “whitewashing” what happened because they only questioned the Israeli soldiers themselves, he said indignantly a few meters from the house from where the soldier fired, about 200 meters from the olive tree where Ezgi was standing. “At this distance, Aysenur was not a danger in any way. It was a shot to kill her. And nothing more,” he stressed.
Despite the large presence of soldiers and border police from the Israeli occupation forces, there were no serious incidents on Friday. However, the uniformed officers did not allow the youngest to perform Friday prayers in the garden set aside for this purpose. After spreading out some mats, they prayed in the middle of the road accompanied by a group of Palestinian medical workers who had been sent to the site in several ambulances in case their intervention was necessary. Then, in front of the barrier of police officers that forced them to retreat, the youngsters chanted to Allah, against the occupation, and even chanted the name of Yahia Sinwar, the leader of Hamas and one of the most wanted men in Israel.
One of the activists taking part in Friday’s event is Um Jaber, a 59-year-old Palestinian from Jerusalem who witnessed Ezgi’s death from about 20 metres away the previous week. Her account echoes that of other witnesses: “After the prayer, the youths threw stones and the officers responded with smoke bombs, while we retreated. Then, the situation calmed down while we were down there. Then, a while later, they started throwing more smoke bombs and some live bullets.”
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At the moment, there is no investigation other than that of the army, which has claimed responsibility for the accidental death, although with no intention of making its men pay for the events. Turkey is going to carry one out. Not so the United States. The family, the ISM and the Turkish authorities demand that those responsible be held accountable. The reality is that, after the murder in Jenin (West Bank) in 2022 of the Al Jazeera reporter, also American, Shireen Abu Akleh, and in Gaza of two other ISM activists from the US and Great Britain in 2003, no Israeli soldier has been convicted. Nor after the bombing in Gaza this year in which seven employees of the NGO World Centras Kitchen (WCK), of the Spanish-American chef José Andrés, were killed, of whom six were foreigners.
More than 700 dead in the West Bank
In the face of the more than 41,000 deaths caused by Israeli attacks in Gaza since the war broke out on 7 October, violence has also escalated in the West Bank, where occupation troops have killed more than 700 people, according to local health authorities.
Pollack is conclusive and, standing just a few metres from the Israeli soldiers, adds: “If anyone has any doubts about the message that Israel wanted to send last week when it shot Aysenur Ezgi, this is it. It is a very clear message, that they will not tolerate any Palestinian who resists occupation and colonialism. It does not matter that there are international activists with them. As for our message to them, it is that we will continue to support the Palestinians until they are liberated, until they are free.”
Next to the ill-fated olive grove in Beita, in an improvised gathering, several neighbours and reporters discuss what happened under the awning of the house of Mahmud Fara, 43, one of those who attended to her when she collapsed and who says he has testified as a witness. “Last Friday, when they killed her, there was not a single journalist,” he stresses with a certain reproachful tone. Next to him, another neighbour, Montaser Khadair, 36, predicts that, with so many reporters present, “the soldiers are not going to shoot today.”
They all describe living in the same place where they have seen 18 people die in the last three years as hopeless. That is when a local journalist gives his point of view: “They kill 10,000 elephants in Africa and all hell breaks loose. But they consider us less than animals.”
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