Ayșenur Ezgi Eygi was 26 years old. She was an American citizen. She was a human rights activist. She was my sister.

On September 6, 2024, Ayșenur was shot and killed in Beita, in the occupied West Bank, while volunteering as a human rights observer in a nonviolent protest against illegal settlement expansion. Witnesses and initial reports indicate she was shot in the head by Israeli forces.

Ayșenur was standing for the same values the United States claims to uphold; human dignity, the right to protest, and the protection of civilian life.

WHAT WE ARE DEMANDING

We, the undersigned, call on the United States government to:

1. Launch an immediate, independent, thorough and credible U.S.-led investigation into the circumstances of Ayșenur Ezgi Eygi's killing. One that operates outside the jurisdiction of the Israeli military and is not subject to its conclusions.

2. Make the full findings of that investigation public.

3. Hold accountable any individuals or institutions found responsible for her death.

4. Suspend security assistance to any unit found to have been involved in her killing, consistent with U.S. law under the Leahy Act.

WHY THIS MATTERS

Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed at least 10 U.S. citizens since 2022 in the West Bank and Gaza. No criminal charges have been brought in any of these cases. The previous administration condemned Ayșenur's killing, and then allowed Israel to investigate itself.

That impunity is not a coincidence. It is a pattern. And it will continue until the United States government decides that American lives, all of them, are worth protecting.

Ayșenur believed in a world where every life is worth protecting. She gave hers in service of that belief.

Our government owes it to her, and every American citizen, to seek truth, justice and accountability.