Remembering Aysenur Ezgi Eygi: The struggle for justice continues

By Rose York

A grief-laden year has passed. Still, my journal entries from the days following Aysenur’s murder hit me like a freight train whenever I reread them.  

September 6, 2024: What is there to say? Aysenur is dead. She left us this morning full of life, energy, and joy. Now she's dead.

The words transport me back to that Ramallah apartment where I stayed in sick while she attended the protest, to those minutes I helplessly watched her die through a barrage of shaky, graphic videos sent by International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activists present.

Though I struggle to revisit it, the pain reminds me it was real, that a brilliant young woman is gone, and her murderer and all those culpable evade accountability. 

Aysenur Ezgi Eygi was 26 years old, a recent graduate, an American and Turkish citizen, and a lifelong seeker of justice.

In 2016, at only 18 years old, she travelled to Standing Rock to stand in solidarity with Indigenous water protectors against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

In adulthood, she organised fundraisers for people in need, supported immigrant rights as a legal assistant, and participated in the 2024 UW Liberated Zone, fighting to end the University of Washington’s complicity in the occupation and genocide of Palestine.

She had an uncanny ability to make friends with her welcoming and genuine demeanor, and she was profoundly brave even when afraid. Amongst loved ones, she was adored for her generosity, principles, kindness, creativity, curiosity, intelligence, and good humour. 

I first met her in Jerusalem on September 1 of last year, just before our training with the ISM—a Palestinian-led collective founded in 2001 during the Second Intifada. The ISM brings together international activists who use their presence, legal privileges, and nonviolent direct action to help deter Israeli attempts to steal from, sabotage, harass, attack, or kill Palestinians.

We spent the week together as comrades, learning from people, eating well, staying out until only strays wandered the streets, and smoking Aysenur’s sloppily hand-rolled cigarettes.

Targeted killing

On September 6, Aysenur left at 10:20 am to attend a weekly peaceful demonstration, protesting the illegal Israeli settlement of Evyatar in Beita, Nablus.

Following Jummah prayers, Israeli soldiers closed in on the small group, firing teargas and live rounds to disperse attendees. 

Aysenur and the others backed downhill, taking refuge in an olive grove. Later, amidst a calm, two shots were fired by an Israeli sniper stationed on the roof of a home on the hilltop. One ricocheted and hit an 18-year-old Palestinian boy, non-fatally.

The second pierced Aysenur directly through the head. Palestinian paramedics rushed her to the nearest hospital in Nablus, where doctors attempted to resuscitate her. They failed. By 2:30 pm, Aysenur was dead.